Dayton Flyers now a top-five team in Associated Press poll

Dayton climbed from No. 6 to No. 5 in the Associated Press poll Monday. It's the program's highest ranking since it reached No. 2 in 1956.

Dayton ranks behind No. 1 Baylor, No. 2 Gonzaga, No. 3 Kansas and No. 4 San Diego State. It jumped Louisville, which fell from No. 5 to No. 11 after two losses. Dayton has a slight edge over No. 6 Duke in voting points.

Kansas and No. 18 Colorado, the only teams to beat Dayton, are ranked. Dayton has three victories against teams receiving top-25 votes: Rhode Island, Saint Mary’s and Richmond.

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Wright State (23-5) received one vote in the poll.

Dayton (23-2, 12-0) has won 14 games in a row. It won two games last week, beating Rhode Island 81-67 on Tuesday at UD Arena and winning 71-63 on Saturday at Massachusetts. UD plays at Virginia Commonwealth at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Dayton is now the first A-10 team to stay in the top 10 in five straight weeks since George Washington in 2006. Last week, Dayton became the first A-10 team to rank in the top six since George Washington was No. 6 on March 6, 2006.

The last A-10 team to reach No. 5 was Saint Joseph’s, which ranked fifth in the final poll of the 2003-04 season. That team climbed to No. 1 on March 9, 2004.

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This is the first time since the 1955-56 season that Dayton has been ranked in 12 straight weeks. The 1955-56 team was ranked all season in 15 polls. That team finished 25-4.

Dayton entered the top 25 at No. 19 on Dec. 2, following its runner-up finish at the Maui Invitational. It climbed to No. 14 on Dec. 9 and to No. 13 on Dec. 16.

The Flyers fell to No. 18 on Dec. 23 after a 78-76 overtime loss to Colorado at the United Center on Dec. 21. They dropped to No. 20 on Dec. 30 before climbing to No. 15 on Jan. 6, to No. 13 on Jan. 13 and to No. 7 on Jan. 20. It stayed at No. 7 on Jan. 27 and then climbed to No. 6 on Feb. 3 and stayed there Feb. 10.