Dayton (15-8) vs. VCU (17-6)
February 6, 2026 7:00 pm EDT
The Line: VCU -7.5; Over/Under: 149.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Dayton Flyers and the VCU Rams meet Friday in college basketball action from Siegel Center in Richmond. Here’s a VCU vs Dayton prediction. We will look at this from a betting perspective and determine the best VCU vs Dayton pick.
Dayton Flyers Betting Preview
The Flyers got off to a pretty nice 6-1 start this year, then lost two of the next three to BYU and Virginia. Dayton would beat North Florida, Florida State, Fordham, Loyola Chicago, George Washington, Duquesne and Loyola Chicago again over the next eight games. After that came losses to La Salle, Saint Joseph’s, Rhode Island and Saint Louis in the next four, giving the Flyers a 14-8 overall run across their first 22 games of the season.
On Tuesday versus St. Bonaventure, Dayton had a comfortable lead at the break 41-30. The Flyers had to hang on during a wild second half, but eventually emerged victorious 72-70 after a 40-31 deficit the rest of the way. Leading the team was Javon Bennett with 20 points and three boards. Jordan Derkack added 18 points with five rebounds and two assists while Amael L’Etang had 16 points and five boards.
VCU Rams Betting Preview
Over on the VCU side, they posted a pretty strong 11-4 run in their first 15 games of the season. The Rams would then take consecutive losses to Saint Louis and George Mason, but then hit a win streak. The next five games were all victories over Rhode Island, Saint Joseph’s, Davidson, Richmond and Loyola Chicago in succession. Over the first 22 games VCU had a 16-6 run in the books.
Matched up against Fordham on Tuesday the Rams went into the locker room with a comfortable lead of their own 35-22. VCU was outscored 37-28 in the second half but still pulled off the nice victory on the road 63-59 in the end. The Rams’ Lazar Djokovic topped the team on his 17 points with four rebounds. Barry Evans had 11 points with eight boards and three assists in the winning effort.
Why the VCU Rams will win
- VCU has won each of its last six games.
- Dayton has lost four of its last five games.
- The home team has won the first half in each of Dayton’s last six games.
Why the Dayton Flyers will win
- Dayton has won 10 of its last 12 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
- Dayton has won the first half in 10 of its last 12 night games against non-AP-ranked opponents.
VCU vs Dayton Prediction
I’ll lean toward Dayton, but you could call this one either way. The Flyers shot a pretty tepid 41.3 percent from the field in their latest win over St. Bonaventure thanks to a not-so-great second half. Dayton was outscored in the paint 38-26 and out-rebounded 28-24 but helped themselves out at the line with a nice 28-of-33 (84.8 percent) performance. The Flyers are still just 1-4 in their last five games, though, giving up 70 or more points in each of the last four—and 81 or more in three of those.
As for VCU, they shot 45.5 percent from the field with a 34-28 advantage on the boards in their win over Fordham. The Rams went just 17-of-28 (60.7 percent) from the line, though, and had 14 turnovers along the way. VCU has now won six straight games, and they’d scored 75 or more points in five straight before the 63 on the road versus Fordham this week. The Rams should score pretty well on Dayton also.
