COLUMBUS – Dayton breakout star Obi Toppin is the lone unanimous first-team choice to The Associated Press men’s college basketball All-America team, the latest development in the story of the Flyers’ dream season, another casualty of the COVID-19 virus.
Toppin is Dayton’s first first-team AP All-American after averaging 20 points and seven rebounds per game.
The 29-2 Flyers were rolling into tournament play on a 20-game winning streak that had lifted spirits in an Ohio city battered in the past year by violent deaths and devastation.
The NCAA decision to cancel March Madness due to fears of the spreading coronavirus ended hopes for the small Roman Catholic school’s first Final Four appearance in 53 years.
Dayton athletic officials offered thoughts and prayers for victims of the virus, and hopes that the cancellations will help slow its spread.
Coach Anthony Grant put it this way: “This is bigger than basketball.”
Toppin is joined on the first team by Iowa’s Luka Garza, Marquette’s Markus Howard, Myles Powell of Seton Hall and Payton Pritchard of Oregon.