UD’s Toppin attends Nike Skills Academy

Dayton Flyers forward DAYTON — Obi Toppin participated in the Nike Skills Academy in Thousand Oaks, Calif., last week. It started Wednesday and ended Friday.

Twenty eight college players from around the country and 32 of the top high school prospects in the 2020 and 2021 class received invitations to the three-day camp, which is taking place at the Mamba Sports Academy, a training facility founded by former Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant.

Among the college stars invited to the academy are four who made a recent NCAA.com list of the top 25 players in college basketball in the 2019-20 season: Gonzaga’s Killian Tillie; Kansas’ Udoka Azubuike; North Carolina’s Cole Anthony; and Michigan State’s Cassius Winston.

Toppin and the other players will showcase their games in drills and 5-on-5 games in front of college coaches, media and NBA scouts.

Toppin’s uncle, Victor Monaros, accompanied him to the camp and has shared video of Toppin on Twitter and Instagram.

Program rankings: The Flyers rank 79th in the first Ken Pomeroy’s program rankings, which KenPom. com published last week.

According to Pomeroy, whose website provides advanced analysis of college basketball, the rankings are not meant to rank the best teams. Rather they are “a guide to how coaches and players might consider the currently hierarchy of college basketball when entertaining job or scholarship offers.”

The rankings take into account the last 23 seasons (1997-2019). Dayton has ranked as high as 26th (2010) in the season-ending Pomeroy rankings and as low as 172nd (2018).

Among Atlantic 10 Conference teams, Dayton ranks second. Virginia Commonwealth ranks 73rd. Following Dayton are: No. 84 Saint Joseph’s; No. 91 Davidson; No. 93 Saint Louis; No. 94 Rhode Island; No. 97 George Washington; No. 100 Richmond; No. 104 Massachusetts; No. 116 George Mason; No. 117 Saint Bonaventure; No. 131 La Salle; No. 167 Duquesne; and No. 208 Fordham.

Ohio State is the topranked Ohio team at No.

11. Xavier is No. 25. Cincinnati ranks 25th. Wright State ranks 150th.

Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Arizona, Michigan State, Villanova, Louisville, Florida and Texas made up the top

10. Those programs won 16 of the 23 national championships in the span used by Pomeroy. Every team in the top 10 but Texas won at least one.