It's a tough call between Dayton and Xavier for the Atlantic 10 this season.

The Flyers certainly have the experience from their head coach down to their players. But it's tough to count Xavier out even though they have a fairly unproven group.

Brian Gregory's team will be without reserve guard Rob Lowery for the foreseeable future. In fact, Gregory said he'd be ecstatic to have Lowery back at full strength for the conference slate.

"He's at his best when he's playing with high energy," Gregory said. "For lack of a better word, it's controlled reckless abandon."

The positive for Gregory is that the Flyers have enough depth to sustain the loss of Lowery.

The star of the team is clearly high-flying forward Chris Wright, who averaged 13.3 points and 6.6 boards last season. But there is plenty of support with Marcus Johnson (11.8 ppg).

Gregory understands that for Dayton to win the league this season and be able to come out of a difficult non-conference slate with confidence, the role guys will need to make a jump.

Guys like Luke Frabrizius, Chris Johnson, Paul Johnson and Devin Searcy.

"Luke is so different for us," Gregory said of the skilled big man who had 23 points and hit seven trifectas in the recent Red-Blue intra-squad scrimmage.

"Chris and Paul have to up their level of play because in a year, they're going to be the guys," he added. "The big challenge for us is as deep as we can play, for us to be really good, those guys can't just play. They need to make an impact."

RANDOM NOTES: Georgia Tech coach Paul Hewitt spoke at the tribute to former NCAA president Myles Brand, who died on Sept. 16, earlier this week in Indianapolis. "It was extremely well-done and was a celebration of his life," Hewitt said. It was held at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis and was attended by more than 1,000 people. Jim Nantz hosted the event and John Mellencamp performed. ... Wyoming sophomore big man Adam Waddell had knee surgery and will miss 2-3 weeks of practice. Waddell averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds last season while starting 24 games. ... TCU received commitments from senior big man Amric Fields of Putnam City, Okla., and also junior wing Darius Singleton of Sachse, Texas, according to a source close to the situation. ... Loyola (Ill.) forward Andy Polka has been granted a fifth year due to medical hardship. The 6-foot-7 Polka averaged 7.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in 11 games before going down with an ankle injury. Polka averaged 6.3 points and a team-high 7.2 boards as a freshman and 8.3 points and 6.7 rebounds his sophomore campaign. ... Penn State freshman forward Bill Edwards is out for 4-6 weeks with a partial tear to his MCL in his right knee that he suffered in practice. ... South Dakota State has landed 6-foot-8 senior Jordan Dykstra out of Rock Valley, Iowa, who had committed to Iowa State prior to his freshman year in high school. ... UCLA is finally getting healthy: J'Mison Morgan and Malcolm Lee returned to practice and Michael Roll, Jerime Anderson and Brendan Lane are all expected to return on Monday. ... Colorado freshman guard Shannon Sharpe is out for the season after microfracture knee surgery. ... Virginia guard Calvin Baker, who averaged 8.4 points last season, will miss 2-3 weeks after arthroscopic surgery to his right knee. ... St. Anthony's (N.J.) point guard Elijah Carter committed to St. Bonaventure earlier in the week. … Loyola Marymount received a commitment from underrated floor leader Anthony Ireland of The Winchendon School.

To check out Jeff Goodman's Twitter, click here.