DAYTON, Ohio _ The debate will long rage on where Obi Toppin falls on the list of Dayton Flyers greats. He's one of the best UD players ever, for sure, and few had a bigger impact in two seasons or had one season greater than Toppin's 2019-20 season.
Assuming Toppin heads to the NBA, he won't rank close to Roosevelt Chapman, Don May, Henry Finkel, Brian Roberts and others on the all-time scoring list, but none of those players garnered the kind of national attention Toppin received this season. He's a finalist for the Naismith Award and has been named the national player of the year by The Athletic, CBS Sports and USA Today.
Another award came Toppin's way Friday. He was named to the Associated Press All-America first team. He's the first Flyer to ever make that specific first team.
May was Dayton's last AP All-American. He made the second team in 1968. Finkel made the third team in 1966. Bill Uhl made the second team in 1956. Don "Monk" Meineke made the third team in 1952.
Toppin is the 10th Dayton player to make an All-America team of some sort and the first since Jim Paxson in 1979.
Toppin was joined on the AP first team by Iowa's Luka Garza, Marquette's Markus Howard, Seton Hall's Myles Powell and Oregon's Payton Pritchard.
