In a far away land where “social distancing” and “flattening the curve” aren’t staples of conversation and the president never heard of hydroxychloroquine, the University of Dayton basketball team today reigns as Cinderella.

Had COVID-19 not slam-dunked the U.S., we’d be gathering around the water cooler at work or have followed the large screen TV in a popular watering hole (remember those days?) Monday night to marvel at the wonder of the Flyers and their magical ascent to the NCAA Championship.

We’d be talking about Obi Toppin, not Dr. Anthony Fauci, as the go-to guy.

Monday night was supposed to have been the national championship game on TV from Atlanta, the final act of a wide-open year for March Madness. But, since make-your-own masks, drive-by testing and the scavenger hunt for ventilators are the new grim reality, CBS Sportsline.com attempted to give us what the new normal might have taken away in the form of a simulated tournament and inspirational, computer-generated champion, Dayton.

Maybe the math really did come out in Dayton’s favor. Or, perhaps, CBS’ numbers guru, Jerry Palm, just figured the Flyers were a feel-good story we desperately needed.

Either way, it provides food for thought as we wait in line to get into Longs or Costco or while away the hours sheltered in place at home.

According to CBS’ bracket, the Flyers, winners of 20 in a row entering the tournament, got the No. 1 seed in the East and then took down Winthrop (85-70), St.Mary’s (79-72), Louisville (75-73), Michigan State (75-74), Duke (78-77) and Gonzaga (79-78) to win their first national championship.

Just in case there was any confusion, this is how you know it is fiction: No team outside the Power-5 conferences has won the championship since 1990 when Nevada-Las Vegas and Jerry Tarkanian did it.

You hope there aren’t virtual NCAA sanctions awaiting Dayton.

Taking a flyer on the Flyers was something that could have made you a lot of money. The Catholic school of about 11,000 students was a 300-to-1 pick in October to win the national championship and 75-1 to get to the Final Four. Seventy-two teams, including UC Irvine, had better odds at the time. I mean, they were picked to finish third in the Atlantic 10.

But, beginning with the Maui Invitational, the Flyers and their eventual Naismith Trophy national player of the year, Toppin, and coach of the year Anthony Grant, opened eyes losing to Kansas in overtime.

Fact is the Flyers didn’t lose a game in regulation on an opponent’s home floor all season, going 29-2 (18-0 in conference) and finished in the top 10 of five statistical categories including the nation in field-goal percentage (52.5%).

Long before they became a national feel-good story, the Flyers had done wonders for tragedy-struck Dayton, Ohio. In May and June the city was hard hit by a series of tornadoes. In August nine people died and 17 were wounded in a mass shooting.

Townsfolk in their “Dayton Strong” shirts came to rally around their basketball team, packing the school’s 13,000-seat arena 14 times. ESPN’s GameDay crew showed up for the final ones, just before COVID-19 shutdown the campus.

In the Flyers’ first trip to the NCAA Championship game they ran into one of college basketball’s greatest teams, the 1967 UCLA Bruins (30-0) led by then-Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), losing 79-64.

This time, Dayton was confronted by a more powerful force, COVID-19.

But they — and we — can dream, can’t we? At least for one day.