Oct. 6, 2004

Head Coach Jim Jabir announced the addition of Vera Jones as an assistant coach with the University of Dayton women's basketball team. The former Syracuse University standout comes to the Flyers from ESPN, where she served as a broadcaster of WNBA and NCAA women's basketball for the past seven years.

"Vera brings a wealth of basketball knowledge, people skills and a real passion for the game," said Jabir. "I think she'll do an excellent job for us on the court and on the recruiting trail."

In addition to college and WNBA duties with "The Worldwide Leader in Sports," Jones also served as an analyst for Big Ten and Big East conference games on Fox Sports Network. She was an analyst for the WNBA New York Liberty on the Madison Square Garden Network in New York, and for the Indiana Fever in 2001. She also covered the WNBA Draft for NBA TV.

As a player with the Syracuse Orangewomen from 1984-1988, Jones was affectionately known as "Sweet V from the Top of the Key" for her ability to knock down the triple. She graduated as SU's all-time leader in three-point field goal percentage and seven all-time on the Orange scoring list with over 1,000 points. She helped guide SU to its first-ever Big East Tournament Championship in 1985 and regular season championship in 1988, as well as its first two NCAA Tournament appearances (1985, 1988). In 1988, the Big East Conference named her Women's Basketball Scholar Athlete of the Year.

In 2002, she was inducted into the Syracuse University Orange Plus Hall of Fame. Orange Plus, founded in 1979, is the support organization for women's athletics at Syracuse University.

With a bachelor's in Broadcast Journalism, Jones stayed with SU women's basketball from 1989-1991 as Graduate Assistant for Academic Advising while she completed her master's in Television and Radio.

While her broadcasting career developed, Jones maintained ties to coaching, serving first as a youth program coordinator and then an assistant coach or consultant. She was an assistant at Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for the girls' basketball team from 1994-1995. From 1998-99, she served as interim head coach of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, FL.

Jones has also been a DJ or on-air personality at a variety of radio stations in her broadcasting career and was once named the South Carolina Broadcaster's Association "Personality of the Year." She also earned a Solver ADDY Award for commercial writing and production in Florida.