Nov. 16, 2005
Head Coach Jim Jabir is optimistic that this year's edition of the Dayton women's basketball team will be even better this season than last, thanks to the return of 11 letterwinners and four starters.
"We have improved in all areas of the game," Jabir said. "We are better defensively and we should be able to score more. There were some great individual performances for us last season and now we are beginning to come together as a unit."
After making a nine-win improvement last season, which was the fourth best turnaround of any team in the nation, Dayton has been picked to finish seventh in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Coaches Poll n 2005-06. "The Atlantic 10 is a very deep conference this season and our top four or five teams are really good," Jabir said. "We are picked to be in the next group, which should challenge the top teams come March."
Senior forward Cara Wright (West Chester, Ohio) is expected to carry the load early on for the Flyers after being named to the Atlantic 10 Preseason First Team. Wright was third in the A-10 with 8.6 rebounds per game as Dayton led the A-10 overall with 40.2 boards per contest. She led the A-10 with 13 double-doubles last season including eight in conference play. Wright also led the Flyers with 12.2 points per game and is one of three seniors expected to be among the starting five this year.
Fellow senior post player Angela Cape (Warren, Ohio) was second on the team in rebounding at 5.2 per game after starting 27 games last season including each of the last 25. She posted a season-high of 13 rebounds against Detroit at UD Arena on Dec. 18 and also pulled down 12 boards at Cincinnati on Dec. 1. Cape also scored 6.2 points per game in 2004-05.
Point guard Terri Ramsey (Tacoma, Wash.) dished out 81 assists in her first season in a Flyer uniform after transferring to UD from Scottsdale Community College. Ramsey led the Flyers with 81 assists and had four assists or more 10 times last season. She had more assists than turnovers 13 times for a 1.1 assist-to-turnover ratio and dished out a season-best six assists against Toledo (Nov. 27) and Fordham (Jan. 23).
"All three of these seniors have to perform because we will go to them quite a bit," Jabir said. "They are our leaders both on the court and in the locker room and this will be their season to prove it."
Junior forward Jennifer Strong (Warrensville, Ohio) looks to use her athletic ability to improve on a 2004-05 campaign that saw her score 8.9 points per game while connecting on a team-high 29 three-point shots. Strong finished with 11 double-digit scoring efforts last season and posted a career-high 23 points at Xavier on Jan. 27 while shooting 9-for-16 from the field. She also poured in 21 points at Fordham on Jan. 23 by connecting on 8-of-16 shots from the field including 5-of-8 from three-point range.
"Jennifer has the potential to be among the best all around players in the conference if she develops her game," Jabir said. "She is athletic and can create her own shot. She is also our best perimeter defender."
A pair of sophomores will split the off guard role this season for the Flyers in Kiki Lund (Aarhus, Denmark) and Ashley Armstrong (Canton, Ohio). Both have made great strides in the off season and were especially strong in the team's summer trip to Central Europe. They are both expected to perform well in Dayton's new look offense, which focuses on pushing the ball up the court and putting pressure on the defense to keep pace.
"Our offensive philosophy should be exciting for fans to watch this season because it should lead to more scoring," Jabir said. "It works by creating good shots on the flow instead of running set plays. This makes it much harder for defenses to scout and defend us."
The Flyers first began working on this new look offense as they made a 10-day trip through Central Europe in early August. UD made stops in Prague and Strakonice in the Czech Republic as well as Bratislava, Slovakia and Vienna, Austria while playing five games. Dayton won four of the five games on the trip and chronicled the entire journey with daily diaries and photo galleries on www.DaytonFlyers.com. The Flyers lost their opening game to USK Prague (63-40), which went on to represent the Czech Republic in the World University Games later that week in Turkey. UD then went on to beat BZ Czech Coal from Strakonice, Czech Republic (72-60) and Cevakata Vologda from Slovakia (73-63) as well as UBBC Hergozenberg (85-63) and UAB Vienna from Austria (94-37).
This year's schedule includes six opponents that appeared in postseason play in 2004-05. Four teams played in the NCAA tournament including Regional Semifinalist Ohio State, Second Round teams George Washington and Temple and First Round team Richmond. Two others appeared in the 2005 Postseason WNIT as Charlotte was named to the 32-team field along with Xavier, which advanced to the Third Round.
After an exhibition on Nov. 16 against Ohio Legends, UD opens its regular season slate at UD Arena against Akron on Friday, Nov. 18. Last season, the Flyers beat the Zips, 66-56 in Akron.
UD will play 17 of its 27 regular season games on weekends this season. The Flyers will play nine games on Fridays (five home, four road), seven on Sundays (four home, three road) and one road game on Saturday. Dayton will also play four times on Tuesdays (two home, two road), twice on Wednesdays (both road games) and Thursdays (one home, one road) and once on a Monday (road).
At least 14 of Dayton's games will be available on the radio this season and all of those broadcasts can be heard on www.DaytonFlyers.com. Five of those broadcasts will be on News Talk 1290 WHIO (1290 AM in the Dayton area) including home games against Saint Louis, Richmond, St. Bonaventure and Temple and the final game of the regular season at Xavier. The remaining nine home games will be broadcast by 1610 Information Radio (1610 AM in the Dayton area).
UD's home games with St. Bonaventure and Xavier will also be televised live on Feb. 5 and Jan.19 respectively. The game against the Bonnies will air on the Atlantic 10 Television Network (FoxSports Net Ohio in the Dayton area) while the XU game will appear locally on UPN 17.
Fans can follow the Dayton women's basketball team throughout the season with stats, box scores, game recaps and GameTracker for selected games at www.DaytonFlyers.com.
