April 2, 2008
While their playing careers may be over, University of Dayton basketball fans will get a chance to see two of their favorite players in a Dayton uniform one more time, when seniors Brian Roberts and Kiki Lund participate in the shooting portion of the State Farm College Slam Dunk and 3-Point Championships on Thursday in San Antonio.
The event, which is part of the NCAA Division I Men's Final Four festivities, will air same-day tape-delayed Thursday on ESPN at 9 p.m. ET. This is the 20th year for the event.
Dayton is the only school with participants in the men's and women's 3-point contests.
Scheduled to join Roberts in the men's three-point shooting contest are Utah State's Jaycee Carroll, Vanderbilt's Shan Foster, Butler's A.J. Graves, La Salle's Darnell Harris, Tennessee's Chris Lofton, Washington State's Derrick Low and Michigan State's Drew Neitzel.
Other women's three-point participants are West Virginia's Meg Bulger, Morehead State's Tarah Combs, Texas State's Joyce Ekworomadu, Georgia Tech's Chioma Nnamaka, Ohio State's Marscilla Parker, DePaul's Allie Quigley and Miami of Florida's Maurtia Reid.
The slam dunk contest will feature August a State's A.J. Bowman, Georgetown's Patrick Ewing, Jr., New Mexico's J.R. Giddens, Maryland's James Gist, Illinois' Brian Randle and Virginia Tech's Deron Washington.
Roberts led the UD men to a 23-11 record. The Flyers started out 14-1 and were ranked as high as 14th until injuries derailed the season. Team eventually re-invented itself and played its way back onto the bubble, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT. A constant was Roberts who led Dayton in scoring (18.4), three-pointers (100-220, .455), free throws (111-129, .860) and minutes (34.7).
Roberts ended his career in the UD Top Ten in 10 statistical categories, including #1 in three-pointers made (293) and 3-pt. FG% (.441, 293-665).
He was a three-time All-Atlantic 10 selection, and was a finalist for the Wooden, Naismith, Cousy and Lowes Senior CLASS Awards.
Lund was 13th in the country this season in 3-pt. FG% (.429, 70-163). She averaged 8.1 points a game. She was part of a dramatic turnaround for coach Jim Jabir's program. The team had won just three games the year before Lund and her classmates came to UD, but the Flyers were 25-9 this season, reaching the WNIT and receiving the first AP Top 25 votes in school history. That's the best improvement by any of this year's graduating classes in the country.
Her career .392 (154-393) 3-pt. FG% is the Dayton record, as are her 70 treys this season.
