Photo Gallery | Kyle Nagel of Dayton Daily News Follows the Flyers
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The University of Dayton women’s basketball team is soaking in the NCAA Tournament experience. The Flyers arrived in Knoxville, Tenn. Thursday afternoon. The team enjoyed the sights of downtown and enjoyed a nice dinner, where senior Kendel Ross gave a speech to her teammates.
UD, playing in its first-ever Division I NCAA Tournament, is the No. 8 seed and will play No. 9 TCU this Saturday at 2 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2; analyst Doris Burke and play-by-play man Dave O’Brien will have the call.
Friday the Flyers got their first look at The Summitt, the court in UT’s Thompson-Boling Arena where they will take on the Horned Frogs. First UD attended a press conference where Ross, sophomore Justine Raterman and Coach Jim Jabir addressed the media. Following the press conference, there was an open locker room media session.
Finally Dayton took the court at 2:10 p.m. to the sounds of the Flyer fight song. It was a loose, fun practice open to the public. After all the coaching staff was introduced, each player was also announced.
After their open session time had expired, the Flyers held a closed practice at the UT practice gym.
PRACTICE DAY QUOTES FROM NCAA FIRST ROUND IN KNOXVILLE
Dayton Head Coach Jim Jabir
(Opening Statement):
“It is a pleasure to be here. I know I speak for the team when I say we are excited to be in our first NCAA Tournament. We face an opponent that is an excellent team, well-coached, and a veteran team. They are similar to us in some ways, so we will have a great challenge tomorrow that we are looking forward to very, very much.”
(You have some NCAA experience. You have been here as a coach. How do you help this team making their first appearance get ready to face the stage they are getting ready to play on)?
“That was so long ago, I think I forgot. If I can recollect, I think the biggest thing is we want to make it just another game. We don’t want it to be so big of an event that it stifles our ability to play up to our potential. By the same token, I want our kids to enjoy this as much as they can. This is a life time experience they have worked so hard for. They came to Dayton to do this. When we recruited all of them, the goal was to go to the NCAA Tournament. It is the first one in school history so we have accomplished that. I don’t want them to be in awe. I want them to enjoy it. It is a going to be a competitive game tomorrow, and I believe if we play the way we are capable of playing then we have a great chance. But I want our players to really love the entire experience. So, my job is to have them prepared but have them loose. We will see how that goes today and tomorrow.”
(How much has the tournament grown since your last NCAA Tournament):
“The growth has been tremendous when you look at the scope of the teams that are involved and the way that it is run. We are very fortunate to be here in Knoxville. Everything has been so first-class. I think the exposure on the national level to the women’s game has grown so much. I don’t know if there is parody yet but there is great exposure, newspapers, television. Everyone is covering it more. It has helped our recruiting a great deal. So, it has helped the women’s game a great deal. I have seen a great growth since the last time I was in.”
(Can you comment on your first round opponent TCU)?
“I believe in some ways they are very similar to us. They play some big guards who have perimeter skills. They can shoot the ball very, very well. They share the ball well. They are unselfish. They are very intelligent. They are a veteran team with some youth mixed in. They play very hard and intelligently. They are very well coached. Coach (Jeff) Mittie does a great job. So, we are going to have to depend on our principles defensively, and we are going to have to attack them offensively. I think we have a tough opponent ahead of us for sure but I am looking forward to it.”
(When you saw this match-up and began to study it, what is the key for you to win)?
“They share the ball very well so we have to keep the ball in front us. We can’t allow run-outs. Their undersized center is averaging a double-double, points and rebounds. So, we have to make sure we can contain her and stop the things they do. They run a lot of screen action, flair screen, back screen, ball screen, so we have to defend that well. If we are up to the task, I think it will be a very good game.”
Editor’s Note: Jim Jabir led Marquette University to the NCAA Tournament following the 1994 and 1995 seasons as head coach.
Dayton Senior Guard Kendel Ross
(On what it feels like to be making the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance):
“I am really excited. It’s just great to be here. Like we’ve been saying all along, this is where we’ve wanted to be. Now that we’re finally here, it’s an amazing feeling.”
(On TCU’s strengths):
“Like Coach [Jim] Jabir said, they’re a very well-coached team, they pass the ball really well and they are smooth in their offense. We are just going to have to show up on defense like we have all year.”
Dayton Sophomore Forward Justine Raterman
(On what it feels like to be making the school’s first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance):
“There’s a lot of emotion that goes along with it, but at the same time, it almost hasn’t hit me yet that we are in the NCAA Tournament. This is what we’ve dreamed of and have been working for all season, and now it’s finally here.”
(On TCU’s strengths):
“It seems like they have a lot of weapons. They play together really well as a team. They play really good team defense and we’re just going to have to play really well together as well.”
TCU Head Coach Jeff Mittie
(Opening Statement):
“It should be a good first round meeting as most 8/9 matchups are. Dayton is a very balanced team. They play a lot of people. People ask who they remind us of in conference. The Atlantic 10 and Mountain West compare very well. Most teams in that non-BCS group are no different. I’m impressed with (Dayton coach) Jim’s (Jabir) group. They played quite a schedule. Hopefully, we’ll have a great basketball game.”
(On Dayton making its inaugural appearance in the NCAA Tournament while TCU is playing in the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time in the past 10 years):
“That can be overrated. How the team prepared coming in is the important thing. A team can be nervous about playing in the tournament for the first time and not play well. On the other hand, they could play great. The important thing is the makeup of the team.”
(on preparing for the NCAA Tournament):
“As a coach, you have to focus on the task at hand. We have great respect for Dayton. This year’s team is different from last year’s team. Fun is playing well. The last two games, we have not played well. We have had competitive practices, but we have not been as healthy the last three weeks of the season, and we had to rest them. There was slippage in terms of physical play. After our four-overtime game (a 105-96 win at Utah on Feb. 10), we had to rest, rest, rest. We’re ready to go now. We had a good week of preparation. We had a good look. We’ll see how they react.”
(on bouncing back after 69-57 loss to Utah in semifinals of the Mountain West Conference Championship):
“It was hard to simulate in practice. We were not reacting well. The shots we were getting were bad shots. We’ve had better practices, and we can see it coming. We didn’t play or shoot very well. When you shoot 29 percent, you’re not shooting very well.”
(on his reaction to seeing on the Selection Show that TCU would be coming to Knoxville):
“The players were excited, but when do you ever have a player who is not excited. This is not a sightseeing tour for us. I’m glad our players had a great experience at the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. I was in meetings. We’ve played at Tennessee twice before. This is not new to them. We’re excited to be playing at a place that appreciates women’s basketball. It’s a great venue. It will be a challenge to play a very good Dayton team and to have the possibility of facing a Tennessee team that is playing very well. This is a great venue for the NCAA Tournament. Our players are respectful of the history of the game, and there’s a lot of history here.”
