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UD women heading to NCAA tournament

The University of Dayton women's basketball team celebrates as they learned Monday March 15 that they will play in the program's first-ever NCAA tournament. The eighth-seeded Flyers will face No. 9 seed TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., in the tournament's first round. The team was watching the NCAA tournament selection at the Kennedy Union on campus.

Staff photo by Lisa Powell The University of Dayton women's basketball team celebrates as they learned Monday March 15 that they will play in the program's first-ever NCAA tournament. The eighth-seeded Flyers will face No. 9 seed TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., in the tournament's first round. The team was watching the NCAA tournament selection at the Kennedy Union on campus.

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer Updated 7:40 AM Tuesday, March 16, 2010

DAYTON — The University of Dayton women’s basketball team will play in the program’s first-ever NCAA tournament.

The eighth-seeded Flyers learned on Monday, March 15, that they’ll face No. 9 seed TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., in the tournament’s first round.

UD (24-7, 11-3 Atlantic 10) received an at-large bid after finishing the regular season in second place in the A-10 and losing to Temple in the conference tournament semifinals.

The team learned its fate Monday at The Hangar inside the Kennedy Union on campus along with about 300 supporters, including school President Daniel Curran, football coach Rick Chamberlin, athletic director Tim Wabler and Cassie Sant, the 6-foot-2 Fairmont High School senior and UD recruit. Many were seated around a wall-screen television for the ESPN bracket announcement broadcast. The pep band arrived just before the broadcast’s 7 p.m. start.

It is the third career NCAA appearance for UD coach Jim Jabir, who took two Marquette teams to the tournament in 1994 and ’95. Jabir has helped the Flyers improve from 3-25 in 2003-04, his first season, to consecutive WNIT appearances in the past two seasons and now an NCAA tournament appearance.

“We were in the last two WNITs,” Jabir said, “and I thought we kind of had our fill of that.”

TCU (22-8) was the Mountain West Conference regular-season champion before the Horned Frogs lost to Utah in the conference tournament semifinals. The winner of the Dayton-TCU game will face either top-seeded Tennessee or No. 16 seed Austin Peay in the second round on Monday.

“With the class coming back, and with everyone we had, I said to them, 'It would be disappointing if we didn’t make it.’ I put it out there,” Jabir said. “They accepted it, and they bought into it.”

Dayton boasts quality wins against Michigan State (No. 16 RPI), Georgetown (17), Temple (31), St. Bonaventure (70) and Purdue (75).

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com