UD women's coach’s recruiting style strikes a winning chord

Next game

Who: Dayton (24-7) vs. TCU (22-8)

What: First-round NCAA tournament game

When: 2:30 p.m. Saturday

Where: Knoxville, Tenn.

TV: ESPN2

DAYTON — Justine Raterman’s first impressions of the University of Dayton women’s basketball program now allow coach Jim Jabir to laugh.

“She used to come to games, get in the car with her parents and say, ‘I’m not going there, they stink,’ ” Jabir said. “We joke about it now, but she was also kind of right.”

Raterman is now a UD sophomore and the Flyers’ leading scorer, at 13 points per game. The 6-foot-1 forward from Versailles is also one of the team’s best examples of how improved recruiting has helped propel UD into its first NCAA Division I tournament appearance.

The eighth-seeded Flyers will face No. 9 TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, March 20, with a lineup full of players Jabir admits the program would not likely have been able to recruit several years ago.

“When I got here, we started going after top kids, and they either laughed at me or flat-out told me no,” Jabir said.

The first major coup for the program, Jabir said, was Kendel Ross, now a 6-1 senior guard from Sarnia, Ontario, who chose UD over New Mexico and Michigan. After Ross, Jabir said, the Flyers were able to gain at least one key recruit in each class: junior Kristin Daugherty, Raterman, freshman Kari Daugherty and current Fairmont High School senior Cassie Sant.

The players credited Jabir’s recruiting style for their commitment. In fact, one gets similar answers during separate interviews.

“He’s wonderful, kind of like a second dad,” said Kari Daugherty, a 6-1 forward,

“He’s very fatherly, I guess you could say,” said sophomore center Casey Nance.

Those recruiting efforts have helped UD take a 24-7 record into its tournament opener after two straight seasons in the WNIT. Players and coaches discussed an improved atmosphere that helped their decisions.

“I came here because of culture,” Ross said. “I felt like it could breed where we are now, in the NCAA tournament. We’ve had to put in our work, but Coach Jabir created a place for this to happen.”

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