Hope some of our fans join me at UD Arena. Dayton is coached by Tamika Williams-Jeter. She was a High school all American at Chaminade, the younger sister of former Miami (Early 90’s) jumping jack Mike Williams. She was also an All American at UConn and coached at Wittenberg before getting the UD job. UD has had a very strong program for abut 20 years, but had losing records the first two seasons under Williams-Jeter. This may be a turnaround season as they are 5-3. Similar to Miami, they have won every home game and lost all 3 away games ( 2 neutral court and one road game).
Their best player is former Miami star Ivy Wolf. Last year they did not use her as much as a scorer and concentrated on throwing the ball inside and she only averaged 11.9, which still led the team. This year they have turned her loose and she leads them in scoring with 17.3. She has 24 threes already this season, and is a near 90% ft shooter over her career. The only two Miami girls who played with Ivy are Katey Richason and Clare Chambers, the three of them were in the same recruiting class.
In looking at their schedule, They have only challenged themselves with 4 games. In their only true road game they lost at #16 Duke 84-49. In a tournament in Nashville they lost to Maryland Eastern Shore by 6 and South Dakota by 10. At home they beat Providence by 4. The rest of their home games were easier games.
5 of their top 6 girls are transfers. Besides Ivy, here are the rest of them:
Rikki Harris 5-10 GS, transfer from Ohio State where she played a lot. 8 points per game
6-2 SR Arianna Smith 9.4ppg/7.9rpg
5-7 GS Nicole Stephens transfer from Columbia 5.3ppg 20 assists
5-8 JR Shantavia Dawkins transfer from Iowa State 4.1ppg
6-3 Soph Avok Madok Transfer from Minnesota 6.4/5.1
This is another opportunity to us to show up for a road game against good competition. Miami is led by Soph Amber Tretter 13.3ppg/8.2rpg and Soph transfer Enjulina Gonzalez 11.7ppg.
Sports Illustrated did a feature article on Tamika when she was in high school (or maybe college) and her brother Mike came up. She said he was their family’s real brain. I always thought that was such an awesome compliment.
Fun story that I’ve told on here before. Mike Williams was about 6’6” and was a defensive stalwart. He could quickly leap… really high. I attended a game at Ohio State, who had a 7’0” center (Bill Robinson). Early in the game Robinson caught the ball near the block, checked over his shoulder, saw that Williams was right on him, and passed the ball back out. The crowd boo’d that he didn’t take the shot. The ball reversed and came back to him in the same position. This time he immediately turned and shot… and Williams swatted it about 6 rows deep. The crowd collectively gasped, as my buddy and I high-fived and laughed.
Great win. Watching closely I noticed at least twice a perimeter player demonstrably chastising a post player for not “attacking “ the ball while receiving a pass. Just settled in and let the ball come to her. It resulted in a turnover.
That demonstration of frustration can go a couple different ways as far as team building goes.
Pretty great win. Box not fooling around. We will be very tough this year and crazy tough by next. Can we win the MAC? Hard to say. But we look better.