UD women steady their nerves heading into 1st NCAA tourney

Team trying to handle buzz for game on Saturday.

By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer 11:49 PM Wednesday, March 17, 2010

DAYTON — During his first experience at the NCAA tournament, coaching Marquette in 1994 in Boulder, Colo., Jim Jabir didn’t understand his teams’ nerves until a short practice the day before.

“We were just a mess,” Jabir, now the coach at the University of Dayton, said Wednesday, March 17. “At some point I just stopped the shoot around, and I said, ‘Hey, let’s go see the mountains,’ and we got on the bus.

“My AD was apoplectic. I just felt like we needed to get away, and it worked. We played well and lost at the buzzer.”

As the eighth-seeded Flyers prepare to make their first-ever NCAA Division I tournament appearance against No. 8 seed TCU at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., Jabir has been more conscious about controlling his team’s emotions.

Since a passionate watch party Monday for the broadcast of the bracket announcement, players have been dealing with plenty of congratulations and personal plans while thinking about basketball.

“We’re not used to this type of attention, so this is new for us,” said sophomore center Casey Nance. “You go into class and a teacher will say, ‘I want to say congratulations to the women’s basketball team,’ and everyone will stand up and clap.”

And then there are the plans to make.

“You want to make sure you get in the gym, get shots up, take care of classes missed (today) and Friday,” said freshman guard Kari Daugherty. “It’s a lot to take care of.”

But Jabir said his team seems to be level-headed while preparing to leave on its bus trip today and potentially make another piece of program history — a first win in the NCAA D-I tournament.

“I told them we need to be loose, we need to have fun,” Jabir said. “We just need to go out and play.”

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

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