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Duke WBB hosts Dayton on Thursday 11/14 at 7pm on ACCNX (streaming link, listen, live stats)
The #16 Blue Devils look to bounce back from Sunday's loss at Maryland when they play the Dayton Flyers on Thursday evening in Cameron. Their head coach is Tamika Williams-Jeter, now in her third season. You may remember her as Tamika Williams from her playing days at Connecticut (1998-2002, one graduating class ahead of Kara Lawson at Tennessee). Williams won national titles in 2000 and 2002, and set an NCAA record for career field goal percentage -- 70.3 percent -- that still stands. Fortunately, she's not playing on Thursday, unless she and Lawson decide to engage in a battle of H-O-R-S-E during pregame warmups.
Before the season started, I collected information about each of Duke's non-conference opponents, and based on the preseason polls of their respective conferences, almost all of them could make the NCAA Tournament, either as the automatic qualifier in traditional 1-bid leagues or as an at-large in multi-bid leagues.
Radford: 2nd in Big South
Liberty: 2nd in Conference USA
Maryland: 4th in Big Ten
Dayton: 11th in Atlantic 10 (which has 15 teams)
South Dakota State: 1st in Summit
Belmont: 3rd in Missouri Valley
Kansas State: 1st in Big 12
Oklahoma: 4th in SEC / DePaul: 9th in Big East
Columbia: 2nd in Ivy
South Carolina: 1st in SEC
Wofford: 1st in SoCon
South Florida: 1st in American
That's a tough schedule; Coach Lawson isn't messing around. The two teams least likely to qualify for the Big Dance are Dayton and DePaul, and Duke may not even get to play DePaul.
The Atlantic 10 held its Media Day in Washington, DC last month, and Dayton was represented by Coach Williams-Jeter and her leading scorer from last season, senior guard Ivy Wolf. There's video of their press conference:
They also conducted an interview with the host of Locked on Women's Basketball (start around the 26-minute mark):
Wolf is one of 2 returning starters on Dayton's roster, which includes 5 returning reserves, 5 incoming transfers, and 3 freshmen. So far their rotation looks like this:
PROBABLE STARTERS
5-8 senior guard Ivy Wolf (16.0 pts, 3.5 reb, 4.0 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-2 senior forward Arianna Smith (11.0 pts, 10.0 reb, 2.0 ast)
5-8 junior guard Shantavia Dawkins (12.0 pts, 2.5 reb, 1.0 ast)
5-7 grad guard Nicole Stephens (9.5 pts, 3.0 reb, 2.0 ast, 3.0 stl, 1.0 blk)
5-10 grad guard Rikki Harris (7.0 pts, 5.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.5 stl)
TOP RESERVES
6-2 freshman post Molly O'Riordan (7.0 pts, 5.0 reb, 0.5 ast)
5-10 junior guard Nayo Lear (6.0 pts, 3.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.0 stl)
6-3 sophomore wing Ajok Madol (5.5 pts, 8.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.0 stl)
6-1 senior forward Shannon Wheeler (3.0 pts, 3.5 reb, 0.5 ast)
6-1 sophomore guard Jayda Johnson (1.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
BENCH PLAYERS
6-0 freshman guard Kamryn Grant (6.0 pts, 1.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
6-5 sophomore center Eve Fiala (3.0 pts, 3.0 reb, 0.0 ast, 1.0 blk)
6-0 junior guard Eleanor Monyek (0.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
5-10 freshman guard Olivia Leung
5-9 sophomore guard Denika Lightbourne
Last week the Flyers started the same 4 guards -- all under 6 feet tall -- and a different lone forward. Arianna Smith started Game 1 but missed Game 2, while Shannon Wheeler barely played in Game 1 but started Game 2. Smith led the A-10 in rebounds last season, and has more career starts, so I imagine she'll be on the floor at tipoff if she's available. (Maybe Coach Williams-Jeter will start both forwards and only 3 guards, as a counter to Duke's size.)
Two of the starting guards are incoming transfers from teams that played and lost to Duke last season. Nicole Stephens was at Columbia, who hosted Duke (on November 14, coincidentally). She was scoreless in 6 minutes off the bench, but had a rebound, an assist, and a steal. Rikki Harris was a reserve at Ohio State, who played a home game against Duke in the NCAA Tournament. She played 15 minutes and scored 4 points, adding 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
You can't read too much into team stats this early in the season, but Basketball Reference had a few interesting numbers that I thought were worth sharing. Dayton averages 32.5 defensive rebounds (31st nationally) and holds opponents to 6.0 offensive rebounds per game (8th best). This suggests that one of their strengths is denying the other team second chance points.
The Flyers also appear to be good at 2-point shots (58.3 percent, 30th) and getting to the free throw line (24.5 attempts per game, 44th). They are not as good from beyond the arc, hitting only 21.1 percent of their threes (320th). But that's misleading; if you look more closely, Wolf and Stephens are a combined 40 percent (8-of-20), while the rest of the team is 0-for-18.
In an article previewing the Atlantic 10, The Next spoke with Coach Williams-Jeter, who had this to say about the matchup:
"The Duke game is a return game. It’s our last return game from the previous staff... And to go to Duke, what an experience, it’s like the kids last year when we went to Connecticut to start off the season. It’s a great experience and an opportunity. Davidson went there [to Cameron] and beat them last year. So it gives you a little hope where the A-10 is, very strong."
Bart Torvik ranked Dayton #195 in the preseason (they're now #184), and projected an 82-57 Duke win.
The #16 Blue Devils look to bounce back from Sunday's loss at Maryland when they play the Dayton Flyers on Thursday evening in Cameron. Their head coach is Tamika Williams-Jeter, now in her third season. You may remember her as Tamika Williams from her playing days at Connecticut (1998-2002, one graduating class ahead of Kara Lawson at Tennessee). Williams won national titles in 2000 and 2002, and set an NCAA record for career field goal percentage -- 70.3 percent -- that still stands. Fortunately, she's not playing on Thursday, unless she and Lawson decide to engage in a battle of H-O-R-S-E during pregame warmups.
Before the season started, I collected information about each of Duke's non-conference opponents, and based on the preseason polls of their respective conferences, almost all of them could make the NCAA Tournament, either as the automatic qualifier in traditional 1-bid leagues or as an at-large in multi-bid leagues.
Radford: 2nd in Big South
Liberty: 2nd in Conference USA
Maryland: 4th in Big Ten
Dayton: 11th in Atlantic 10 (which has 15 teams)
South Dakota State: 1st in Summit
Belmont: 3rd in Missouri Valley
Kansas State: 1st in Big 12
Oklahoma: 4th in SEC / DePaul: 9th in Big East
Columbia: 2nd in Ivy
South Carolina: 1st in SEC
Wofford: 1st in SoCon
South Florida: 1st in American
That's a tough schedule; Coach Lawson isn't messing around. The two teams least likely to qualify for the Big Dance are Dayton and DePaul, and Duke may not even get to play DePaul.
The Atlantic 10 held its Media Day in Washington, DC last month, and Dayton was represented by Coach Williams-Jeter and her leading scorer from last season, senior guard Ivy Wolf. There's video of their press conference:
They also conducted an interview with the host of Locked on Women's Basketball (start around the 26-minute mark):
Wolf is one of 2 returning starters on Dayton's roster, which includes 5 returning reserves, 5 incoming transfers, and 3 freshmen. So far their rotation looks like this:
PROBABLE STARTERS
5-8 senior guard Ivy Wolf (16.0 pts, 3.5 reb, 4.0 ast, 1.0 stl)
6-2 senior forward Arianna Smith (11.0 pts, 10.0 reb, 2.0 ast)
5-8 junior guard Shantavia Dawkins (12.0 pts, 2.5 reb, 1.0 ast)
5-7 grad guard Nicole Stephens (9.5 pts, 3.0 reb, 2.0 ast, 3.0 stl, 1.0 blk)
5-10 grad guard Rikki Harris (7.0 pts, 5.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.5 stl)
TOP RESERVES
6-2 freshman post Molly O'Riordan (7.0 pts, 5.0 reb, 0.5 ast)
5-10 junior guard Nayo Lear (6.0 pts, 3.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.0 stl)
6-3 sophomore wing Ajok Madol (5.5 pts, 8.0 reb, 1.5 ast, 2.0 stl)
6-1 senior forward Shannon Wheeler (3.0 pts, 3.5 reb, 0.5 ast)
6-1 sophomore guard Jayda Johnson (1.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
BENCH PLAYERS
6-0 freshman guard Kamryn Grant (6.0 pts, 1.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
6-5 sophomore center Eve Fiala (3.0 pts, 3.0 reb, 0.0 ast, 1.0 blk)
6-0 junior guard Eleanor Monyek (0.0 pts, 0.0 reb, 0.0 ast)
5-10 freshman guard Olivia Leung
5-9 sophomore guard Denika Lightbourne
Last week the Flyers started the same 4 guards -- all under 6 feet tall -- and a different lone forward. Arianna Smith started Game 1 but missed Game 2, while Shannon Wheeler barely played in Game 1 but started Game 2. Smith led the A-10 in rebounds last season, and has more career starts, so I imagine she'll be on the floor at tipoff if she's available. (Maybe Coach Williams-Jeter will start both forwards and only 3 guards, as a counter to Duke's size.)
Two of the starting guards are incoming transfers from teams that played and lost to Duke last season. Nicole Stephens was at Columbia, who hosted Duke (on November 14, coincidentally). She was scoreless in 6 minutes off the bench, but had a rebound, an assist, and a steal. Rikki Harris was a reserve at Ohio State, who played a home game against Duke in the NCAA Tournament. She played 15 minutes and scored 4 points, adding 2 rebounds and 1 steal.
You can't read too much into team stats this early in the season, but Basketball Reference had a few interesting numbers that I thought were worth sharing. Dayton averages 32.5 defensive rebounds (31st nationally) and holds opponents to 6.0 offensive rebounds per game (8th best). This suggests that one of their strengths is denying the other team second chance points.
The Flyers also appear to be good at 2-point shots (58.3 percent, 30th) and getting to the free throw line (24.5 attempts per game, 44th). They are not as good from beyond the arc, hitting only 21.1 percent of their threes (320th). But that's misleading; if you look more closely, Wolf and Stephens are a combined 40 percent (8-of-20), while the rest of the team is 0-for-18.
In an article previewing the Atlantic 10, The Next spoke with Coach Williams-Jeter, who had this to say about the matchup:
"The Duke game is a return game. It’s our last return game from the previous staff... And to go to Duke, what an experience, it’s like the kids last year when we went to Connecticut to start off the season. It’s a great experience and an opportunity. Davidson went there [to Cameron] and beat them last year. So it gives you a little hope where the A-10 is, very strong."
Bart Torvik ranked Dayton #195 in the preseason (they're now #184), and projected an 82-57 Duke win.
