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TCU-Dayton Preview

Mar 19, 2010 - 11:49 PM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

TCU (22-8) at Dayton (24-7), 2:30 p.m. EDT

With a matchup against the Memphis Regional's No. 1 seed the likely reward for a victory, eighth-seeded Dayton is trying not to get too distracted by a potential meeting with an eight-time national champion. A first-round contest against No. 9 seed TCU presents its own problems.

Playing their first NCAA tournament game Saturday in Knoxville, Tenn., the Flyers face a Horned Frogs team making its ninth tournament appearance in the last 10 years.

Despite a March 7 overtime loss to Temple in the Atlantic 10 tournament semifinals, Dayton (24-7) earned an at-large bid Monday. It is the program's first NCAA tournament appearance since moving to Division I before the 1984-85 season.

"There's a lot of emotion that goes along with it, but at the same time it almost hasn't hit me that we are in the NCAA tournament," said sophomore forward Justine Raterman, the Flyers' leading scorer with 13.0 points per game.

A victory Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena would send the Flyers to Monday's second round to face the winner of Saturday's game between top-seeded Tennessee and No. 16 seed Austin Peay. The Flyers, though, aren't taking the Horned Frogs lightly.

"Our focus is on TCU now," Dayton coach Jim Jabir told the school's official Web site Monday. "They are a strong, athletic team. They have some skill players."

The Horned Frogs (22-8) are led by junior Helena Sverrisdottir, the Mountain West Conference player of the year. The 22-year-old Icelander is averaging 13.5 points and 6.5 rebounds along with a team-best 5.2 assists and 2.2 steals. She is the only player in the conference ranked in the top 15 in each category.

Sverrisdottir was joined on the all-conference team by teammate Emily Carter, marking the first time TCU had two players on the first team. Carter, a junior forward, leads the Horned Frogs with 14.5 points per game and is shooting 41.3 percent from 3-point range.

While Sverrisdottir and Carter helped TCU win its first Mountain West regular-season title, the Horned Frogs have dropped their last two games heading into the tournament, including a 69-57 loss to No. 4 seed Utah on March 12 in the conference tournament semifinals. TCU hasn't lost three in a row since Dec. 14-30, 2008.

The Horned Frogs have won five of their last eight opening-round games, but coach Jim Mittie is not letting his team get overconfident against a less experienced Dayton team, especially after TCU fell to seventh-seeded South Dakota State 90-55 in the first round of last season's Raleigh Regional.

"It's really about how your team is prepared coming in," said Mittie, the Mountain West Conference coach of the year. "I think that can be an overrated part of this. For every time you see one of those teams be really nervous and not play well, you see another one play great. It really just depends on the makeup of your team."

TCU forward Starr Crawford makes her NCAA tournament debut after a stellar freshman season in which she averaged 9.8 points and a team-high 8.8 boards. She will likely be matched up with Dayton's 6-foot-4 sophomore Casey Nance. The daughter of former NBA player Larry Nance leads Dayton with 6.1 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game.

This is the first meeting between Dayton and TCU.