Welcome to the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Tipoff for the 2022-23 season. This afternoon, we feature the Dayton Flyers.
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A special for atlantic10.com, by Zac Weiss (@ZacharyMWeiss)
At the University of Dayton, it goes without saying that winning and finding success have come consistently over the past couple years, but after the 2021-22 campaign which featured a regular season Atlantic 10 Championship title and an NCAA Tournament appearance for the Flyers, Shauna Green departed to Illinois and now UD has entered the Tamika Williams-Jeter era.
Williams-Jeter most recently coached at Wittenberg University while also serving as an assistant coach at Kansas, Kentucky, Ohio State and Penn State, the last of which saw her work with reigning Atlantic 10 Player of the Year Sam Breen.
Now, in her first season heading up the Flyers, she already has a feeling that she's home.
“Even in our Blue-Red Game, I come out and any other coach that comes out and they see fans, I see family,” Williams-Jeter said. “I see people who have seen me since I was born. In that aspect, I want this space to really achieve and do some big things. The support here is phenomenal, from a leadership perspective, from our president on down to our fans.”
Williams-Jeter inherits a team with just four returning players, but there is plenty of newness across the board which leads to a 'still figuring it all out' attitude within the club.
“The thing you hear is that you have four returners that didn’t play a lot of minutes in a very winning space,” Williams-Jeter noted. “The one thing I think the team from last year leaves is no matter if you play or not, you’re in a winning gym. Those remaining players had to play against and make the players that did play a lot better. I’m trying to pull from that space with the four returners. It might feel and look a little different with my voice, but that standard does not change, it’s only going to go up.”
Despite the consistent message, there is a bit of a different feel at Dayton this season, especially for this returning foursome as the Flyers placed 10th in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll while earning zero individual honors.
Williams-Jeter said that this may surprise the returning players since they have not previous been in an environment akin to this, but that the space to grow, win and move up is there.
“You have to start from somewhere, and right now, this is our reality,” she added.
One of the four returning players is redshirt junior guard Destiny Bohanon, who played in 21 games a season ago and earned a single start, but now gets a new opportunity under Williams-Jeter to flourish, a prospect which clearly excites her along with the promise of playing freely as a point guard.
“We have new faces, we have new everything,” stated Bohanon. “Ever since we stepped foot on campus, we made a slogan, 'Why not us?' Just using that as motivation and working hard each day to prove what we can do on the court.”
Another returning player, senior forward Mariah Perez (42.1 pct. FG in 29 games) noted that a faster-paced offense has been an enjoyable experience that has opened up rim runs, faster scoring, and downhill attacking angles for guards.
Bohanon did admit that with a smaller team, defensive principles continue to be a work in progress, but the squad can make this adjustment and tailor it based on the opponent.
The Flyers do welcome several transfers in Sydney Freeman (11.1 ppg/81.8 pct FT at Ball State), Anyssa Jones (Ohio State), Taisiya Kozlova (Maryland) and Arianna Smith (7.2 ppg at Indiana State).
Three new freshmen will also call UD Arena home as Saija Cleveland, Nayo Lear and Eleanor Monyek join the program.
With over two weeks of preseason practice in the books, Williams-Jeter offered that as much as her players they have things figured out, the focus is on being one percent better on a daily basis. Tougher days and practices are ahead, and those challenges will dictate playing time and rotations.
Admittedly, Williams-Jeter believes a lot of her job comes down to controllables such as building positive behaviors, culture, habits and relationships, all concepts which will permanently affect how quickly things move forward.
“That’s an everyday situation for me taking over a new space,” Williams-Jeter concluded. “All of those attributes have to be paid attention to every day as a head coach. My hope is that we’re building a good foundation and some culture. My hope is that we’re not lowering the standards. I tell them to go jump on the train or you’re going to be left behind. That’s where we sit.”