NCAA tournament: Dayton women play nation’s highest-scoring team in play-in game

“No matter what I’m always like, ‘We might as well all get together,’” she said Monday, “and if for some reason, we don’t make it in we’re all together.”

That doesn’t mean Green wasn’t nervous. She felt good about the team’s resume despite the 62-56 loss to Massachusetts in the Atlantic 10 Conference championship game eight days earlier. Doubt started to creep in when the show began but was soon replaced by joy as Dayton players jumped out of their chairs to celebrate the reveal of an opening-round game (or play-in game) against DePaul.

“This is why I came back,” sixth-year senior Jenna Giacone wrote on Twitter. “Let’s dance.”

“It’s funny because we saw it, and it kind took a couple couple of seconds to really sink in,” Green said, “but the NCAA Tournament is what we work for. It’s what you dream about as a kid, and these guys, especially these upperclassmen and our super seniors and the group that was kind of robbed of that NCAA tournament (experience) two years ago, they came back to get to the NCAA tournament. I was just so happy for our players and so happy that all the work, all the ups and downs, everything we faced throughout the last couple years, it all paid off and they get to realize this dream of theirs.”

No. 11 seed Dayton (25-5) will play No. 11 seed DePaul (22-10) at 9 p.m. Wednesday at Iowa State’s Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. The game will air on ESPNU. The winner will play No. 6 seed Georgia (20-9) in Ames at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

For Green, the game marks a return to her home state. She’s from Clinton, Iowa, three hours east of Ames, and her parents still live there. This will be her first game in Iowa as a head coach.

DePaul was a regular NCAA tournament participant until the pandemic began. It would have made its 18th straight appearance in 2020 if the tournament had not been cancelled. Then it finished 14-10 in 2021 and settled for a NIT appearance, losing to Saint Louis in the first round and then to Drake in a consolation game.

Now DePaul is back with the nation’s highest-scoring offense (88.3 points per game).

“They play extremely fast,” Green said. “They shoot a lot of 3s. They want to score 90.”

Aneesha Morrow, a 6-foot-1 forward, leads the team with 21.7 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. The Athletic named her the best freshman in the country this season, and she’s one of 15 finalists for the John Wooden Award, given to the nation’s top player.

“They’re a tough matchup,” Green said, “but we’re also a top-15, top-20 team in the country defensively. We have to hang our hat on defense and our rebounding like we always do. It’s going to be a high possession, high-paced game with two teams who want to play fast.”

Dayton’s preparation for not only its game against DePaul but its trip to Ames began fast. The Flyers learned their destination just after 8 p.m. Sunday, flew out of Dayton at 3 p.m. Monday and landed around 4:30 p.m. Green credited Maya Solomon, the director of basketball operations, for handling the logistics.

The NCAA tournament news gave Dayton something to prepare for after almost a week of practices following the A-10 loss. Green gave the team a couple of days to rest after it returned home from Wilmington, Del., but getting back on the court proved to be the best way to deal with the disappointment. She praised the focus and energy level the players had all week as they prepared for what they hoped would be the program’s first NCAA tournament appearance since 2018 when they lost 84-65 to Marquette in Louisville, Ky.

“I’m really proud of them for that,” Green said. “I also think that goes to show what great leadership we have and that we have great veterans that know this is about taking care of business and getting better every single day so we were prepared when our name was called.”