Dayton vs the other #1s?

[BRS24]

Calling all women's hoops experts. If Dayton was in any other bracket, would they have a chance of beating any of top seeds ? Based on comparison I saw between UCONN"s second half and others, I think they would make a game of it.

 

[HGN]

Based upon the way Dayton played in the earlier Rounds and on the way they played UConn last night , I think they could have beaten any other top seed. Dayton shot as well as anyone I have seen that First Half. No one but UConn , and maybe ND , maybe , could have kept pace. Against anyone else I think they would have had at least a 12pt lead. Normally , other teams have to shoot like that to keep pace with UConn and they rarely do it. Last night UConn had to shoot like that in order to keep pace with Dayton.

I think Dayton would have beaten at least 2 of the 3 other top seeds based upon how well they played the No.1 team in WCBB last night........ The Flyers are a scary bunch.

 

[UcMiami]

I agree HGN. I see them being able to beat any of the four elite eight teams in Greensboro or Spokane, and being competitive with the two in OKC. They score - they put up 99 against KY and 82 against Louisville, and they just hung 70 on Uconn. That 70 points is one of only three games this year where Uconn allowed a team to score that many - Stanford played a perfect game and scored 77 in regulation, and Uconn sleepwalked through a second half against USF and they scored 70 in a 14 point win. The object of the game is to score and Dayton does that very well, and they play pretty good defense and have skilled post players with height (and enough of them to rest them and protect against fouls) - something that is rare for non-P5 teams.

To put that in perspective - Uconn has played 32 NCAA games in the last 5.66 tournaments including this year and the only teams to score more than 65 points against the Uconn defense in regulation are ND in their win in 2011 (72 pts) and Dayton last night. The other ND win they only scored 67 in regulation before putting up 16 in the overtime period.

When watching the Greensboro and Spokane regionals, the thing that stood out was how scoring challenged those teams are and it isn't because of stifling defense - they all continually ran bad offense and missed open shots - something Dayton does not do. (What stood out in OKC with both elite eight teams - they can run good offense and score.)

 

[DobbsRover2]

Sure, we need to remember that teams prepare and develop all year long, and that by late March they may be a very different type of machine than they were even as recently as their conference tournament. And Dayton ended up as a team that had pushed itself to a level of teams at the very top, and a very enhanced team from the one that was 1-3 after four games. Since Nov. 22, Dayton had only lost three games, all to a George Washington team it clearly did not match up well with. But in the last two weeks their ability to control the pace was a factor that would have proved a tough match-up for any opponent.

 

[JellyBean]

Great question. So many factors to consider. One that jumps out, team discipline in terms of shot selection, ball handling, passing, and basketball IQ. Notre Dame is a pretty discipline team, so I don't see Dayton beating them. South Carolina? Oh yeah Dayton beats them. Maryland? Much like ND, Dayton can spread the floor. And if Dayton shoots the ball like they did against our beloved Huskies, I can see Dayton beating Maryland.

I just look at Dayton's loss to Iowa as well as Gonzaga in the early part of the year, and with our Huskies. In those early games, in which Dayton lost, they had double digit leads (10 and 14) but Iowa and Gonzaga were disciplined in their shot selection, passed the ball well, played great defense, and made shots. So team discipline comes into play. Like our girls did yesterday, plus great coaching.

 

[Bonpland]

Dayton beat a 2 and a 3 to get to UCONN. They could have given any team in the Elite Eight trouble and probably been even with all but ND.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Dayton beat a 2 and a 3 to get to UCONN. They could have given any team in the Elite Eight trouble and probably been even with all but ND.

I agree. I think they would have played Tennessee, Maryland, and South Carolina tough, and maybe beaten them. I think they could have played a good game against ND, but come up short.

 

[Blueballer]

If Dayton played ANYBODY else in the country and shot as good in the first half as they did against us they would have been up 20 instead of 1. I don't know if they could have hung on in the second half against other teams but I firmly believe they would have had a 20 point lead.

 

[Outside Shot]

Dayton lost to George Washington three times. They didn't win the Atlantic 10 regular season or tournament. I lean more towards a larger sample of their results than one half of basketball.

 

[DobbsRover2]

Dayton lost to George Washington three times. They didn't win the Atlantic 10 regular season or tournament. I lean more towards a larger sample of their results than one half of basketball.

One half of basketball? I thought the Flyers had to play 6 pretty good halves in the Tourney before they even saw UConn.

27 wins in the previous 30 games and 11 of the last 12 prior to last night sounds like a decently large sample. GW got bounced in the first round, but Dayton found their rhythm in late March, and generally it's wiser to judge a Tournament team by how they're playing on March 28 rather than March 8.