BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — After the Dayton Flyers’ thrilling victory over TCU in the 1st round of the Women’s NCAA Championship on Saturday, Flyer Fans can now look forward to a unique double-dose of their favorite teams on national TV Monday night:

— At 7:00PM Jim Jabir’s Flyer squad will face-off against Pat Summit and the #1 seed Lady Volunteers on ESPN2…on their home court in Knoxville. No pressure, right Jim?

— Then at 9:00PM, BG and the Boys travel down I-75 to meet the Cincinnati Bearcats on ESPN.

When has that ever happened?

Try never!

I watched part of the first half of the TCU game and then went to shoot some hoops of my own. It was cold outside and started getting windy, so after I got my shooting work in, I headed back home to catch the 2nd half.

Only one problem:

The Flyers were at one point getting blown out by the Lady Frogs by 18 and so ESPN2 had wisely (in their minds, at least) ditched the game and cut away to the Kentucky/Liberty tilt.

I kept watching the ticker and saw the TCU lead dwindle down to 12, then 8, then 6 and it was at that point that I started yelling at my TV. Fortunately, some producer up in Bristol must have heard me, because with about 2 minutes left, they came back to the UD/TCU contest and made that producer look like a freakin’ genius.

After the game, back in the ESPN studio Trey Wingo referred to UD’s victory as “our first signature moment of the Women’s Championship.” When ESPN’s Doris Burke completed her post-game interview with winning coach Jim Jabir, she turned to no one in particular and said “Fantastic!” Very cool.

I noticed in the articles after the game that TCU’s women’s team is referred to as the “Lady Frogs” and not the “Horned Frogs” like the guys’ team.

Gee, I wonder why?

Can Jim Jabir and the Flyers knock off UT? I think that if they come out loose and make some shots early that they can give Tennessee a run for their money. Heck, anything is possible. The Lady Vols are huge and to say that they are well coached is the understatement of the century. Should be a lot of fun!

Now for the men folk.

One of the few things that Xavier fans and I can agree on is that we both don’t like UC a whole lot. Obviously that dislike runs a tad bit deeper with the X-men because of the proximity of the two schools and the whole “Crosstown Shootout” thing. For a Flyer fan like me, the Bearcats aren’t nearly as easy to hate as when Huggy Bear was the coach and the names of UC players appeared in the police blotter as often as they did in the boxscore. Then again, Mick Cronin looks an awful lot like Chris Mack, so that’s a good enuf reason for me right there.

It will be interesting to see how Kurt and Devin are able to defend Yancy Gates, the UC bigman. Another matchup problem is the soon-to-be-one-and-done Lance Stephenson. For the Bearcats, they have to worry about CW getting off and if UD starts making their threes it could open up the floor.

The Big Least has been abysmal thus far in the post-season and I look for the Bearcats to continue that trend vs. the Flyers in this one.

I would like to think that there will be a large contingent of Flyer Faithful at both venues, wearing red and being extremely loud like they always are.

All of this leads to one very important question:

Does UD have 2 “Rudy Flyer” costumes so that both squads can have their Fly Guy mascot cheering them on during the game?

I certainly hope so!

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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