Over at the WomensBasketballOnline site, Kim has been adding some original content as a supplement to her daily gathering of every women's basketball article published online (Daily News). Beyond the Hardwood is the result of sending out emails and seeing who's on the ball enough to reply. Some neat stuff has appeared, from Pros, College players and, intriguingly, college staff.

Wondering what a team manager, assistant athletic trainer or an assistant athletic trainers does? Check out their "Day in the Life" submissions from the Dayton Flyers. Lots of the Flyer players submitted, as well as a couple from Hofstra (which recently gave Baylor all it could handle).

The extensive response from the Flyers intrigued me -- any program that is heads-up enough to do whatever it takes to get the word out about their team gets my attention. From their site, it was interesting to note that their new head coach is Jim Jabir (the women's team first male head coach), known to Big East fans for his unremarkable tenure at Providence College. Appointed in 2003, his bio notes that

The Flyers have been one of the most improved teams in the nation under the direction of Jabir. UD had the fourth best single-season turnaround in the nation in the 2004-05 season with an improvement of nine wins over the previous campaign. Jabir and Dayton continued the trend in 2005-06 with an improvement of five more wins, giving UD the second best improvement over a two-year span in the nation.

A side note? Two years ago, Providence's coach Susan Yow was replaced by Phil Seymore, who'd been an assistant for the Providence men's team for several years. There was, predictably much kvetching and about a school who seemed not to care about their women's team hiring a coach with no women's basketball experience. Providence has been profoundly horrible these last few years, the 2004-05 season's 1-27 record being a low point.

Luckily, as with those who were worried when St. John's hired Kim Barnes Arico, (a Division II coach? Oh, brother!!), it looks like Big East fans may have to eat their words. In his first season the team finished 8-19. So far this season Providence is 4-0. Yes, it's an out-of-conference schedule. But the last time the Friars opened their season 4-0? 1990.

In a season where the Big East's upper echelon looks to be thin, it's nice to see the lower ranks moving up.