The UNM women's basketball team had a whirlwind ending to its season last year, making the Women's National Invitational Tournament championship game. With that momentum and confidence still in hand, the Lobos look to take a step further this season.
The Lobos have three experienced starters and numerous talented newcomers that will try and continue the excitement that they generated last season.
"We are a lot more positive in how good we are going to be," junior center Jordan Adams said. "We are coming back a lot more confident and happy. We're excited."
The Lobos will try to prove themselves against some of the best teams in the country. For the second straight year, UNM faces a schedule peppered with ranked teams.
The Lobos' confidence starts with the 6-foot-3-inch Adams. The do-it-all Adams led the team in scoring, rebounds and block shots last season. She averaged 14.5 points per game, 5.5 rebounds a game and amassed 105 blocks last season, earning her a second team all-Mountain West Conference selection.
Adams repertoire includes a lethal hook shot that she is adept at using to score with either hand.
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"Physically she is gifted, she is talented," head coach Don Flanagan said. "She can play inside, she can shoot outside. She is very athletic. I think she is a scoring threat any time she catches the ball."
If those numbers aren't scary enough, Adams said she has improved from last year. She earned a try-out for the 2001 USA Basketball National Team. While she did not make the team, Adams said the experience taught her a lot about herself.
"It was tough; I played against some of the best players that I have ever seen and pretty much in this country," she said. "I got to see what is really out there and just to see that I could stick with them. It gave me a lot of confidence because I know I am not going to come up during the season against too many players like that or even better than they were. So, if I could hang with them, I can hang with pretty much anybody."
But Adams will not have to win games by herself because the Lobos also return two athletic, non-stop hustle guards in senior Molly McKinnon and junior Chelsea Grear. McKinnon averaged 10 points a game last season and led the team in steals with 58. Grear had a break-out performance in the WNIT and will look to increase her level of play after she averaged 6.1 points and 5.6 rebounds per game a season ago.
"Those three are the backbone of the team," Flanagan said. "But other people will fill in and help. Maybe early on they will be the people we go to, but when the newcomers get ingrained into the team, almost everybody will be contributing to the team."
The three players will try to provide leadership to five newcomers, three freshman and two junior college transfers, who add depth and versatility to the Lobos.
UNM has a much welcomed dilemma at the point guard position as three players will be battling for playing time. Stephanie Shaw, Mandi Moore and Brittany Wolfgang, who redshirted last season, give the Lobos three quality guards at the point while last year UNM only had one.
"We have a lot of good outside shooters, with the freshman coming in," Grear said. "We need to utilize our outside shot a lot more now that we have the ability to shoot. Last year we only had one good outside shooter and this year we have several good shooters. We have a good inside game and a good outside game and we need to utilize them."
The frontcourt is young, but athletic and will help provide some help to Adams in the paint. Sophomore forward Melissa Forest returns and will join junior college transfers Daja Adams and Tiffany Scaglione and hometown freshman Lindsey Arndt from Sandia High School.
To try and liven things up offensively, UNM is changing its offensive philosophy to a triangle offense. The offense is predicated on lots of cutting to the basket by the guards and forwards in the post used as passers.
With so many new players and a new offensive system, Flanagan said the team must blend together but is confident the team chemistry is there.
"This may be the team the gets along better than we have ever had," he said.
