The reward the UNM women's basketball team inherits for earning its second NCAA Tournament berth in the program's 24-year history is a shot at defending national champion University of Notre Dame.
The Lobos (22-8) will get the first chance to dethrone the champs Friday in the first round of the Midwest region in the Thomson-Boling Arena on the campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.
Although it might sound like a tall order for 10th-seeded UNM, the seventh-seeded Fighting Irish (19-9) lost their three best players from last year to the WNBA. But Notre Dame is similar to the Lobos because it has a myriad of talented young players.
"They have athletic kids and good size," UNM head coach Don Flanagan said. "They have blue-collar kids that work hard and have quick guards that put pressure on you. They are a good team."
The Irish have only one senior and six freshmen, a class that was ranked in the top five in the country by several recruiting services. Five of the freshman average 11 or more minutes.
The inexperience carries over to the Lobos side, with none of the 12 players on the roster having played in the NCAA Tournament.
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"I think there might be a little bit of nerves coming in; this is a huge game for us," freshman forward Lindsey Arndt said. "We have never been in this position before, but I know that we are very excited to be here so we have to play hard."
But the similarities do not stop there between the two teams.
- They both finished in second place in their respective conferences, with UNM 10-4 in the Mountain West and the Irish 13-3 in the Big East, but. completed disappointing conference tournaments with early exits.
- The Lobos and Notre Dame are ranked in the top 15 in the nation in scoring defense and field goal defense. UNM is allowing 56 points a game at a 35.4 percent clip, while the Irish gives up 57.1 points at 34.5 percent shooting.
- Both teams carry the conference newcomer of the year, the Lobos' Mandi Moore and Notre Dame's Jacqueline Batteast.
- UNM's Jordan Adams and Amanda Barksdale of the Irish are two of the nation's premier shot blockers. Adams is fifth in the country, swatting away 3.03 shots a game while Barksdale is fourth at a 3.08 clip.
While both teams are similar, Flanagan said he thinks Notre Dame plays much like Mountain West foe Brigham Young University, who the Lobos beat two of three times this season.
He said the Irish are a physical team that has a lot of size, with seven players above six feet tall, and have an explosive scorer in guard Alicia Ratay. She leads the team in scoring at 15.7 per game.
"We might have to go big a little bit just because they are so big," Flanagan said. "We are going to try anything we can to matchup and see if we can't nullify some of their strengths."
Ratay is helped out by the 6-foot, 1-inch Batteast, who is the only other Irish player in double figures with 14.2 per game.
Arndt will get the assignment of trying to stop Batteast, a player Flanagan calls a big time talent. But Arndt is looking forward to the battle.
"I like having that challenge and I am excited to matchup against her," Arndt said. "That is my complete focus in the game, is to shutdown my player, so I am excited to play a good player. I like playing good players because it makes me play better."
UNM will also have to step up its game on offense because the Lobos had difficulty scoring in the MWC Tournament last week and have been streaky offensively all season.
"We got to have poise and confidence in our offense and just finish some shots," Flanagan said. "We're getting good looks, we are just not finishing them."
The offensive scheme usually runs through Adams, who leads the Lobos in scoring with 14.2 points a game. She was chosen as a finalist in District Seven for the Women's Basketball Coaches Association 2002 Division I Kodak Women's All-America Basketball Team. The winner will be announced March 28. All nominees are given All-America Honorable Mention honors whether they're chosen for the final team or not.
While Adams is a key component for UNM, Flanagan said the Lobos also must outhustle the Irish.
"Playing hard is the key for us, I think," he said. "I just don't want to have somebody play harder than us. And they're a blue-collar team and they're a team that could play harder than us."
The Lobos and Notre Dame have two common opponents, the University of Arizona and Colorado State University. UNM beat Arizona and split with CSU, while the Irish lost to both opponents early in the year.
UNM's only other tournament appearance was in 1998 after the Lobos won the Western Athletic Conference Tournament Championship. They lost in the first round to the University of Nebraska 76-59. The Irish are making their seventh-straight appearance.
Arndt said she believes that Notre Dame is taking the Lobos lightly because they are not a well-known program and are from the West. But she added that UNM is out to prove it can play with the East Coast teams.
"They are in for a big surprise," she said. "I think they are completely overlooking us and that is good because maybe they have big heads and we will come into the game and surprise them."
Game time is set for 4 p.m. and will be televised by KRQE-Channel 13 and radio broadcast by 610-AM, The Sports Animal.
