The freshmen for the UNM women's basketball team played an integral role in helping the Lobos reach the NCAA Tournament, but one has decided to leave.
Citing a desire to be closer to home, Stephanie Shaw, a 5-foot-8-inch guard from Plainview, Texas, is leaving the program.
Head coach Don Flanagan said he believes lack of playing time is a major reason Shaw left.
"I don't care what anyone says, playing time is always a factor," he said. "Personally, if freshmen play half the game, that is pretty darn good."
Shaw was the back up point guard, playing 16.7 minutes per game, averaging 2.9 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. She came off the bench to supply stingy defense, playing in all 31 games this season.
"We are going to miss her," Flanagan said. "She is a very good defensive player and has a lot of tenacity."
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Coming into the season, the starting point guard position was up for grabs, and two freshmen - Shaw and Mandi Moore - battled for the position. But it ended up not being much of a contest, with Moore quickly earning the position and never relinquishing it.
"I thought there was a lot of potential with the players competing against each other," Flanagan said. "But I never envisioned one player running away and having such a great year."
He said he is not surprised Shaw decided to leave, considering that Moore, who won the Mountain West Conference Newcomer of the Year award, is entrenched in the starting point guard position and that Shaw wanted to compete for the job.
Vying for a shooting guard spot was not a possibility for Shaw, who averaged 25 percent shooting from the field this season.
Although former men's basketball coach Fran Fraschilla had a much more publicized problem with nine players who left the program, Flanagan is also having difficulty keeping players.
Shaw's departure pushes the total to 10 players who left during the past four seasons, including three this year.
But many of the players left within their freshman year, citing homesickness. Last year's incoming freshmen, Kirbi Wilson and Kirby Killingsworth, decided to leave before the season.
"It is discouraging, almost uncontrollable, because players don't know if they are going to be able to handle being in a different place," Flanagan said. "You can't guard against that, they just have to figure out if they will get homesick."
He added that usually around 90 percent of freshmen get homesick, but most of them get over it.
Several of the other players that left complained that they saw limited action in games.
"You have 15 players on a team and five are going to be unhappy because they want more playing time," Flanagan said.
The departure leaves a hole behind Moore, with red-shirt freshman and oft-injured guard Brittany Wolfgang as the only choice to become the second-string point guard.
"It hurts the position; I don't want Mandi playing 40 minutes," Flanagan said. "Now it is very important that Brittany gets healthy."
Wolfgang has been hampered with a variety of ailments that have kept her from playing the past two seasons, only getting off the bench to play in eight games for 23 minutes this year.
Flanagan said this spring he is going to pursue putting Wolfgang in a strict conditioning regimen to see how her body reacts.
"Brittany is capable, she had an outstanding high school career," he said. "If she can stay healthy, that gives us another point guard."
With two scholarships remaining, Flanagan said he will look for guards on the recruiting trail, but added that he will not bypass a talented post player.
