Putting the Best to the test this year

By nature of her name, Amanda Best is best known for the big, red glasses she flaunts in her UNM women’s basketball team mug shot.
One could say it’s kind of her trademark.

When asked at Tuesday’s Lobo women’s basketball media day why she wasn’t wearing her big, red glasses, Best confessed her negligence.
“I forgot them,” she said.

Around the Rudy Davalos basketball facility, Best is known for her humor. The senior, who replaces Amy Beggin, will share time with Sara Halasz at point guard this season.

While junior Nikki Nelson was set to be the Lobos’ point guard, she tore here anterior cruciate ligament earlier this month and is out indefinitely.

So it’s Best’s time to shine, and she said she will have to be one of UNM’s leaders in 2010-11.
“We really need to build team chemistry this year,” Best said. “And I think it’s something that’s been lacking in the past. It’s something that we really need to bring the success back to what it was before.”

Best is coming off of her best season with UNM where she had the most impact in games on the defensive side of the ball.
Even with a young team consisting of 10 freshmen and sophomores, Best said preseason workouts have been grueling and camp is wide open for players to fill starting positions or create roles for themselves.

“I think this team is just so together,” Best said. “We’re all competing and every day in practice it’s people going at each other. So, you have to bring your intensity up and be ready to every single second, because people want to play.”
And if that’s the case, the older players on the Lobos can’t take a moment off in practice.

Head coach Don Flanagan said he sees a lot of fight in his team so far, whether it’s in a newcomer or a veteran.
“Because of the young players that are very competitive with the older players, the older (players) can’t take a break, realizing that floor time is involved,” he said.

Best realizes this better than anybody. She is one of only three players  alongside Porche Torrance and Kielpinski  who has played in the NCAA tournament.
“We played in it when we were freshmen,” Best said. “A lot of people don’t know what it’s like to play. It’s such a different feeling and it’s so excited. It was held (in The Pit). The fans were crazy, and it was just an awesome time. So I want to get everybody to experience that, and I think that the younger players experience that, they will want to get back to playing there every year.”
Even better, they’ll have Best, glasses and all, to laugh with throughout the season.