Anybody Else Up For Some Cherry Donuts?

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This early in the practice season, however, Don Flanagan and his staff are too busy kneading the raw dough that will be their 2009-2010 squad -- so they will have something to put around that troublesome hole.

"I don't care how much they work in the summertime, when I get them back here they cannot beat my drills" says the UNM coach. [He did have to immediately amend that statement, however: "The only one who could beat them was Amy (Beggin, 5-6 senior guard), and she had done nothing for a month."]

For those playing the chefs, these early weeks of the program are somewhat tedious and messy, but for those serving as the dough it is quite something else.

No one in the musical world would link the 1950s show tune "Getting to Know You" with the 1970s jazz/rock group "Blood, Sweat and Tears."

On the other hand, freshmen members of the University of New Mexico women's basketball team are finding that these two phrases can be inextricably linked.

During the past couple of weeks, they have received their first taste of Don Flanagan's view of what a Division I basketball player should be all about. For returning players, "getting to know you" may not be as applicable, but the "blood, sweat and tears" part certainly is. And, for the players, one might add, "You ain't seen nothin' yet" because, until mid October, Flanagan can only work with players a total of two hours a week.

[One could speculate not all the tears were those of the players - no doubt a few were shed by the coaching staff as it first went mano-a-mano with the raw material for the 2009-2010 season.]

Until this past week, coaching efforts have targeted individual fundamental skills for two reasons: [1] NCAA rules forbade more than four players taking part in practice at one time, and [2] that's where the early effort needs to be concentrated. "Right now, it's all individual," Flanagan said of the first weeks of practices.

Assessment of the player skill levels and attitudes - especially those of the freshmen - is also a key goal. "The two most important things now I am looking at are attitude and effort. Can they sustain effort? What kind of attitude do they have when they come in? By attitude I mean are they ready to work? Are they [the freshmen] positive about this giant step they have just made into the college game? Are they prepared for that?"

Aaron Day, strength and conditioning coach, during the summer session described this freshman class as "the most athletic" he had seen.

Flanagan was a bit more circumspect.

"This isn't the best conditioned group of freshmen I've ever had, but I see a little athleticism in them, a little speed in them. As to their knowledge of the game…I don't know. Now they are just trying to pick up the fundamentals, and I think they are doing that adequately. There are a couple of them who are showing they can contribute, and there are others who are still in transition [from the high school to the college game]."

Time constraints have turned the floor in the Rudy Davalos Basketball Center into a pressure cooker.

"I push 'em," Flanagan admits. "Now I have only a half-hour a day, four days a week. There is not a lot of standing around. With some of them the transition is difficult - just the non-stop of one thing after another, after another, after another is kind of different for them.

"But what I am trying to do is prepare them for the college game - as opposed to the high school where you have many moments of rest. The only time you are resting in the college game is when you are on the bench - and that's not a good place to be. So I am just getting them accustomed to what they are going to get during the season."

Last Wednesday was the first day NCAA rules allowed full-squad practices, albeit with the same 2 hour per week time limitation. "I don't know that I will put them together every day, because I like the individual work out right now. I think it is very, very important."

All-out practice begins mid-October, but development can't just mark time until then, Flanagan says.

"From then on, there is very little preparation time - you almost have to have your team halfway ready by the time you start the [full] practice season: you have just two weeks after that before you start playing games.

"By October 15th or 16th - whatever it is - the team has to be conditioned; they have to understand a little bit about the offense, a little bit about the defense - whatever you can pack into those two hours a week."

"What I know right now is that their work ethic has been very good - and that is one of the more important things of all. For the most part - for the most part - the kids who returned came back in great shape. Injury-wise we have recovered from a log of nagging injuries. That's encouraging. Skill-wise, the returning players are just getting back to the level I want them to be at."

Both numerous and experienced, the players filling the one to the four positions are the tasty part of the Lobo doughnut.

"The lack of depth hurt us with Kansas in the WNIT with the lack of time between games. We were only playing seven or eight people. And Amy had a torn ligament that no one knew about.

"I think with the experience we have this year -- the people like Lauren Taylor [6-0 sophomore guard]; like Amanda Best [6-0 junior guard-forward]; Eileen [Weissmann, 6-0 senior guard-forward]; like Sara [Halasz, 5-11 sophomore guard]…Sara's put on 20 pounds, she's stronger and fitter; like Georonika [Jackson, 5-11 sophomore guard]; like Jess [Kielpinski, 6-1 junior forward] who has worked hard from her freshman year -- I can go to the bench without dropping to a very low level…" [here comes the qualifier] "…on the perimeter, anyway."

"The five [center] is the big question mark," Flanagan says. "Our main problem is filling in for Angel Hartill. That's the position where we are going to have to hope that we get the level of play we need to get. Angela averaged 12 points game, and, importantly, she also was a physical presence and an experienced starter for three years. And she always defended the toughest kid - and that's an area in which we are going to have some problems unless we can get somebody who can defend."

Kielpinski and Valerie Kast [6-5 senior center] have both played serious minutes at the five position, but neither have established themselves at center -- and both Ks have struggled with conditioning problems [although each looked pretty svelte at the early practice sessions].

Flanagan will no doubt try to see if he can get some minutes out of Emily Stark [6-5 freshman center]. This is the only position at which Flanagan really would like to be surprised with some quality frosh minutes.

Flanagan also says that, despite the construction going on at the Pit, he still hopes to hold at least one intra-squad scrimmage for fans this year -- on the floor of the Davalos Center.

"I am going to try and still have an intra-squad scrimmage, and have it in here [the Davalos Center]," says Flanagan. When the people come in, we will put them on the side. "I think it is important for our kids and also for our fans to have an opportunity to see them play."

Not having the Pit available for practice has not in any way crimped pre-season preparations, Flanagan insists.

"Right now, it's not affecting us at all. Steve [Alford. UNM men's basketball coach] and I have both our kids going; we're not bumping into each other or anything. Without this facility, it wouldn't be possible [practice with the construction going on], I like it. He likes it.

"I would much prefer to practice here than there [the Pit] anytime. I like people moving and baskets: in the Pit you only have two baskets and not much room on the sidelines. It is not a good place to practice and never has been."

The Davalos Center has a court with six baskets, and sideline room equal to the square footage of a second court.

"The only potential problem is with the background - and last year we didn't have any problem with that," said Flanagan. Occasionally the team was forced to forego regular Pit practices due to scheduling constraints. "On the day before of the game, we would go over there [the Pit] and shoot baskets for an hour and that was sufficient."

Flanagan says the preseason WNIT tourney game [or, hopefully, games] will be held in the Pit, as will be the preseason exhibition games.

One interesting preseason event on which the construction has no effect is the "practice" the Lobos will have at Arizona State against that national power. Flanagan specifically did not call it a "scrimmage." He says, "It's just two teams practicing together." Flanagan also would not reveal details of just how the event came to be. Time and date of the "practice" have not yet been set, says Flanagan. He did hint of a "home-and-home" possibility: "I hope we can hold it her next year,"

One real regret Flanagan does have about the construction is the canceling of 2010 NCCA tournament play in the Pit.

"The disappointing thing is we told the recruits we were going to have the NCAAs here, and then, all of a sudden, we're not. I want to go back and apply for it in the future - and really stay on it."