April Fool, April Blue -- Lobo Lament

by William Naegele
April fool? You want April fool?

Take the letter of greetings that came into the University if New Mexico women’s basketball office from the sophomore at Marin Catholic High School in San Anselmo, California. She was a young lady of no mean altitude [6-3], named Brooke Smith.

“She said she was really interested in the University of New Mexico,” recalls Flanagan. “And I wrote back, ‘I am really interested in you, Brooke. I’ve seen you play, and I think you’d be a great player here, etc.’ Well, she went on to have a great junior year-- and Duke, Stanford and all the top schools were after her. By the time we could [by NCAA rules] call her, she could care less about the University if New Mexico. It went kind of like this” -- Flanagan picked up the phone and, in his best teenager-blowing-you-off imitation, singsonged -- “‘Uh-huh … uh-huh … yes … well … ummm … thank you very much … see ya.’” Flanagan hung up the receiver [none too gently].

And then there was correspondence from a 5-9 sophomore guard by the name of Mel Thomas from Mount Notre Dame High School [maybe it’s a thing with Catholic schoolgirls] in Cincinnati, Ohio. She not only sent an introductory letter, but also accompanied it with a videotape. She asked Flanagan if he would consider recruiting her. He would.

Guess what? She had a great summer [sound familiar] playing AAU [Amateur Athletic Union] ball -- and a guy named Geno from a college in Connecticut called -- and surprise [not]: Thomas suddenly lost her desire to become a Lobo. [Well. at least she didn’t ask for her videotape back.]

As cruel – and frustrating -- as these episodes may be, they actually indicate how far UNM has come in the world of women’s basketball: it wasn’t that long ago that players of this caliber wouldn’t have known – or cared – that there even was a Lobo program.

When Flanagan took over the UNM program, no one questioned his ability to X-and-O it with the best of ‘em [witness the scorching 401-13 record racked up during his 16 seasons of high school ball in Albuquerque]. But, it was asked, what could Flanagan – or any other high school coach – know about recruiting college players? Well, at first, not a lot. There were the common missteps – mostly trying to see too many players, in too many places for too many reasons. [There were also some uncommon errors – for instance, the year UNM tried to recruit Africa…]

However, Flanagan’s first real recruiting roadblocks had less to do with his lack of experience than it did with the dismal status of the program. Shut down from 1987-88 through 1990-91 for budget reasons, the Lobo program counted an abysmal 14-96 record between its reinstatement and Flanagan’s takeover in 1995-96. The Lobos were the conference [at the time, Western Athletic] doormat and a “sure-win” spot for other schools on their pre-conference schedules.

As a result, when Flanagan knocked on the doors of high school and AAU coaches -- the gatekeepers of Division I college talent -- often he got little or no response. “When I first started, these club [AAU] coaches would barely talk to us because we had no credentials,” Flanagan says.

[Shmoosing AAU coaches is the real key to recruiting for the college coach. Whereas a high school coach may have a single great player in one particular year, the AAU coach has access to 10 Division I players every year.]

Flanagan began to earn those credentials by doing what he does best: winning. His first season [1995-96] was, by the numbers, a losing one [his one and only], at 14-15. But the season was by no means a loss for UNM.

That year the WAC provided Flanagan with a stage on which to do his thing: it held the conference tournament in the Pit [another one-and-only occurrence]. When the Lobos showed up to play, they brought with them more than 10,000 fans. Now this was a program that the year before had sold a total of eight season tickets – with four of them bought by the college president. To say the turnout was stunner is a mild understatement.

The Lobos then responded to one stunner with another: they drew 10,000 for a second game - a game that saw the lowly Lobos knock off perennial conference power Utah.

[In a press conference that followed his hiring, Flanagan promised, “one day 10,000 will watch the women’s game.” The sports writers snickered. So much for sports writers.]

The Hollywood ending – in which the Lobos win the conference tournament and go to the NCAAs in Flanagan’s first year – was spoiled by a Colorado State team fielding a frosh shooting guard by the name of Becky Hammon.

Under Flanagan’s continuing tutelage, the Lobos have [1] averaged 20 wins a season, [2] become a perennial contender for the conference title, [3] made trips to the NCAA tourney an expected post-season occurrence, and [4] this past year put UNM in the Top 25 for the span of the season. [And ESPN’s Mechelle Voepel has picked the Lobos to show up #20 in the 2006-2007 preseason polls.]

Attendance was one factor in Flanagan’s favor from the beginning: crowds of 10,000+ are heady stuff for a kid who may have heretofore played for the most part only in front of friends and family. The other, a clear vision of player he wanted: Flanagan has disputed claims he doesn’t go after the most skilled and athletic players possible, but he also has acknowledged he does look for good SAT scores [along with matching classroom effort], a “go get ‘em” attitude about life, and an ability to fit in and function as “team.” The way he puts it, “We like to recruit the whole kid.”

But, just as attendance and Flanagan’s clear vision has been a UNM benefit; the school’s location -- far from the glare of traditional media and outside the boundaries of what were considered the major women’s basketball conferences -- has been a downer. Albuquerque may be 5,000 feet above sea level, but the Lobos have found that recruiting blue-chip players – especially at the national level -- to be strictly an uphill battle.

Even after Flanagan managed to get the attention of some high school and AAU coaches, and UNM started to beat the bushes for recruits in the Northwest, California and Texas – the nearest areas with significant pools of talent – it was almost like those 19th Century missionaries setting sail to the far-flung corners of the earth. Most recruits couldn’t find New Mexico without a map [and help from their geography teacher] – and it was even tougher when a Lobo coach ventured east of the Mississippi River. [“New Mexico, huh? They speak English there, right? Do you need a visa?”]

Of late, the location bugaboo has lessened. The increased national interest in women’s basketball -- a tribute to both the popularity of the sport and the legal demands of Title IX -- has resulted in increased exposure the sport through newer technologies such as cable/dish television and the internet, which, in turn, has brought more programs to the public eye. This phenomenon, coupled with the Lobos’ winning records and the awesome crowds, has put the Lobos in the hunt for bigger game.

No, UNM hasn’t yet bagged The-Player-Who-Changed-Everything yet [a la Courtney Paris], but the doors are opening. For instance Flanagan and Chief Assistant Yvonne Sanchez made a home visit with Charde Houston [who also was convinced to attend that college in Connecticut – although she was recently at odds with aforementioned Geno in the wake of the NCAA tourney]. Flanagan and staff also got up close with one Jhasmine Player, who, alas decided to go to Baylor, where she became part of the Bear team that booted the Lobos from this year’s NCAA dance.

“There are kids who are playing at a high, high level that we’ve gotten in the door with,” Flanagan says. “We haven’t signed ‘em yet, but we’ve been there. There are kids we are not going to be able to get, but we’ve opened a lot more doors now, and we’re in a lot more houses now.”

Which brings us back to April.

For Lobo fans, April is not so much “April fool” as it is “April blue.” April is the “good-bye” month: it’s “good-bye” to the season, it’s “good-by” to the Pit, and it’s “good-bye” to the seniors. While one final event of the season is held in April: it’s the [long sold out] basketball banquet – which is really nothing more than a whole evening of a 1,000+ fans offering their final [and often tearful] “good-byes.” Even worse, it marks those long, dark [figuratively speaking], interminable summer months that lay between fans and the 2006-2007 season.

But let it be known, April is not Flanagan’s favorite month, either. “It’s not my most fun time, but it’s the most critical time.” While fans are moping about in contemplation of the dreary wait until next season, Flanagan and his crew [like coaches around the nation] are already hip deep in the recruiting wars. A week before Flanagan left for the “Fear the Turtle” Final Four, he was entertaining a recruit on campus.

For coaches and players, April is, in fact, the “hello” month. But, unlike “good-bye,” which is almost universally means sad, “hello” does not always mean happy -- at least in the dictionary of Division I college sports. That’s because in this dictionary, “hello” is spelled “r-e-c-r-u-i-t-i-n-g.” Thus a “hello” is not really a “hello” until it is signed, sealed and faxed. [As demonstrated in tales of Ms. Smith and Ms. Thomas.]

April is particularly critical month this year because the NCAA has made it the time during which coaches can first call high school recruits who have just completed their junior season. Until this first call, the recruit is hardly more than a name, a compilation of stats, a stack of correspondence – and maybe a videotape. And, in the end, all this stuff may mean nothing. [Need I bore you with another reminder of Ms. Smith and Ms. Thomas?] It’s when the coach makes that first call that things start to become up-close and personal – or not.

April marks the period in the recruiting process when basketball turns hardball [or maybe harder ball -- these days college women’s basketball has become what the men’s basketball has been for some time: a 24/7/52 business]. “Women’s basketball wasn’t anywhere near as intense or sophisticated as it is now,” Flanagan recalls his days as a high school coach [when he didn’t even have a phone in his office -- and this was BCP: Before Cell Phones]. “Women’s basketball has become a big product, a revenue-bearing product. It’s completely changed from 20 years ago.” [At little ol’ UNM, the women’s basketball program brings in more than $1 million.] And big money brings big pressures.

“This is the most important time for me, because a lot of these kids I haven’t really seen,” Flanagan says. “ In April there are a lot of [AAU] tournaments and we will go around and see them play. I’ll kind of prioritize so we’ll have a group of players from each position that we think can help our program. So, I’ll say, ‘Look, I really like this kid big time,’ and we’ll go after her.”

The decision to “go after’ a recruit is based on many things beyond the player herself. Take the matter of who else is going after her...

“What we have to do first of all is be honest with ourselves,” says Flanagan. “Who are we competing against? What are our chances? We don’t want to put our resources, energy and time into a kid that probably is just going to blow us off as the process goes on -- but we have to take a chance with that kid if she is someone who can impact the program. That’s why it’s so difficult.”

Schools with more money [palatial athletic facilities, lavish dorms, chartered jets, etc.] and more history continue to be tough for UNM. Take Notre Dame… “Even though Notre Dame has not had a great year, they’ve owned a national championship -- and look at their history,” Flanagan says. “If a kid comes back to her high school and says, ‘I have a choice between New Mexico and Notre Dame…’ we’re probably not going to win that one. We just have to be realistic sometimes.”

Speaking of reality, the Lobo program was hit with a dose of it this past season in the form of injuries – nothing so dramatic as torn ACLs, but rather a nagging series of strains, sprains and bruises. They were enough to knock players temporarily out of the lineup and to keep others playing at 80% or 90% on a team that needs everyone functioning at 100%. As a result finding back-up players with abilities of a starter is a priority this year.

“We had 10 basically injury-free years, and then we had one year of injury after injury, player after player,” Flanagan reports. “It was a Band-Aid year: Band-Aid this and throw ‘em back on the floor. Then someone else would come off and need a Band-Aid – and, in some cases, a lot more than a Band-Aid.”

Flanagan says that neither the program nor the conditioning for the program was run any differently. “In fact, it was less intense: I had to back off everything in the last month [due to the injuries] – and that hurt us a bit in our intensity and focus.”

The injury-plagued season also has Flanagan looking hard at his recruiting strategy.

“We need another point guard. We have Amy [Beggin, 5-7, Roseville Area High School, Roseville, MN] coming in. I have a lot of respect for Amy, and I think Amy is going to play right away. I don’t want to put all that pressure on her, but I think she has a Mandi [Moore, the tough and talented former Lobo point guard] mentality. If she can’t play right away, she’ll learn quickly and she’ll play soon. But we need to back her up because Katie [Montgomery] will be leaving [after this year],” says Flanagan.

The point guard position is – and always has been – Flanagan’s biggest concern.

“The point guard spot has been a disappointment – not because we haven’t had great point guards, but because we’ve lost point guards.” [There was Kristy Loiselle, lost to homesickness; Brittany Wolfgang, whose career ended almost before it started due to an arthritic knee; and Stephanie Shaw, who refused to play backup for Moore.]

“Point guards are so important, so that’s what we are focusing on now. I think Amy will do a great job, but, as we’ve seen this year with the injuries, you just can’t do it with one point guard,” says Flanagan. “If you have only one point guard, and she gets injured, or develops a chronic problems – or doesn’t like to share time – you now are bringing the ball up with the two or three guard.”

“Next, we have two post players leaving [seniors-to-be Timi E-Nunu and Wande Olude]. We’ve one coming in [Valerie Kast, 6-6, Gallup High School, Gallup NM], so we need another post.

Another final spot that needs filling – in a big way -- is the vacancy that will be created by the departure of Julie Briody [6-0 senior-to-be guard].

“We need to get a guard, a point and a post.”

As of signing day, one position was filled with the signature of 6-1 Christian Shelter of Mobile, Alabama. Shelter was named to the, “The Birmingham News 2006 Girls Super All-State Basketball Team,” and was named MVP of the AISA Class 3A state tournament.

One down -- and ??? many to go.

For fans, April may mark the beginning of the never-ending wait for next season. But for coaches, April is just another month in the never-ending season.

Author William Naegele is a regular contributor to Wolf-Bytes.Net. Another version of this article appeared first on the Wolf-Bytes.Net website.