The UNM women's basketball team entered the season with a vacant starting point guard position and knew one of three freshman were going to fill it, but the Lobos may have gotten more than expected.
Mandi Moore, a 5-foot, 7-inch true freshman from Canyon, Texas, not only has filled the position, but also has taken it over, emerging as the team's floor general. Moore has started all 16 games and leads the team in minutes played with 32 per game. She is also second on the team in scoring, 3-point shooting and free-throw shooting.
Moore is modest when it comes to discussing her early success.
"I just knew coming in that I had some big shoes to fill, replacing Nikki Heckroth, giving the team a lift and helping be a leader out there because I think the point position is very important," she said.
Moore said the more experienced players that she goes up against every game do not intimidate her.
"In this level of ball, as a freshman you can't play like a freshman," she said. "You have to play like an upperclassman. One of my goals is to step in and make the transition as smoothly as possible."
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Moore said she does this by practicing hard daily and pushing herself and her teammates.
Head coach Don Flanagan says Moore is extremely competitive.
"She is very vocal for a freshman, she's telling everybody what to do," he said. "She likes to be in charge. That's what a point guard is - in charge."
The fact that she is a freshman leading more experienced players may sit uneasy with some, but Flanagan said that her teammates bear no resentment.
"They don't think of her as a freshman anymore," he said. "I think they think of her as a point guard that's talking and leading."
Moore had a solid high school and AAU career that has made her transition into Division I basketball easier. Moore helped compile impressive records at both programs and guided the teams to several championships by the time she moved on to become a Lobo.
"Big time help," Flanagan said, of her high school career. "She is aware of the fundamentals of the game. She understands situations, when to play harder and when to play smarter. She really has a great awareness of the game."
Moore's first season at UNM hasn't been completely frustration-free.
During an ESPN2 nationally televised game against the University of Nevada at Las Vegas in The Pit Jan. 6, Moore shot one-for-10 from the field, including missing all seven of her 3-point attempts in the loss.
She was severely outplayed by a more experienced point guard in the Rebels' Constance Jinks, who scored a game-high 25 points.
Moore says that the game was a learning experience, but that she was not in awe of the situation.
"(Jinks) is a great player and you can't be intimidated," she said. "You don't play as well, you play scared. She's a player you can learn from by playing against her. It was kind of frustrating because our shots were struggling. We just weren't knocking them down and they were hitting their shots, it was just a constant battle. It was mostly a lot of frustration."
Although Moore struggled with her shooting, she says she is more concerned with taking care of the ball.
"At the first of the year, I was averaging some turnovers," she said. "It was a little frustrating to me because I don't like to turn the ball over. Since I have made the goal, I have gotten better at it."
Moore said she is confident about leading UNM to its goals of a Mountain West Conference title and a NCAA Tournament appearance this season.
