Surely the women's basketball coaches of the Mountain West Conference were joking when they voted for the regular-season conference honors Monday.
UNM had a late season surge to catch Utah and tie for the title with a young, inexperienced team. The 12-2 MWC record the Lobos fought their way to had a lot to do with the scrappiness, determination and poise that UNM grew into as the season progressed - all traits that their head coach Don Flanagan instills in them. But the bottom line in sports is that players win championships. However, for Flanagan to be snubbed by the rest of the conference coaches is joke. He only put on perhaps his best showing as a coach this year in an already impressive career. There is no reason he should not have been named MWC Coach of the Year. Instead, the honor went to Wyoming's Joe Legerski, who coached the Cowgirls to a 10-17 record overall, 6-8 in the MWC. Umm, 20-7 vs. 10-17? Twelve conference wins against six? Something is wrong based on just statistics alone.
But even so, the coaching job Flanagan did this year was about more than wins and losses. The Lobos had high expectations to live up to this year after winning the MWC tournament and making the Sweet 16 of the NCAAs last year. They had to deal with the departure of five lettermen, three of which were starters, and one, Jordan Adams, who graduated to the WNBA. Flanagan's job of mixing in seven newcomers to the squad, including five freshmen, to find just the right chemistry was never easy. To find that magical formula, Flanagan had to mix and match starting lineups, throwing a new starting five at foes in nearly every game.
Additionally, the Lobos lead the nation in scoring defense, which all comes down to the crafty coaching of Flanagan. Over the season, UNM has used a man-to-man defense, a zone, full-court press and a box-and-one to stifle opposing offenses. And its offense has evolved as well, sometimes running a motion offense and other times running a triangle. What are most impressive, though, might be the intangibles.
As evidenced Saturday at The Pit, the Lobos just have that gritty, refuse-to-lose attitude. They improvise, they adapt and more times than not, they come out on top. If that's not coaching, I'm not sure what is.
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