Humble shooters
Three Lady Frogs nearing 1,000-point career mark, still keeping team first
By Brent Yarina
Assistant Sports Editor

Only five players have eclipsed the 1,000- point mark for their career in the history of Lady Frogs’ basketball.

The TCU record books may need to make room for a few more names during the 2003-04 season, as junior forward Sandora Irvin, senior guard Ebony Shaw and senior forward Tiffany Evans are on the verge of accomplishing the feat this year.

Personal accolades mean nothing to these Lady Frogs though. They care more about getting TCU past the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

In fact, they are too busy worrying about the team to even realize they are approaching uncharted territory.

“Who, me?” Irvin said, in response to reaching the 1,000-point mark for her career. “Who else is there? My mind is on blocks and rebounds, not scoring.”

Evans had a similar reaction to the news of approaching the milestone.

“It’s amazing to hear that,” Evans said. “That’s really cool. I think it’s a really good thing to look ahead to, but right now, I’m more focused on the team.”

Shaw, the Lady Frogs’ second leading returning scorer, said the players cannot worry about individual statistics if they hope to avoid a slow start this year. She said they must enter the season focused and mentally prepared.

“We’re just focusing on us right now as a team, getting better at what we do,” Shaw said. “We got to get mentally ready all the time and work hard at practice. We have to focus on keeping it within the team on the court.”

Evans said head coach Jeff Mittie has instilled a team philosophy into the Lady Frogs’ players through his annual “pyramid” of goals. Although this year’s team has yet to address the pyramid, she said it helps players realize they are playing for each other and not themselves.

Evans said the base of the pyramid consists of being a trustworthy and reliable teammate and that the apex of the pyramid is the team’s ultimate goal: an NCAA Championship.

“You can’t get to the top unless you go through the base first and every player needs to understand that,” she said. “Right now, our focus is on performing in the present, not looking too far in the future and never looking in the past.”

Mittie said despite Irvin, Shaw and Evans approaching career milestones, the key to this season and getting past the second round of the NCAA Tournament will be getting the Lady Frogs to play together as a team.

And what are Mittie’s preseason feelings about his team’s chances of meeting his expectations this season?

“Everything is great in Frogland right now, and it’s another day in paradise,” he said.