Old rivals face new battle
By Brent Yarina
Assistant Sports Editor

Freshmen point guards Natasha Lacy and Adrianne Ross enter their eighth year of playing basketball together this season, but this is the first time they will wear the same uniform.

For the past seven years, the two players have competed against each other on the basketball courts of New Mexico. Now, as teammates on the Lady Frogs 2003-04 basketball team, the two freshmen look forward to embarking on a different kind of competition.

This season, Lacy and Ross are competing for the Lady Frogs’ starting point guard position.

“We are happy that we don’t have to play against each other anymore,” Lacy said. “This will be a nice change, and it will be a lot of fun to play on the same team.”

Head coach Jeff Mittie said Lacy and Ross are perfect fits for the Lady Frogs’ playing style. He said both point guards bring great speed to the position, allowing the team to get out and run and be a transition team.

“Both of them love the battle,” Mittie said. “They both want to get a lot better and are great to work with as a coach.”

Senior guard Ebony Shaw said Lacy and Ross are two of the most talented and impressive freshmen in Conference USA this season.

“They’re great,” Shaw said. “Those are two of the best freshmen I have ever seen. They’re gonna be really, really good.”

Ross said she is confident she or Lacy will succeed as the team’s starting point guard this season because they are both from high school programs where they ran similar offenses to TCU’s.

“Both of us come from programs where we push the ball and that’s what Coach Mittie likes,” Ross said. “Now, we have to learn to push the ball and be smart at the same time.”

Mittie said regardless of who wins the battle for the starting point guard position, both Lacy and Ross will be on the court together at the same time. He said Lacy is a powerful player and Ross is more of a slasher, so the two need to be on the court together to complement one another’s playing style.

“They will both get minutes because they are ready to play,” Mittie said. “Both will get experience at both the 1 (point guard) and the 2 (shooting guard) positions throughout the season.”

Junior forward Sandora Irvin, who is the Lady Frogs all-time leader in blocks, said she cannot wait to play with Lacy and Ross this season because they will make her job easier.

“I can’t wait, because, I mean, they can shoot,” Irvin said. “I feel like it’s gonna take a lot of pressure off of me because when they double team me, I can kick it out to one of the freshmen and they can hit the 3.”

Mittie said the two freshmen point guards posses great basketball instincts and court vision. He said they have made great improvements from the first couple days of practice but that they need to continue to work on their decision-making skills and court leadership.

“They must work on passing,” he said. “They could get away with it last year, but not at this level.”

Lacy said the hardest transition from high school to collegiate basketball has been the rigors of a Lady Frogs’ practice.

“The practices at this level are harder and a lot more intense than they were in high school,” she said.

Mittie said the biggest challenge Ross and Lacy will face during their freshman campaign will be getting used to the tempo and physical nature of practice and a collegiate basketball season. He said the freshmen will have to become accustom to playing two games back to back or two games in three nights.

“There is a big learning curve for the freshman here, and they’re relying heavily on the seniors to speed that along,” Mittie said. “I think the young players progress will be sped along because they’re getting good examples, and they have good role models on how to work every day in practice. They just have to live in the present and not dwell on the past or look too far ahead.”

Ross, however, cannot help but look forward to her first season as a Lady Frog and the great challenges that await her.

“I get a little adrenaline rush thinking about it,” Ross said. “The challenge is what I like. It’s one thing that shows off my characteristics, being able to face the challenge and if you can do that, all will go well.”