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 Fans
who watched the University of New Mexico women's basketball exhibition
game this past week, not only saw a 100-52 thumping of Eastern New Mexico,
they also witnessed the birth of a Lobo.
During her first foray out onto the floor of University Arena, #42 looked exactly like you would expect a freshman walk-on to look: tentative and wary, in full deer-in-the-headlights mode. On her second trip out, however, a complete transformation had taken place: the frightened deer was gone, replaced by a ferocious Lobo. Driving to the basket with authority, #42 hit three of her first five shots as a college player. When her drives didn't result in scores, they resulted in fouls. And then it became apparent not only was she now a Lobo, she was a Lobo with ice water in her veins: at the free-throw line, she calmly dropped in six-of-six. It had been a long journey from hoops on the floor of that old barn in Reserve, N.M., [Pop. 387] to hoops on the floor of the Pit [Pop. 6,650 for the Eastern game], and was not without its miscues, but Jordan Unverzagt [un-VER-zat] finally had arrived - and she had done so with authority [and in double figures]. Unverzagt's ability to adjust so quickly is pleasant - but hardly a surprise -- for University of New Mexico women's basketball Coach Don Flanagan. As far he is concerned "adjust" is Unverzagt's middle name.
A key factor in Flanagan's heaping praise on the 6-2 center is one particular adjustment she made: her shot. If allowed, Flanagan will go on forever about how many players come to his program with an execrable shot - and not be able to change it. He will tell of struggling with players for all their four years at UNM, and still not be able to instill a good shooting form. Unverzagt had changed hers completely [and satisfactorily] by the time the opening jump ball went up for the Eastern game. "She changed her shot immediately," Flanagan said. [Like many kids out of high school, Unverzagt began her shot too low, where, at the college level, it can be blocked or picked easily.] "That's hard to do after you've been playing the game for a long time, and then someone says, 'Hey, you can't shoot that shot at this level!' All of a sudden you have to shoot a different shot, plus lift weights, plus get stronger, plus compete against Val [Valerie Kast, 6-6 senior center]. "We are fortunate, I think, because there's no difference between her and a scholarship freshman. She's holding her own as a post player out there against our scholarship players. Now, she'll get better, too, because she's never worked this hard before - of course, none of [the freshmen] have. Her strength is going to come up; her skills have already improved." Unverzagt admits she first gravitated toward basketball because of her height - and also because there was not much else available in Reserve. "The population was like maybe 300 and there weren't any youth leagues." There were only nine students in her entire grade level. "My step dad [Mark Unverzagt] got me into it, because he played in college. She and her stepfather would shoot hoops in the barn, with her younger brother shagging rebounds. But it was Flanagan's Sweet Sixteen Lobo team that ignited Unverzagt's burning interest in the game - so maybe it's only poetic justice that she ended up wearing the Cherry-and-Silver. "Then we started going to Lady Lobo games, and that really got me interested in it. I really looked up to Jordan Adams and Lindsay Arndt [Day].
"Yeah, in my sophomore year of high school, I thought, uh, I don't want to play basketball in college -- so every coach or team that would talk to me I would just put it off -- I was like being really lazy. I kind'a screwed that up for myself: in my junior and senior year, I really wanted to play…I had closed off all my options," she says. "I had a few more [coaches] talking to me, but there wasn't really anything I wanted. Towards the end of my senior year, I got a couple of offers;" [Unverzagt cited Northern Arizona University as one] "but nowhere where I could see myself. I didn't really want to go anywhere smaller than Albuquerque." Flanagan had seen her play two summers ago, and was impressed, but… "I thought she was somebody who could be a good player, and then someone told me she wanted to be a volleyball player - and that was it." This thus far star-crossed relationship between coach and player was resolved at a high school game last year. "St. Pius was playing Sandia, and [Flanagan] was at the game watching Ebony Walker," says Unverzagt. "I was guarding her and I guess I had a good night." Flanagan recalls, "I saw her play…when I was recruiting somebody else…I thought she did some good things…she played hard…she ran the floor well...she was the right size…and nobody was recruiting her." So there was Unverzagt, a scholarship-level post player who was determined to play even without a scholarship, and there was Flanagan, a coach in need of support of a scholarship player at the post position but with no scholarship. That, folks, is kismet… During
an unofficial campus visit after a Lobo game last season, Unverzagt
met with Flanagan and a deal was struck.
Flanagan, who does not make a practice of asking players to walk on, made an exception in Unverzagt's case. "I wanted to give her a chance to see if she could play at this level. I just said, "Look, being a walk-on is not the best position to be in…but we have walk-on opportunities here, and I told her this would be a good year for a post to be a walk-on because we didn't have a lot of good posts. And, so far, she's taken good advantage of it." Flanagan said he always makes it clear to all walk-ons that being a walk-on is not a step to playing time or to a scholarship. Currently, UNM has no scholarships available for this season or next. In addition to helping St. Pius win back-to-back state championships, being Second-Team All-State in basketball and lettering in volleyball, Unverzagt was a member of the National Honor Society, the All-Metro scholastic team and St. Pius Scholar Athlete of the Year. For college, she already has it all planned out: for four years she will divide her time between basketball and studies; then, in graduate school, she nail down what her life's vocation will be. Tentatively, she's looking into several aspects of journalism - another indicator that Unverzagt is willing to buck the odds. But even with the plan, life has become very hectic she says. "Balancing practice, class, and family…" Somehow, one has to think she will manage.
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"She's
made a lot of adjustments in a short period of time and with a great
attitude. I like her…I like coaching her…I like her progress and I
like her improvement. She's not really a big ego person; she's very
down-to-earth. And she's is an excellent teammate - her teammates
really like her. She's got a good work ethic; she listens to coaches;
she's not afraid to ask questions, and apply what we are telling her
to do."
Unverzagt
moved to Grants when she was in the eighth grade, and to Albuquerque
her junior year, where she attended St. Pus X. During all this moving
about, Unverzagt contracted a severe case of teenage-itis. 
"He
talked to me and said he wanted me to walk on. He said I wouldn't
have to go through any tryouts, and I would have a spot on the team,
but I would have to walk on." 