A Minute With Amanda
12/5/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 2007
Every week sophomore Amanda Hanneman will give fans the inside scoop on Missouri women's basketball.
This year has been very interesting so far. The team doesn't have any returning seniors and most of the team are freshman and sophomores so it's been an adjustment for the returners to deal with having such a young team.
With the limited players we picked up a fifth-year senior, Nicole Wilson, who played volleyball for four years for the tigers. She has been a great sport so far and does whatever we need her to do with no questions.
Unfortunately I got hurt in the pre-season. I had a stress fracture in my right foot and was out for about a month and a half. After a month we realized the bone was dead so right now I am still playing and fighting the pain with a dead bone in my foot. With that injury we were down to ten people and when I came back we finally had the whole team was ready to go.
We went a few weeks with all the girls and then the next thing we know, one of the hardest workers on the team, Bekah Mills, who would have had a lot of playing time because she just flat out works her butt off, tore her ACL. We were all a little freaked out when that happened and realized we only have ten available players. But Bekah is still a huge part of the team, helping out the coaches on game day and also being a team caption along with Shak Jones and Alyssa Hollins.
Additionally we got picked 12th in the Big 12 rankings. Coach Stein told us we all got a little kick in the butt to show people that's not where we belong. But we also know the rankings are just numbers and this is our chance to prove the doubters wrong and believers right.
After we lost two games in a row against South Dakota State and Samford, Coach Stein and the coaching staff thought it was time for a change in the starting line up. We won our next game against Robert Morris after the switch when Alyssa hit a game-winning shot. It gave us back a little boost of confidence and we all thought it was a great way to finish up the Thanksgiving tournament in Florida.
We came back with only one day to get ready for our next game against Arkansas from the Southeastern Conference. We kept up with them pretty much the whole game and with six minutes left we got within one point but we couldn't pull it out for the win.
We couldn't let the loss affect us because we had another game three days later Texas State. Coach Stein always has a little pep talk before each game and the saying for the Texas State game was "be the one." Be the one to rebound, be the one to box out, be the one to WANT the ball, be the one! During the game everyone played really well. Jessra couldn't be there so many other players had to step up. Shak and Alyssa had really good games and Jazz Otote and I had to step our games up, which I think Jazz did a really good job of. It was a good team win and everyone did their part.
After the game and running into the locker room to sing the Mizzou fight song like we do after every win, we realized it's time to keep this winning thing going. Up next we have the CenturyTel Tiger Tournament this weekend, where we play Mississippi Valley State on Friday and either Alcorn State or Stephen F. Austin on Saturday.
Amanda
