By ROBERT CESSNADamitria Buchanan was smart enough to know that she might never become a regular starter. But someone bright enough to earn a psychology degree at Texas A&M in three years was certainly prepared when her chance did come.
Buchanan might be the most pleasant surprise for the 10th-ranked Aggie women's basketball team, which faces Stephen F. Austin at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Reed Arena in a doubleheader with the men, who play Prairie View A&M in the nightcap.
Buchanan, a 6-foot-2 senior, opened the season with the best game of her career in a 95-77 victory over then-No. 6 Duke. She had seven rebounds and seven blocks in a career-high 25 minutes.
It was the kind of effort the Aggies had grown accustomed to in the last three seasons from 6-3 La Toya Micheaux, a four-year starter who is fourth in career rebounds and fifth in blocks in the school record book. A&M thought they had a budding replacement for Micheaux in McDonald's All-American Kelsey Bone, who instead signed with South Carolina.
That left A&M to pick between 6-1 sophomore Kelsey Assarian, who hadn't made a start, and Buchanan, who had played in 77 straight games but started only seven.
"I think when you play behind someone for three years, sometimes you get set in your ways," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "You worry about, 'Am I ever gonna get my chance?' It's very hard to maintain your competitive level. She had spurts where she played well and she was getting better. But it's just hard to keep going and be patient. And then if we would have signed Kelsey Bone ... but that didn't work out. Then all of a sudden, she was expected to go right into a two-way fight for the position with Assarian. And that's still a two-way fight because they are both playing well.
"We're just tickled to death at the No. 5 position and we thought that would be our weakest position.
It didn't just happen.
Buchanan spent the offseason in the weight room, getting stronger and doing cardiovascular exercises to improve her conditioning for A&M's pressure defense. She also mixed in a steady diet of pickup games to stay in basketball shape.
That along with a more aggressive nature has paid off for Buchanan, who is averaging 4 rebounds and 3 blocks per game in only 17 minutes.
"She's never hurt," Blair said. "She hasn't missed a practice in three years. She took a lot of punishment guarding Micheaux for three years. I stopped getting out there [and running plays]. I didn't want to take any more elbows from Micheaux. But I think that's helped make her better. She has a lot more confidence in herself as a person."
And that's saying something for Buchanan, who was salutatorian as a high school senior at Houston Jones with a 4.4 grade-point average. The first-team All-Big 12 academic selection is working toward a Master's in psychology at A&M with aspirations to be a child psychologist or a school counselor.
"It's hard to psychoanalyze yourself," Buchanan said with a laugh. "It's easy to look at everybody else and figure out what's wrong with them. But it's always hard to figure out what's wrong with yourself."
Buchanan, who is one of the team's captains, has been someone the team's four incoming freshmen have sought advice from.
"She helps solve problems, and she'll talk about problems," Blair said. "She's very versatile and ambitious. She's one of this campus' leaders."
Buchanan has even been able to be a little tougher on herself as she does more counseling.
"Being tougher on the basketball court is just being mentally tough and mentally stable through all of the hardships," she said.
Blair likes just about everything he's seen from Buchanan and Assarian, who have been total team players, allowing the other players to do most of the scoring. They'll gladly do the grunt work.
Other than Buchanan's monster game against Duke, they've toiled in obscurity. Buchanan has scored only five points, which ties her for 10th on the team. Assarian is a little more offensive-minded, averaging 5.7 points per game. The two have combined to hit 10 of 14 field goals while committing only three turnovers.
"We have a lot of scorers on the team right now and a lot of options," Buchanan said. "So my opportunities are going to come from offensive rebounding and putbacks, so that's what I'm going to focus on."
Blair said Buchanan has a ways to go when it comes to setting Micheaux-like screens and playing defense, but if the two-headed monster she's part of keeps improving, the Aggies could be as good as they were in the past few seasons, maybe even better.
*
NOTES -- Most of Buchanan's classes are at night. She has an early afternoon class on Tuesdays, so Blair pushes the start of practice back to 3 p.m. on those occasions. ... Buchanan said the players are eager to play Wednesday after a 10-day break.
A&M WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
* Wednesday's game: Stephen F. Austin (3-1) at No. 10 Texas A&M (3-0), 6 p.m.
* TV/radio: None/ KZNE, 1150 AM
SFA-TEXAS A&M LINEUPS
TEXAS A&M (2-0)
NAMEPOS.HT.CL.PPGRPG
Sydney ColsonG5-8Jr. 10.0*6.3
Tanisha SmithF6-0Sr.15.73.7
Tyra WhiteG6-0So.6.33.0
Adaora ElonuF6-1So.10.32.7
Damitria Buchanan F6-2Sr.1.74.
SFA (3-1)
NAMEPOS.HT.CL.PPGRPG
Cambria SmithG5-5So.3.0*3.8
Whitney CormierG5-9 Sr.17.06.3
Decreasha GoodnerG 5-7Jr.2.53.3
Jordan FordFJr.6-14.08.5
Antoinette DavisF5-11Jr.8.37.5
*assists per game
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