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Women's basketball: In her words - Freshman forward Eileen Weissmann

By Iliana Limón
Saturday, January 20, 2007

The Tribune handed the mike to University of New Mexico freshman small forward Eileen Weissmann, and here's what she had to say:

My dad played basketball when he was in high school, and he's 6-10. I have an older brother and sister, and we all ended up playing basketball together. I started when I was 5 years old, which is pretty young. I got a nice head start.

My basketball heroes when I was growing up was just the whole Chicago Bulls team with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and all those guys. I cheered for the team and got to a see a few games in person. I watched the NBA more than the WNBA.

My favorite Bulls were probably Scottie Pippen and Toni Kukoc. Everyone gave Michael Jordan all the credit, but Pippen and Kukoc did everything. They were team players. I liked their style of play. I was really into Pippen the most.

Outside of basketball, I look up to my whole family. Right now my sister and I are really close. We fought when were younger, but they set great examples and I learned from them. Everyone looked out for me because I was the baby of the family.

The best part about growing up in Chicago is living in the city. The city is just awesome, and I miss it. I miss ice skating, shopping Downtown, the skyscrapers. New Mexico is a completely different culture, but it's nice. I really like that the traffic isn't as bad here.

It's tough to pick my favorite food, but I'm a big steak and crab leg eater. I have expensive taste. I go for a big steak and seafood the majority of the time.

I miss Chicago pizza a lot. My parents were down here before Christmas, so my mom got me a Chicago pizza from Giordano's and that was great. I took it home, heated it up and shared it with some of my teammates. I told them, "This is real pizza. Forget that Papa Johns stuff and Domino's. That isn't right."

It would be huge for me if the Bears won the Super Bowl. Huge. I don't know what I'd do with myself. I am a really big Chicago Bears and Cubs fan. I love my city, and I love those teams.

We have homefield advantage, and I think the weather is going to help us beat the Saints. And after that, it would be amazing to see them win it all.

I watch their games every Sunday I can. You can ask the other girls on the team. I'm sitting in my room when they're playing, screaming at the TV.

That's my team, and I really hope they win.

Even though I miss home, I really wanted to get out of the Midwest to play in college. I looked at a couple of schools on the East Coast, but as soon as I made my visit to New Mexico, I had to come here. I love coach (Don) Flanagan's style of play, and I love how he coaches his players. It is completely different from my high school coach, who was like the biggest yeller ever. Coach Flanagan also runs a lot of stuff we ran in high school, like the motion offense, so I thought I would fit in well here.

I've had to make a lot adjustments playing in college. The competition is so much tougher, the game's a lot faster and it's a lot more physical. I played post all the time in high school, and now I'm learning to play more on the perimeter. I end up going against girls who are either much bigger and taller than me or much quicker than me. It's the worst when they're both bigger and quicker. It's been tough and a lot of hard work, but I think I'm getting better every day.

I guess I'm getting a reputation for setting hard screens, but I've always played that way. Coach Flanagan likes to call them Chicago Bears screens because I hit them so hard. I've always been a physical player. You have to be physical to play in the post when you're 6 feet tall. I don't intentionally try to lay someone out, but it's always nice to get a good enough hit on someone when they're not expecting it to get your teammate open.

I've played against a lot of tough players. Back in high school, I played more in the post. During summer league I played against a player who is 6-4 and is going to Northwestern next year. Her name is Amy Jaeschke. We always used to battle and it made me tougher.

In college, Timi (E-Nunu), Julie (Briody) and Brandi (Kimble) give me a run for my money. I'm not gonna lie, they really push me in practice.

The toughest team I've played against in college was against Texas. I didn't get a chance to play in the UCLA game, but that looked like it would have been a good team to go up against too.

My favorite movie is definitely "The Longest Yard" with Adam Sandler.

I listen to all kinds of music. I'm even getting into country now, and I really didn't like that before. I like Rascal Flatts. I like Fallout Boy because they're from my hometown. I listen to Beyonc‚. I'm all over the place with my music.

I don't really have any pre-game rituals. I just try to go out there with the mindset that we're going to win. I try to stay positive about what I can contribute and just be ready to work hard.