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The University of New Mexico’s pep band played the fight song as fans clapped in unison Wednesday in at the Pit.

The game-style atmosphere wasn’t lost on Amy Eagan.

It felt a lot like opening day for UNM’s newly hired women's basketball coach, who was officially introduced and donned a ceremonial cherry blazer during a press conference on the arena’s upper concourse.

Eagan, who was named head coach less than a week before the NCAA transfer portal opened Monday, has had little choice but to hit the ground running. Her first seven days on the job included hiring a coaching staff, meeting with the program’s current players and scouring the portal to begin assembling a roster for next season.

While acknowledging the whirlwind pace, Eagan said she’s taken a few moments to survey her new surroundings.

“I always tell my players after a big win to enjoy that moment,” Eagan said. “I’m doing that now. The community here has made me feel at home right away.”

Eagan later smiled and said she’s doing her best to fit in.

“I spent a long time learning the Lobo hand signal,” she said, demonstrating the “wolf-head” gesture with her right hand.

UNM president Garnett Stokes and Athletic Director Ryan Berryman briefly addressed a crowd of roughly 200 people who turned out to welcome Eagan, her staff and their families to Albuquerque. In the days since her arrival, Eagan has hired Jordan Mellott (associate head coach), Lindsay Ward (assistant coach) and Makayla Wallace (director of operations), all of whom worked for Eagan at her previous stop, Lindenwood University.

Wednesday’s audience was comprised of UNM administrators, coaches (including men’s basketball coach Eric Olen and baseball coach Tod Brown), current and former women’s basketball players, media members and numerous longtime fans.

Eagan touched on a number of subjects during the press conference. Here are a few:

Current players

Eagan said she has had conversations with the 11 Lobos who are eligible to return next season and hopes to retain a number of them.

“We realized pretty quickly there’s quite a bit of talent already here,” she said. “We’ve had conversations with them, second and third conversations with some and we’re still working through that process. At the same time, the transfer portal is open, so we’re working through that and trying to build a roster.”

Guard Laila Abdurraqib, who averaged 7.5 points per game off the bench and was named to the Mountain West All-Freshman Team last season, Tuesday that she will return next season.

“It feels right,” Abdurraqib said. “(Eagan) made a great impression and my game is a good fit for the system.”

Asked if she thought other current Lobos would follow her lead, Abdurraqib smiled and said, “I hope so.”

Portal entries

As of Wednesday, UNM had three players in the transfer portal: posts Jessie Joaquim and Emma Najjuma and guard Tyler Jones. Joaquim and Najjuma split time at the No. 5 spot for UNM last season after senior starter Clarissa Craig suffered a knee injury. Jones played sparingly off the bench.

Eagan said her offense is based on Princeton principles and requires a different role for posts than the dribble-drive offense former UNM coach Mike Bradbury employed.

“The biggest change in our system is at the 5 position,” Eagan said. “With dribble-drive, it’s mostly rebounding and screening. Our 5s are involved in the offense, running high post, handling the ball, making decisions. So right now we’re hitting the portal hardest for the 5 position and a couple of impact players on top of that.”

Offense/defense

Asked about her team's offense, Eagan quickly changed the subject.

“I love defense,” she said. “I believe defense wins championships and that’s where it starts for us.”

She then conceded the importance of effective offense and credited Mellott, calling him a “guru” of the Princeton-based offense, which emphasizes spacing, ball movement, back-cuts and creating open 3-point shots.

“I got into it when Amy and I were at Drury (University),” Mellott said. “We ran dribble-drive at first and it just didn't fit the kids we had. I made some calls and starting finding out that the Princeton offense has a lot of variations. You can adjust it to fit the players you have and kids love it.”

Competitive landscape

Eagan and Berryman both mentioned the challenges of building and maintaining a competitive program in the transfer portal/NIL era, where players and their agents routinely shop for the most lucrative opportunities. Eagan is confident UNM will be able to compete.

“A lot of being successful these days is NIL,” she said. “I talked about that with Ryan and (senior associate athletic director Amy Beggin) and they made it very evident we’ll have the resources we need. When you take a new position, you want to have an opportunity to win. We have that here.”

Eagan said she plans to “start at home” by recruiting in-state players and intends to use the Pit and UNM’s fan base to her advantage.

“You don’t find a women's basketball fan base like this at a lot of mid-majors,” she said. “We’ve asked all the current players why they want to be here and nearly all of them said it’s the people. The players know they’re very, very fortunate to be here. We’ll make sure our recruits are aware of that.”