RUSTON ââ'¬" One of Brandi Wingate's biggest fans has never seen her play.

Brittney Holland, the 28-year-old sister of Brandi, was born with cerebral palsy and is blind.

According to Brandi, the senior forward for Louisiana Tech, Brittney doesn't like loud noises or big crowds so she has never attended one of her "little" sister's games.

It doesn't matter.

The two have a remarkable bond despite Brittney lacking the ability to communicate like most people. They have a connection that goes beyond words. Or sports.

"Brittney is my best friend," said Brandi. "When I look at her, she's a normal person to me. Growing up, she was my best friend. I would literally go into her room and talk to her even though she couldn't say anything back."

Brittney has also been a consistent source of strength during the tumultuous times in Brandi's life.

"She is my best friend," Brandi said. "She is my heart."

Words that will tug on the strings of anyone's ticker.

According to their mother, the feeling is mutual.

"Because she is blind she knows us by our voices," said Tyra Holland in reference to Brittney. "She realizes Brandi is not here every day, so when Brandi does come home, she says 'Hi Brandi!' She is always excited when Brandi comes home."

When she was born, Brittney wasn't expected to live past the age of five. Twenty-eight years later, she continues to have a major impact on the people in her life, especially Brandi.

"She is a real blessing," said Brandi. "She is full of joy. She brings so much happiness into the house. There were some days in high school when I would be upset over a loss. I would walk into her room, and she was always happy. She is just a joy; she is just a ball of joy."

Brandi and Brittney grew up in Columbia, Maryland with their mother. While Brittney was confined due to her physical conditions, Brandi was blessed with impressive athletic ability on the hardwood.

It's not something that Brandi takes for granted.

"Brandi learned compassion with having a severely disabled sister," Tyra said. "She learned to care. She learned that everyone is not perfect, but you love them for who they are."

And even on her worst days ââ'¬" and there were plenty of them during high school ââ'¬" Brandi used Brittney as a reminder to be thankful.

"She was like 'Gosh I am complaining about things yet I can get up and walk around and change them while my sister is a paraplegic with severe brain damage and is wheelchair confined,'" Tyra said. "It gave Brandi gratitude."

Brandi's basketball talent came naturally. Her father David Wingate played with Patrick Ewing in the early 1980s, helping the Hoyas to the 1984 NCAA national title. He played 15 years in the NBA for six different franchises.

"Basketball comes strictly from my dad," Brandi said. "He wasn't involved as much when I was young. With his (NBA) life, he was always on the road. When he did get a chance, he was around. He was a part of (my life) when he could be.

"My dad playing was a huge influence on me. I wanted to be just like him. I knew I was good. I knew I could be like him. He was a huge influence."

Six years old is when Brandi picked up a basketball. It was love at first shot.

"Brandi started bouncing a ball between the ages of 6 and 7," Tyra recalls. "She was very excited to learn the game of basketball. Between the ages of 8 and 9, I decided that we had tried Taekwondo and we had tried gymnastics. When she started basketball she said 'Okay, forget my red belt. I am going to go on and do this.'

"From that point, I started putting her in local leagues and basketball camps. Dave Dupree and Phil Chenier had one of the first Howard County basketball camps for kids. They just fell in love with her. They were like 'Tyra, oh my God you have a star on your hands.'"

Maybe not a star just yet, but the tall, lanky youngster was definitely a basketball fanatic.

"Playing basketball is all I wanted to do," Brandi said. "I had a little basketball hoop, and I used to play with it every day, all day. I fell in love with it when I was a young, young child."

Although Brandi was blessed with talent and a love for the game, the road to her senior year at Tech was anything but smooth. She will be the first to admit her mistakes.

Following her junior year at Howard High School in Maryland, she was expelled and sent to Homewood High, an alternative school.

"It was little stuff like skipping class, not listening … basically discipline issues that added up," she said. "It was nothing major but it was enough.

"I was a damn fool. I was foolish. If I could redo it, I would've of course made sure my grades were straight and played all four years. I'm not saying I regret the route I took because some good things came out of it; in a way it was a blessing. I just would have made better decisions."

Tyra remembers those days vividly.

"I think it was a turning point for her; what was she going to do with her life," Tyra said. "I think because of the inability to have everything that she needed as far as both parents being involved and being encouraged to stay on the right track, she realized how small decisions have major effects, how they can really, really impact your life.

"I continued to push her no matter what, fight with her no matter what. Tell her 'Hey, I am not giving up on you. I know you are angry and upset about things. The things we can't control, we have to let God do. All you can do is do the best you can do today. You have made these decision and you have to learn from them.'"

Following the tumultuous high school days, she signed to play at Northwest Florida State. It was a second chance.

As a college freshman, Brandi led the program to a 24-7 record and a No. 8 ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association Coaches Poll in 2010-11. She earned all-conference honors and was selected to play in the NJCAA Women's Basketball Coaches Association All-Star game.

She was using her God-given abilities to her advantage. Coaches around the country were taking notice.

Then it all came to a sudden halt during an ordinary pickup game the summer between her freshman and sophomore seasons. Brandi heard it pop.

"I tore my right ACL, pretty much blew my entire knee," Brandi said. "I went for a layup and as soon as I jumped it immediately popped. I came down on it, and it was already torn."

She returned to Columbia to have surgery and missed the entire 2011-12 season due to rehabilitation. It was just another bump in the road, another opportunity to seek strength from her relationship with her sister.

"I spent a lot of time with Brittney after the first knee injury," Brandi said. "It was hard for me, but it was just another reminder how blessed I am to have her in my life."

Following the rehabilitation, Brandi returned to Northwest Florida State ready to prove she was back and even better.

Then lightning struck twice. Almost exactly one year after suffering the first knee injury, it happened again.

"I blew it again the following July; same knee, same injury," she said. "This time I stayed in Florida to have surgery and recovered there."

The injuries might have been a blessing in disguise for Tech.

Then LA Tech head coach Teresa Weatherspoon learned of Wingate through assistant coach David Caputo, who had coached against Brandi during his time at Indian River State College in Florida. With many of the bigger name schools shying away due to the back-to-back injuries, the Lady Techsters rolled the dice.

Brandi was signed, sealed and delivered. Or so she and the coaching staff thought.

As fall classes were about to begin in Ruston, Brandi discovered she wasn't eligible to play for LA Tech.

"I found out I was a credit short of graduating from junior college," Brandi remembered.

So while Weatherspoon and the Lady Techsters opened fall workouts and preparation for the upcoming season, Brandi enrolled in an online class at Adam State University in order to complete her requirements.

Yet another pothole on her road to wearing the Columbia blue and red.

She finished the course, enrolled at Tech and joined the Lady Techsters on the practice floor in January of 2014. It would mark the third straight season she would miss on the hardwood.

Following the completion of the 2013-14 season ââ'¬" a 12-20 campaign that marked the worst in the program's history ââ'¬" the University administration made a coaching change. Weatherspoon was out. It wasn't a popular choice with a team full of emotional 18-, 19- and 20-year old women.

"I was sad simply because I came to play for Spoon and I didn't get a chance to, but I think God has a plan for everything," Brandi said. "I know it sounds cliché, but that's how I think about things in life. So if this happened there has to be something better in store for her and for me."

It was a very different approach than most of her Tech teammates

"Sometimes people are moved out of our lives and out of our paths because something better is coming," Tyra said. "That is how God always works. Sometimes he has to remove junk out of our closet so new stuff can come and fill your closet."

However, after everything she had already experienced, Brandi was probably better prepared to handle the adversity.

"It was a little easier for me than the other players because I didn't grow with (Coach Spoon)," she said. "It's not like I had a strong relationship with her. Those other girls were with her for years. It was sad for me, because I wanted to play for her. But in that moment, I felt for Coach Spoon and the other players, not for me."

Enter 23-year-old Tyler Summitt, Louisiana Tech's new head coach and a man who was only six months older than Brandi.

"I was like wow, he looks very young," she remembers of the first team meeting with Summitt. "He definitely looks like a little kid. I had no idea who he was. My attitude toward Tyler was different than the other (players'). I wasn't angry because Spoon was gone and Tyler was here; I was angry because I was still immature. The others were acting out because they were mad about Spoon.

"When I saw Tyler, I was like he's young but let's give him a chance. He was all about his business. He said 'You might not like me, and I'm not here to be your friend. I am going to love you guys, and I am going to coach you guys to be the best you can be. If you don't like it, there is the door.' He knew what he was getting into. I just remember him saying that over and over."

It was an adjustment period for everyone. Summitt was learning the role of head coach on the collegiate level. The returning players were testing the waters to see how serious their new boss was. Some didn't survive the swim, and Brandi was almost one of the unfortunate ones.

"When I first got to Louisiana Tech, I had meetings with every staff member, extended staff member, player and every former assistant coach," said Summitt. "I had a list of names of players that I needed to watch out for. I had a list of potential problem players. Brandi Wingate was on everybody's list.

"It didn't matter whether it was academics, weights, basketball, on the court, off the court, Brandi Wingate was said to be a problem player. She proved to be a problem player when she missed 23 hours of study hall in the first three weeks after I was hired."

The issues between Brandi and her new coach didn't stop there.

"I remember yelling at her more than any other player in practice," Summitt said. "I really think her suspension is where she turned the corner. Before that point it was rough.

"I think players like Brandi who have always gotten away with everything based on their talent will test you. But I also think they like to have discipline. In our first few team workouts, Brandi was definitely seeing how far she could go without getting called out with both her work ethic and bad attitude."

The rift finally came to a do-or-die point in the second game of the season. With Tech trailing late at Northwestern State, Summitt walked to the end of the bench and told Wingate to check in to the game. Her reaction didn't please her coach.

"She just looked at me," Summitt said. "I said sit down. I suspended her. I said there is no way you are going to hesitate to go into a basketball game, I don't care how many points we are down or up."

Brandi knew she didn't have a choice. She had used all of her rope, was suspended indefinitely, and missed the next two games.

"This was my last time; I didn't have any more strikes," Brandi said. "I really had to change who I was as a person and as a player. I had to buckle down and take advantage of what was in front of me. I was going down the wrong road. One mistake would have taken everything away from me, and I couldn't let that happen."

As much as Brandi knew she had to change, it seldom comes easy. It didn't in her case.

"She asked to meet," Summitt said. "We came into the arena and it was like 8 p.m. and no one was around. She sat down and she said 'This is it, this is my last chance. I know this is my last chance. I want a relationship with you. I want to do what you want me to do. I know I have to change.'

"She was saying it and in the back of my mind I was thinking, I am kicking this kid off the team. I really was. I told my staff, 'She isn't making it, she isn't making it, she isn't making it.' She proved us wrong."

Despite the hole she had dug for herself, Brandi was determined to make the most of the last chance to play a game she loved.

"I grew," she said. "When I met Tyler Summitt, I met my match. It was either you change or you're gone. Coach Tyler opened my eyes to another view. He helped me grow as a person and as a player. The stuff he did to me ââ'¬" suspending me for those games ââ'¬" really helped me. I grew as a person. Playing for Tyler Summitt is a big deal. He is a huge blessing in my life. I am really happy that he came here, and I am able to be coached by him."

Her mother saw a gradual change in her daughter as Tyler began having an impact on Brandi's life.

"As she started getting to know coach Tyler, she saw that he was different and he was someone who cared and someone who really wanted to help her grow academically and as an athlete," Tyra said. "She said 'Mom, he is a good guy. He is a Christian, and I love that. And he takes care of his mom. And it makes me think about you because you take care of my sister Brittney. You have for 28 years.'

"Now Brandi is starting to put things together; that life throws us some balls we aren't prepared for. My job as her parent is to let her know that tough things are going to come, and we aren't promised roses and cherries along the way. But in tough times that is when you get your most strength to make it through. Just trust God."

Her return to the hardwood on a competitive level wasn't easy. After three years away from the game, it took her almost half of the season to start to feel comfortable again. Fortunately, the team was loaded with experienced seniors and Brandi was just a part of the equation.

"It was extremely difficult because basketball is definitely a mental thing," she said. "I have it physically. I know that I am talented. I am blessed. I am gifted. College is a different level so you have to have talent and the mental aspect of it. For me to be sitting out and not being mentally engaged in a setting where it is organized, that's why it was so was hard for me to adjust to Tyler.

"He is big-time. It was hard. I had so much rust to get off me. I was struggling for a while. Eventually when I warmed up to it and was in the gym practicing every day, I eventually broke out of my shell. I said enough is enough. It was my junior year. And no one had seen the real Brandi Wingate. I had to make a name for myself. I knew Brandi Wingate could play, but no one had seen it."

By the end of last season, Conference USA opponents knew who Brandi Wingate was and what she could do. After averaging almost 10 points a game coming off the bench, she was voted the Conference USA Sixth Player of the Year by the league coaches.

Both Wingate and Summitt credit a change in mind-set and attitude to her development on and off the court.

"You have to give her credit," Summitt said. "When I asked her why she did something, she said because she had always gotten away with it. When she tells you about her life and high school and junior college stuff, it's something. Her life before our staff got here was very challenging. You have to give her credit for making the change. She made a drastic change. It was more a mental change than anything. She was going to do things the right way and quit cutting corners."

"Mentally it was overwhelming," Wingate said. "It was hard for me. But it wasn't to the point that I couldn't accomplish it. I used to say all the time 'It is hard. It is hard.' When I stopped letting myself get in my head, it just came. I was like 'You know what. I am going to do what I have to do.' It became easy because it became a habit. You go in there and you do what you have to do and you do it every day. It becomes your life."

With the graduation of all five starters off of last year's team, a much bigger role and higher expectations lay clearly on the shoulders of Brandi this season. It was a subject Summitt discussed with her numerous times following the conclusion of last season.

"Going into the summer, that's all Tyler preached to me," Brandi said. "Be consistent, be consistent. I'm still working on that to this day, and I know there are still some games where people are like 'Where the hell is Brandi?'"

Even despite a few off games from her this year, Wingate is one of the top players in Conference USA. She leads the Lady Techsters in scoring (16.5 ppg) and rebounding (6.7 ppg) and is shooting 56 percent from the field. Some of her biggest games have come against No. 6 Mississippi State (25 points), No. 23 UCLA (17 points, 12 rebounds) and Arizona (26 points).

"This is my year to step up," Brandi said. "That's all I keep thinking about. I like being that go-to person. It's definitely a challenge. You have to be 'on' every day, every night, bringing it every practice, every possession. Consistency is really, really hard because you can't have off days. Some days you aren't going to feel like it because you might be going through something.

"That's the tough part about it, being consistent even when you are going through something. That's what Tyler has really taught me. He talks to me about it all the time. We all go through stuff, but in that moment, when you are between those lines, each and every possession, you go out there and be the best that you can be."

Summitt knows that regardless of what the statistics say at the end of March, Brandi Wingate is a success story.

"Players like Brandi Wingate remind you why you are in coaching," Summitt said. "You realize the unique position that a coach is in to influence a young lady for four years of her life at a crucial time. I really do feel like God had a plan to have our staff here and Brandi here at the same time."

Back in Columbia, Maryland, Brandi's mother knows better than anyone how far her daughter has come ââ'¬" both in actual mileage and in growth.

"It has definitely been a journey for her," Tyra said. "I think a lot of that has played into her disappointment with things, but it has made her grow in so many ways. It is forming her. It is perfecting who she is as a person. It has built character in her. It has made her realize just how wonderful life can be. If all you can do is be the best you can be that day, you still have a brighter day tomorrow."

At her current pace, Brandi has a very realistic chance of an even brighter future, possibly playing professional basketball overseas once her college career is over. She wants to play for as long as she can.

However, once the game that she loves turns into a pastime instead of a profession, Brandi already has her sights set on the next turn in the road of life.

"I want to open up a clinic or be a therapist for troubled kids because I've been through that," she said. "It is always good to have someone to mentor you. For me it happened really late, and it ended up being Tyler. If I had had that growing up, I would have been better off. That's why I really want to do it for others."

Brandi Wingate's journey has not been an easy one. However, regardless of wins or losses, good games or bad, right decisions or wrong, she knows she always has the love and support of her No. 1 fan.

"I try to keep things in perspective," Brandi said. "I don't know tough times compared to Brittney. She is always happy. She is my heart."

And Brandi's biggest fan.