BLACKSBURG, Va. - The 6-foot-4 power forward with an outside touch just never had the demeanor to be as forceful as her position and height would imply. She's shy, soft-spoken.

Not the kind of bruiser that would grab a teammate by the shirt to get her back in line. She's not built that way, and the circumstances of her life haven't done much to change this predisposed tendency.

Still, Virginia Tech women's basketball coach Bonnie Hendrickson needed a leader for this year's team, and the coach hoped the power forward, senior Ieva Kublina, though soft-spoken as she might be, could be that leader.

But a be a vocal leader? Kublina had always let her game speak for her. Otherwise, being outspoken and noticed has never been Kublina's favorite thing to be.

"When I am being aggressive on the court, I take it because I am leading by example," she said. "I'm not really, like, loud. It's not how I naturally am."

So it's obvious why her coach would say the following.

"It's not a skill level issue for her; it's a personality issue," Hendrickson said of Kublina's attempts to be a team leader. "It's taken her time."

Time, along with a heavy dose of adjustment and adaptation. But, then, nearly everything has been an adjustment for Kublina -- in both her personal life and on the basketball court.

See, what makes Kublina a little different than other women's basketball players might be the fact that she grew up a little differently than did most women's basketball players. This sweet-shooting power forward, like so many in men's hoops you already know (Dirk Nowitzki, Peja Stojakovic to name a couple) is from Europe -- Latvia to be specific.

As anyone would expect, things are a little different in Blacksburg, Va., than they are in Latvia -- again, both on and off the court.

"Here, it is more focused on defense and it's a lot more physical," Kublina said. "Post players in Europe face basket. Here, it is more back to basket; it is more banging inside.

"Outside basketball," she continued, "I don't know. The food is different, the language. I don't know. I have forgotten. It's been so long."

Kublina may not remember the old country so well, but her old sensibilities have been tough to shake. While European players are widely noted for deadly shooting accuracy, they are also widely criticized for being soft and afraid of contact. The same detracting statements have been used to describe Kublina at times -- especially during a three-game stretch where Kublina scored only 22 total points.

"Ieva is a tentative player by nature, but she has worked on that this year," said Kublina's teammate, junior center Erin Gibson.

And it appears that leading a team on the cusp of top-25 status has been a work in progress all season for Kublina. The Virginia Tech pre-season media guide has a picture of Kublina on the cover with the words All-American candidate next to it. There have been games where the power forward has lived up to her billing -- like her 19-point effort against Connecticut in January.

In other performances she has fallen short of the hype -- like her eight-point, 3-for-12 shooting game against James Madison in December.

If Kublina can piece together enough consistency to have a quality performance today like she did Sunday against Iowa, she poses an interesting match up problem for the Lady Lions, whose post play has ranged from serviceable to atrocious this year.

The buzz after Virginia Tech's 89-76 pounding of Iowa was that Kublina was finally breaking into her own, but the shy senior showed the same old meek uncertainty and was hesitant to call her 26 points a break-out performance.

When asked after that game if she was ready to say the Hokies were "her team," the Latvian stammered a bit until her coach whispered in her ear several times, "say, 'yes.' "

The power forward stammered some more and reluctantly said it was her role as an experienced senior. She's trying to be a leader, but it just isn't like this forward to take control. And today her teammates will need her to be a leader more than ever.

"We need all five starters to bring something to the table," Hendrickson said.

"But when she does well, it calms everyone else down."