Henrickson molding players into winners

Thursday, March 8, 2007

EMPORIA – I spent my Wednesday evening watching Free State High School dismantle Shawnee Mission West High School in the state basketball tournament.

This is relevant because the game was played in W.L. White Auditorium, home of the women’s basketball team at Emporia State University — quite possibly the most successful women’s basketball program in the state over the past 10 years.

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It won’t be this year, but the Kansas women will soon make a name for themselves that will rival the other women’s basketball programs in the state.

Beware, Emporia fans, Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson has her players making a run at a title that has been yours. The Jayhawks struggled mightily early on this year, but somehow, some way, the team started winning games down the stretch.

It won’t be this year, but the Kansas women will soon make a name for themselves that will rival the other women’s basketball programs in the state. Kansas picked up a virtually impossible win Tuesday and hung in there for some time against Baylor on Wednesday night.

Sure the much more highly seeded Bears eventually had their way with a young and vastly overmatched Jayhawk team, but just winning one game far exceeded the reasonable expectations of anyone but those who are on the team.

Henrickson took a group of seven freshmen, three sophomores, two juniors and two seniors, and turned them into a team that could win. Freshman Kelly Kohn became a real scoring threat this season — although she contributed no points in losing to Baylor — and a team leader.

Senior Sharita Smith developed into a player the Jayhawks could count on. The starting guard chipped in six points in losing to Baylor.

While they had Smith, what this team was missing all season long was a senior who could pick up the young team until the freshman matured. Crystal Kemp fulfilled that role on last year’s team.

The Jayhawks had someone who could have been this year’s senior leader. Arkansas junior Lauren Ervin would have been a senior at Kansas this year, if not for a transfer after her freshman campaign.

Ervin, who is only the second ever Arkansas women’s basketball player to average in double figures, was named to the SEC all-conference team and has seemed to find the maturity that eluded her at Kansas. Ervin, who was at the heart of a brawl in Columbia, Mo., her freshman year, is on her fourth school since leaving Kansas, but she finally seems to have gotten her act together.

What could have been if the Ervin of 2006-2007 had appeared in 2003-2004? Odds are this year’s women’s basketball team would have been much better and would have won enough games to at least have another WNIT appearance.

Maybe more.

Back to Emporia State though.

The banners inside White include five conference championships since 1998, two Final Fours including one national runner-up. The Lady Hornets also have a pair of Sweet Sixteens and Elite Eights to their credit too. Sure they play in Division II, but the victories are still something that should be considered impressive.

The end of this season should give Kansas fans hope that the Jayhawk women will soon be adding to their banner collection in the rafters of Allen Fieldhouse.

Kealing is a Chesterfield, Mo., senior in journalism and political science.

— Edited by Mark Vierthaler

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