Coach Bonnie Henrickson vowed she wouldn’t use youth as a scapegoat, despite half of her lineup being freshmen.

“We can’t use youth as an excuse,” she said before the regular season began, “If we do that, we’ll have to excuse the whole season.”

Henrickson kept her promise.

It wasn’t that Kansas didn’t go through its fair share of adversity, though.

In fact, the Jayhawks an entire month without a winning game, started Big 12 conference play at 0-9 and lost by more than 25 points twice.

But Henrickson’s continued positive demeanor rubbed off on her young core of players. The freshmen began playing their best basketball as the season wound down, and Kansas finished 5-4 in its final month of play.

“Even though we couldn’t find a way to win, we tried to get better everyday,” Henrickson said, “And that speaks to who they are as people, speaks to their character, resiliency, and fortitude. You win with kids like that.”

Now that the season has ended, it’s time to review the season of the seven freshmen.

LaChelda Jacobs — Jacobs’ season was puzzling. The guard cracked the starting lineup for five games. But by the end of the year she was buried deep on the Jayhawk bench. Occasionally, Henrickson pointed to poor practices as a reason for the change. If Jacobs wants to make a difference in the future, she must cut down on turnovers and have more assists. Jacobs committed 47 turnovers, but dished out only 18 assists.

Kelly Kohn — As the most heralded of the freshmen, Kohn had a lot of hype to live up to. She averaged a solid 10 points per game but finished at a disturbingly low 34 percent from the field. Henrickson said she noticed inconsistencies in her shot as part of the problem. As long as she improves her shooting and keeps her knack for hitting shots under pressure, Kohn could be an All-Big 12 team candidate as early as next year.

Danielle McCray — The forward may have the prettiest shot on campus. McCray also had the best story of the season. When she arrived in Lawrence, McCray had trouble in conditioning drills, which limited her playing time. She overcame those weaknesses to start the final seven games of the year, where averaged nearly 15 points and seven rebounds. With that kind of work ethic, don’t be surprised if McCray rises to become the face of the program.

Sade Morris — She began and ended the season on a high note. It was the middle where Morris struggled. Henrickson said part of her difficulties stemmed from a lack of aggressiveness. When Morris is playing to her potential, though, she possesses a combination of long-range shooting and physical play under the basket.

Lindsay Ballweg — The shooting guard didn’t see much playing time this season. Despite a standout performance at Late Night at the Phog, where she scored nine points and a reputation for having a great shooting touch, she spent 21 of the 32 games on the bench.

Porscha Weddington — Because of her sheer size and strength, the forward muscled her way into the starting lineup for 12 games. Aggravation set in, however, when Weddington couldn’t find a way to utilize her natural abilities. She never scored more than six points in a game and wound up back on the bench. If Weddington can find a way to consistently go up strong with the ball, she could transform into a force to be reckoned with in the low post.

Rebecca Feickert — The center from Goodrich, N.D., was not expected to contribute in her first season. When Feickert did play, though, she exceeded expectations. She pulled down three rebounds in 12 minutes against Iowa State and made two of the four three-pointers she attempted during the season. At 6-foot-2, Feickert’s height mixed with ability to knock down shots from the perimeter could give opponents headaches in the future.

As always, Henrickson was able to extract the positives from a season that ended without any chance for a postseason bid.

“In time, we’ll be able to walk away from this with great pride with the progress we did make,” she said, “We played with a great amount of pride for what was on the front of our uniform.”

The Jayhawk freshmen think that this pride and experience will be precisely what lead them to success.

“We stayed together as a team knowing it was going to be our time sometime,” McCray said, “This year I’ve learned a lot and in the off-season I’m just going to work to get better and make Kansas better.”

Kansan sportswriter Case Keefer can be contacted at ckeefer@kansan.com.

— Edited by Ryan Schneider