Schmidt: KU basketball has it good

Friday, October 26, 2007

Two days after the men’s basketball collapse against Bradley in 2006, I got a phone call from an editor at The O’Collegian, Oklahoma State’s student newspaper. He asked whether I’d heard the Bill Self rumors.

Rumors? What rumors? Truth be told, nobody was saying much at all about basketball during that solemn hangover for Jayhawk fans, so I’d heard nothing about Self.

“He’s coming to Oklahoma State, taking over for Eddie Sutton,” the guy boldly informed me.

Of course! It made so much sense: A once hot-commodity coach turned postseason flopper returns home with his tail between his legs, pretending to be thrilled to take over at his alma mater when really he’s ashamed he couldn’t hack it in the spotlight.

My reaction? I laughed in the guy’s face (via the telephone, but I’m sure he got the message). The problem is, I never bought into any of those doomsday’s prophecies after the team’s second consecutive surprise ending.

Now I’m not saying the idea never entered my mind. I’d wondered almost immediately after the hire of Self in 2003 what he would do when Sutton decided to hang them up. I’d even put myself in his shoes, wondering if I would leave a perennial powerhouse (say, North Carolina for conversation’s sake) in order to return to The Kaw. So I realized it might happen at some point. But I laughed because the O’Collegian editor was making an assumption that fans in Lawrence had turned against Self for his inability to win when it counted. That might fly somewhere else (say, at Chapel Hill for conversations sake), but not here at Kansas.

We recognize a good thing when we see it, and we’ve got two good ones pacing the sideline at Allen Fieldhouse.

That’s right, I said it. I’m not just a Self supporter, I’m also a Bonnie believer.

The women’s team was in stagnant disarray when the Athletics Department stepped up and brought Bonnie Henrickson to the University in 2004. Now entering her fourth season at the helm, Henrickson has made leaps both in expectations of her squad and in putting Kansas back on the radar in the Big 12. The team’s upset of No. 24 Texas in January 2006 was its first against a ranked opponent since 2001 and sent out a warning signal that the program was headed in the right direction.

The key for both Self and Henrickson has been their ability to bring in playmakers. The best high school talent on the men’s side has been walking through the doors of Allen Fieldhouse for decades now, but the basketball program as a whole has taken a major step forward through Henrickson. The team has scoring threats inside and out with returners Marija Zinic and Danielle McCray holding down the paint and sharpshooter Kelly Kohn scoring from the outside. It’s taken a few years, but Henrickson has assembled a team of her own players, and the results promise to be favorable.

Perhaps best of all, there’s potential for both coaches to be here for quite some time. College basketball’s hottest commodity is young coaches who can bring in the top talent and create excitement within the community for their teams. That’s never going to be a stretch in Jayhawk country, but both Self and Henrickson can get the job done. I get excited thinking about the Geno Auriemma/Jim Calhoun machine at UConn and hoping something similar could exist here. And why couldn’t it? Kansas has one of the top men’s basketball programs year in and year out. Both Self and Henrickson have the potential to write their own legacies and make the program theirs.

As for that Oklahoma State editor, I sometimes wonder what he’s up to. Picking the Yankees in six, taking the spread against Colt Brennan and stirring the “Steve Spurrier’s getting the ax” pot?

Well, keep your hopes up, buddy. Maybe next year.

— Edited by Elizabeth Cattell

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