At times this season Bonnie Henrickson had to wonder what exactly her players were seeing on the court. Time and time again Kansas shot itself in the foot, showing a puzzling inability to limit turnovers and losing 14 of its final 20 games in the process.

The Jayhawks became predictable for those who watched them enough. Kansas would play well enough to keep it close in the first half, but the second half was always another story. Costly turnovers and the lack of any offensive rhythm destroyed any chance for victory.

The trend finally came to a head late in the conference season. The Jayhawks wasted their opportunity to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1999-2000 season by losing five consecutive games to end the Big 12 schedule.

Before the streak, Kansas was 4-7 in Big 12 play and 15-9 overall with a chance of earning an at-large NCAA Tournament bid with inspired play. After Texas Tech, Missouri, Iowa State, Texas and Kansas State finished punishing Henrickson’s team for their carelessness with the ball, even an appearance in the WNIT wasn’t guaranteed.

It isn’t hard to see why Kansas faded to an 11th place finish in the conference. The Jayhawks turned the ball over more than any other team in the Big 12 and were last in turnover margin and assist to turnover ratio. No team gave away possessions as frequently as Henrickson’s. But if the Jayhawks wanted to pass their mistakes off on extenuating factors, they never showed it.

After all, Kansas was one of the youngest teams in the Big 12. On top of that, freshman guard Chakeitha Weldon and sophomore guard Kelly Kohn spent much of the season watching from the bench with injuries. There were plenty of opportunities for justification, but Henrickson and her players never took the blame off their own shoulders.

It’s a good thing they didn’t become accustomed to making excuses to explain their poor play because the Jayhawks certainly won’t have that opportunity next year. There will be no excuses with another offseason behind them.

Kohn and Weldon will both be back and Kansas will add Angel Goodrich, a three-time Oklahoma state championship winner, to an already crowded stable of perimeter players. The crop of talented, but inconsistent sophomores will be juniors and have two years of Big 12 battles under their belts to look back on.

Henrickson knows turnovers must go down from the 19.4 the Jayhawks averaged this season. Although Kansas won 11 of its first 13 games this season, turning over the ball frequently, to make the next logical step to a top-half conference finish and NCAA Tournament appearance turnovers will have to drop drastically.

There’s a reason teams that value the ball have more success, they have more offensive possessions to do damage and limit transition opportunities for their opponents. If Henrickson and her players want to continue climbing their way toward national relevance, they know what has to be done.

Now comes the hard part, doing it.

— Edited by Mandy Earles