Wednesday, February 6, 2008
At 13-8 overall and 2-6 in Big 12 conference play, Kansas is not where it wanted to be at the beginning of the year.
Kansan file photo
The Jayhawks’ woes are not due to a lack of talent, though, rather a brutal schedule that is currently rated as the 15th most difficult in the country by realtimerpi.com.
In its nonconference schedule, the Jayhawks faced eight teams currently ranked in the top 90 for RPI according to the site, including California and Hartford at 11 and 31, respectively.
“We felt like as we grew the program and recruited better, we would want to challenge ourselves in the nonconference,” coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “But you have to be careful, because the league presents such a big challenge on its own, so it’s a fine balance.”
‘Big challenge’ is probably an understatement for the Big 12 as it’s easily the top conference in the country. There are currently five teams ranked in the AP top 25 poll, and according to Charlie Creme’s bracketology on espn.com, eight Big 12 squads will be dancing in March with two more close to getting in.
Henrickson says the reason for the Big 12’s prominence has as much to do with its coaches as the players.
“I’d say that top to bottom the Big 12 has the best coaches in (the nation),” Henrickson said. “You don’t go into games in this league and think you’re just going to out-coach people because everybody does such a great job.”
Kansas is one of the teams that Creme has currently tabbed to reach the NCAA tournament thanks in large part to its strength of schedule and a ranking of 37 in the RPI.
There is great respect for the Big 12 amongst women’s basketball analysts right now but Kansas will still need to get some wins down the road to go dancing. That won’t be an easy task as two of its next three games are against Kansas State and Nebraska, who carry RPI rankings of 19 and 22, respectively.
The key to getting those wins, according to Henrickson, is avoiding turnovers and taking better care of the ball. Freshman center Krysten Boogaard said the victory against Iowa State puts Kansas in the right direction.
“We definitely needed it,” Boogaard said. “It’s going to give us big momentum going into Kansas State.
—Edited by Daniel Reyes
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