Rains: Women’s basketball team could advance to NCAA tournament

Monday, February 18, 2008

If you weren’t one of the 6,122 fans who supported breast cancer research by attending the women’s basketball team’s thrilling 62-61 victory against Nebraska on Sunday, you may have missed the game that will save their season.

By defeating the Cornhuskers on a Danielle McCray free throw with 1.4 seconds left in the game, the Jayhawks kept alive an opportunity at being one of the 64 teams called on Selection Monday four weeks from today.

Photo by Jon Goering

Nicollette Smith, freshman forward, drives between two Nebraska defenders for a layup during the second half of Sunday's game at Allen Fieldhouse. Smith was one of four Jayhawks to score in double figures and help keep their team alive for the NCAA tournament.

With the victory, Kansas now has won two in a row and three of their last four games to improve to 15-9 overall and 4-7 in Big 12 play.

“We’ve talked about trying to win 20 all year,” coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “Based on what we did in non-conference that would be 8-8 in the league, and 8-8 has gotten every team in historically every year the Big 12 has been in existence,” she said, referring to the NCAA tournament.

For the Jayhawks to get to 8-8 in the Big 12, they would have to keep the hot streak alive and finish 4-1 in the remaining five games in the regular season. Henrickson said the team could get in with a 7-9 record if they had “the right combination of seven wins,” but it’s obvious that the goal remains the same 8-8 mark from the beginning of the season.

“That’s what we’ve been talking about a lot lately here,” said sophomore guard Danielle McCray. “Whoever shows up that night is going to win. There’s no given team that’s going to win each game or the conference or things like that. We’re looking for number 20, which means in the short-term, we’re looking for number 16.”

The Jayhawks’ schedule is favorable the rest of the way for a run at the tournament. Victory 16 could come Wednesday night at Texas Tech, a team that is only 2-9 in conference play and sits below the Jayhawks in the standings. Although Texas Tech is 10-4 at home, it has struggled recently and should be a team the Jayhawks can defeat.

Kansas then travels to play Missouri, the league’s last-place team at 1-9, on Saturday afternoon. Both are winnable games and would put Kansas back in the thick of the conversation for one of those NCAA bids at 17-7 and 6-7 in league play.

The Jayhawks’ final three games of the season include a home game against Texas (4-7 in Big 12), a road battle at Iowa State (5-6 in Big 12) and a tough home matchup to end the year against Kansas State (10-1 in Big 12).

You could make an argument that all five remaining games are winnable games, but the likelihood of the Jayhawks running the table is very slim. Winning three, or even four, of the five, however, is a very realistic goal.

“We’ve got nothing to lose right now,” said sophomore guard LaChelda Jacobs. “Our goal is definitely the NCAA tournament, and we just have to keep this momentum going. Winning this game was huge.”

And it may not be a surprise that the Jayhawks’ three biggest crowds of the season have all seen Jayhawk victories. The 6,122 fans who watched Sunday’s thriller were a season high, and the 4,912 who watched Kansas beat Missouri last month were among the Jayhawks’ second biggest crowd of the season. If the Jayhawks can get a big crowd for next Wednesday’s home game against Texas, they might take one step closer to reaching the final 64.

Two weeks ago, Kansas sat at 1-6 and in last place of the Big 12 conference. Now, just a short time later, the NCAA tournament is once again a realistic and attainable goal.

“It’s one at a time right now, it’s survive and advance,” Henrickson said. “That’s the most important thing right now, we’re trying to get number 16.”

— Edited by Jessica Sain-Baird

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