Editor’s note: The Kansas women’s basketball team granted Kansan sportswriter B.J. Rains exclusive, behind-the-scenes access on their recent road trip to Waco, Texas, to face the sixth-ranked Baylor Bears. Thanks to the women’s basketball program for help with this story. Here’s a look at day one; look for part two of this story Thursday.

When we see two teams take the court for a game, we often fail to realize how much preparation and time has been put into getting the teams prepared for the game. We also don’t think about the travel schedule, hotel accommodations, meal schedule or many other things that actually play a big role in the road team’s preparation and readiness to be on the field or court at game time.

On Jan. 15 and 16, the Kansas women’s basketball team and coach Bonnie Henrickson allowed me to travel with the team and sit in during all the team’s meetings and practices leading up to their game against No. 6 Baylor in Waco. I tried to find out as much as I could about how a team prepares for an upcoming game and what happens that the average person doesn’t get to see. My observations were interesting, and I thank coach Henrickson for being so accommodating on the trip and allowing me exclusive access.

» TUESDAY, NOON — The team begins a three-hour practice at Allen Fieldhouse before leaving town. The practice was sloppy at times, with Henrickson telling the team at one point that they had just completed the “worst offensive 30 minutes in the history of Allen Fieldhouse.” I wondered how the team would be able to put the poor practice behind them with the biggest game of the season to date a little more than 24 hours away. As we headed to the bus, I asked Henrickson how her team would regroup.

“It doesn’t mean that you’re going to stink tomorrow because you stunk today,” Henrickson said. “Learn from it; why did you struggle so much?”

That kind of teaching and motivation was displayed constantly from ‘Coach Bonnie’, as her players call her, throughout the trip. As we boarded the bus and headed to Forbes Field in Topeka for our charter flight, sophomore guard Kelly Kohn approached Henrickson and asked for extra help on the new plays installed at practice. Kohn, out indefinitely with a severely sprained ankle, has been able to do nothing but ride an elliptical machine and stationary bike during team workouts. As the bus cruised down I-70 and players and coaches munched on rib tips, chicken and other assorted items from Bigg’s Barbecue, Henrickson sat in the front of the bus with Kohn and used diagrams of the plays to explain the changes they had made to the current plays.

The Kansas offense had been struggling in recent games, so Henrickson and her staff added additional screens to the end of several current plays in an attempt to get more open shots.

» 4:30 P.M. — We arrived at Forbes Field and went directly onto the tarmac. Radio play-by-play broadcaster Nate Bukaty and Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony met us at the airport, as did a few other members of the 35-member traveling party. After our IDs were checked, we taxied to the runway and took off. The XM satellite radio available in each seat helped ease my anxiety about flying. Junior guard Ivana Catic wasn’t bothered by the short 80-minute flight to Waco after enduring several 20-hour plane trips to her home country, Serbia. The team usually flies in a bigger plane that she likes better because “there is a table in the middle of some of the seats that I can put my feet up on.”

In their seats, sophomore forward Porscha Weddington and some other players watched a DVD of Baylor’s plays on their laptop computers. With all the information being thrown at these players about Baylor’s players and offensive sets, I asked Catic what she tried to learn about an opposing team before a game.

“I like to know the tendencies of the guards, like if there is something extreme about them,” Catic said as she looked out the window at the setting sun. “Say a guard doesn’t really use their left hand or if they are not very good going right or they only shoot pull-ups going right. As far as plays, the signals help us prepare. If we see the signals, we will call out what’s coming up so it’s kind of easier to defend.”

As I sat with Catic, I noticed senior forward Taylor McIntosh reading some sort of chemistry or science book across the aisle. Hoping not to make her mad, I quietly asked what she was studying when school didn’t start for another two days. It turned out she was studying for the PCAT test for admission into pharmacy school, which she had to take on Saturday morning. McIntosh, who was allowed to take the test in Lawrence after first being told she would have to take the test at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, told me that the test started at 8:30 a.m. and that she hoped to be done around 1 p.m., only an hour before the team’s 2 p.m. game at Allen Fieldhouse against Missouri.

“It’s been hard because I started studying during first semester and I was trying to also study and keep my grades up for class,” McIntosh said. “Now that we’ve been out of school, we’ve been in the gym a ton so it’s not like I’ve had a ton more time. It’s been hard but I’ve been trying to study whenever I can.”

» 6:45 P.M. — We arrived in Waco and headed for our hotel, the Hilton Waco. Each room had a flat-screen plasma TV and plenty of other small amenities. Surprisingly, players told me this hotel was nothing compared to their favorite hotel, the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder, Colorado.

The team was in Colorado to play the Buffaloes last night and lost, 59-41.

After receiving room keys from Director of Women’s Basketball Operations Trena Anderson, who organizes all the road trips, including travel arrangements, meals and the hotel, the players met in one of the meeting rooms for dinner. Of the many things I learned on this trip, one was that the players never go hungry. After just eating Bigg’s on the bus a mere three hours earlier, they were treated to a full catered buffet dinner consisting of salad, chicken, fish, lasagna, mashed potatoes and vegetables. After several players voiced displeasure for the lasagna, Henrickson asked a waiter for a possible alternative. Within minutes, a large tray of fettucine noodles with meat sauce was brought out and added to the buffet in exchange for the odd-looking lasagna. Four large chocolate pies were also on the buffet, but players were not allowed to eat them.

» 7:50 P.M. — While the team finished eating, managers Shelby Scholz and Jake Spinka set up the video projector and DVD player in the front of the room so the players could watch film. The team usually watches a DVD scout tape of the opponent’s personnel and plays during the evening film session, but since each player was given a DVD copy of that tape before leaving for Waco, Henrickson decided to watch the first half of last year’s game against Baylor in Lawrence.

As they watched the film, Henrickson and the other coaches talked about different things that the team did right and wrong and things that Baylor would do similarly in the game the next night. After the half was over, ‘Coach Bonnie’ told the players to “talk to me about the first half” and players began discussing what worked and didn’t work and what they had to do better during Wednesday’s game. After a short talk Henrickson dismissed the players for the night, reminding them to watch the DVD scout tape they had received at least once before lights were to be turned out at 11 p.m.

One of the intriguing story lines surrounding the game was the status of Baylor junior guard Jessica Morrow, who was averaging 11.1 points per game but had missed Baylor’s previous game against Texas A&M. The KU coaching staff heard somewhere that she had been suspended for missing a practice.

“She’s not listed as a starter but she’s listed as a top reserve in the notes,” Henrickson said as we walked to the elevator to head to our rooms. “We anticipate that she’s going to play, and we prepared as if she was going to play. She may not start but I’ll bet she plays.”

» 9:15 P.M. — Players had just more than an hour and a half to do whatever they wanted but almost all of them made an appearance in the ‘snack room.’ Managers Andrea Florez and Amanda Randall’s room is the designated snack room on road trips and is filled with more snacks and drinks than anyone could imagine. Players could come and go, choosing a Gatorade or water from the cooler and snacks from the table. Junior forward Marija Zinic went with the Cheez-its while other players ate crackers or other snacks.

» 10:30 P.M. — Steve Wallace, the team’s graduate assistant, was in his room putting together his final scouting report for Missouri, Kansas’ next opponent on Saturday. The four assistant coaches divide the scouting reports and each take a team. They are required to make the DVD tape and a full scouting report with tendencies and plays and give them to Henrickson right after the preceding game. Wallace had already given her the DVD tape and was working on the scouting report when I stopped by.

» 11:15 P.M. — After talking to Wallace and observing everything for the day, I decided to head to bed and get some rest. From my first day of observations, it is obvious that Henrickson is here for the long haul. She and her assistants are determined to develop this program into something special, and it’s pretty evident that they are close to turning that corner.