Jayhawks look ahead to next women’s basketball season

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Bonnie Henrickson will tell you she loved getting the chance to coach her Kansas women’s basketball team for two extra weeks last season. Loved preparing them for two more games in March. And loved the tournament atmosphere that surrounded the Jayhawks.

Still, coach Henrickson admitted the experience wasn’t exactly satisfying because her team was competing in the less significant Women’s National Invitational Tournament postseason, and were not selected as one of the top 64 teams in the country for the NCAA Tournament.

“It was a taste of postseason,” Henrickson said. “But ultimately not the taste we’re looking for.”

As the University prepares for the 2008-2009 season, the players and their coach are out to prove they’re capable of playing in the only postseason tournament that matters in their minds.

“Everybody knows what it takes,” sophomore guard Chakeitha Weldon said. “So we’re doing everything we can to be successful.”

Players said they have already noticed a difference in the team’s attitude this summer as individual workouts and pickup games progress.

“At workouts, when we have one person lead, everyone listens,” said junior guard Danielle McCray, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder. “Just communicating well. When we work out, everyone’s been clapping each other on. Last year, we were kind of there, but it wasn’t always consistent.”

Ah, yes. Consistency. A word tossed around a lot in regards to last year’s Jayhawks. Or more accurately, a lack of consistency.

“You look at our record and we’re a better basketball team than our record,” Henrickson said. “We were close and didn’t finish. We’ve got to be able to take care of games at home and find a way to win on a road. Were we tough at times? Were we disciplined at times? Yeah. But not consistently.”

Last season, the Jayhawks began 11-2 in nonconference play but backpedaled when they reached Big 12 Conference play. The University ended its season with a 58-54 loss at Michigan State in the WNIT’s second round to finish 17-16. It was the University’s second winning season in Henrickson’s four years with the Jayhawks. But it also meant that Kansas finished its final 20 games with a 6-14 record.

Henrickson said too many turnovers and few trips to the free throw line were key reasons the team struggled to pull ahead in close games. Of the Jayhawks’ 16 losses, eight were by single digits.

Kansas has reason to be optimistic this season, though. The Jayhawks return with 12 players from last year’s team. That means 10 of the team’s top 11 scorers return, including the top three — McCray, junior guard Sade Morris and sophomore center Krysten Boogaard.

Adding to the mix this season will be two freshmen. Heralded prospect Angel Goodrich, a 5-foot-4 point guard from Oklahoma and Aishah Sutherland, a 6-2 forward from California, could both contribute immediately. Both have been on campus for parts of the summer and impressed teammates.

“They’re really good,” junior forward Porscha Weddington said. “They came in really in shape, and they’ve been doing well in all the workouts and in pickup.”

The Jayhawks have only been to the postseason twice since 2000, and both times they found themselves playing in the WNIT. Still, that hasn’t deterred players from thinking NCAA Tournament this season. Many consider this year’s nucleus of returning players and freshmen could be just the right mix to get over the hump.

“I feel we could have made it to the NCAA Tournament,” Weldon said about last season. “This year we will make it. There’s no doubt about it.”

— Edited by Kristin Hoppa

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