Somewhere, deep in The Kansan’s vault, sits a collection of columns. These pieces — some as old as the paper itself, some young enough that the ink might still be wet — all make the same point: Students should better support nonrevenue sports. Of course, these columns don’t work. If they did, writers wouldn’t need to keep contributing to the stack.

It’s a good thing I’m not stuck writing one of those columns. Thankfully, the Kansas women’s basketball team sells itself.

I suppose it’s possible that you’ve been experiencing basketball withdrawals, unable to cope with the men’s basketball squad getting knocked out of the tournament last week. If that’s the case, then you may not have heard that Kansas basketball is still being played. Let me get you up to speed.

Tonight at 7, Allen Fieldhouse will serve as the venue for the semifinal round of the Women’s NIT. Kansas will face the Illinois State Redbirds.

To make it this far, Kansas defeated Creighton and Arkansas at home. But the Jayhawks, predictably enough, have been good at home all year. Victories away from Allen Fieldhouse have been much more difficult to come by. And “The Pit,” where the Jayhawks faced New Mexico on Monday, is a more difficult place to win than most. The Lobos fans made sure the arena lived up to its reputation. Throughout the game, they provided intense vocal support — but that’s nothing new. They also threw ice and various other objects on the court (actions I’d rather not see in Lawrence). That’s the environment Kansas was faced with winning in on Monday. Behind a spectacular — if unsurprising — 32-point and nine-rebound effort from Danielle McCray, Kansas did just that.

And so the Jayhawks get to return home. But if they’d like that homecoming to be a happy one, McCray might just need to put up similar numbers. The funny thing is, it would be surprising if she didn’t. McCray, a 5-foot-11 junior forward from Olathe, dropped 25 points and grabbed 13 boards against Creighton in the opening round of the WNIT. She followed that with a 35-and-eight effort against Arkansas. Given her 21-and-eight average (she also leads the team in free-throw percentage, three-point shooting, blocks and steals — no big deal), it’s easy to take stats like that for granted. See her play in person and you won’t make that mistake.

Of course, Kansas’ late season success can’t be attributed to one player alone, however gaudy her numbers. There’s plenty of credit to go around. Junior Sade Morris provides valuable supplementary scoring from the guard spot. Her backcourt mate, senior Ivana Catic, has the steadying hand and leadership abilites coaches love from point guards. The rebounding and presence sophomore center Krysten Boogaard offers, along with the continued emergence of freshman forward Aishah Sutherland (who had 10 rebounds off the bench against Oklahoma’s titanic Paris sisters earlier this season), has shored up the interior.

Kansas is good. Advancing to this stage isn’t a fluke. But then, Illinois State wouldn’t be here if it didn’t have ability too.

To put it as succinctly as possible: This is a final four (not the official title, but it has a nice ring to it) game between two good teams. It’s being played in Allen Fieldhouse tonight. One of those teams has “Kansas” on the front of its jerseys. If you’re a still-downtrodden Jayhawk basketball addict, consider this your perfect excuse to relapse.

— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger