Montemayor: Women earn their spotlight

Monday, April 6, 2009

Success breeds allure.

Saturday’s WNIT final at Allen Fieldhouse — a 75-71 loss to South Florida — offered 16,113 reasons why this team (and sport) is capable of drawing its own spotlight. At the birthplace of basketball, Kansas fans don’t discriminate when quality hoops are available.

It was a seismic shift from a few months ago, the worst month-long stretch of the season. Kansas went 1-8 in Big 12 play from Jan. 17 to Feb. 18.

The team hadn’t won more than 17 games and had struggled mightily in its conference during coach Bonnie Henrickson’s regime. How much longer did she have left here? How much longer would the program squalor?

Worse yet were how many people never considered those questions. Few followed this team. Few cared.

See, spirited conversation is welcome in sports or any product offered to the public. Jeers after an interception, disappointed glares after a missed layup and colorful comments attached to sports columns signify people care enough about the product to spend some of their finite time on it.

Home upsets of then-No. 5 Baylor and No. 21 Iowa State and a run in the WNIT tournament created a saturated Saturday Phog. Junior guard Danielle McCray’s mammoth tear through the tournament concluded the season in historic, deafening fashion.

Saturday’s attendance was the largest in Kansas women’s basketball history — besting 1994’s record by nearly 3,000 — and set a Big 12 women’s basketball record. Upon further review, the crowd was also:

• Bigger than any of the women’s Elite Eight games. Of the four, Oklahoma-Purdue had the highest attendance with 11,529. Kansas drew a Saturday crowd that was nearly three times the size of these games’ average attendance.

• Bigger than at either of men’s basketball first and second round tournament games against North Dakota State (15,794) and Dayton (14,279) respectively.

• As wired as fans in Allen Fieldhouse get. The decibel-meter gimmick employed before the game and during key breaks in action couldn’t keep up with this crowd. When Kansas surged to within one point of the Bulls with 2:22 left, the crowd’s reaction made the day special.

Before and after the game, fans lined to catch a glimpse of and applaud members of a program that hadn’t been relevant for a decade. All losses are disappointing, but occasionally a separate element supersedes the box score.

For the first time in a while, these ladies played in front of full, vibrant student sections. Many finally witnessed McCray and junior guard Sade Morris navigate the court. Sophomore center Krysten Boogaard and freshman forward Aishah Sutherland made hearts beat faster in the final minutes under the glass. This team won us over Saturday.

A similar crowd awaits in six months for Late Night at the Phog. Henrickson and her players fully expect that they’ll be in the NCAA tournament next year and so do I.

What also could be taken from Saturday is succinct evidence that women’s NCAA tournament games should be played on college courts. Having witnessed what the Jayhawks drew Saturday also supports calls for the women’s season to begin a month later and its tournament to stand alone from the men.

Alas, these are bureaucratic steps that have as realistic a chance as a college football playoff. What is certain, however, is that when this team builds success, fans will come.

— — Edited by Sonya English

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