Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Walking in downtown Lawrence the night before Kansas’ WNIT championship game last Saturday, junior forward Danielle McCray experienced a rare, although growing, phenomenon around Lawrence.
People not only recognized the 5-foot-11 McCray, which in itself represents a change from the norm, but they also wished Kansas’ top scorer well in the next day’s game against South Florida.
“That was pretty cool,” McCray said. “It’s not just the guys getting all the love.”
For much of this season — and for much of recent history — the excitement, talk and crowds for women’s basketball paled when measured against nights when Bill Self paced the sideline.
Although the women’s program may never be on the same popularity level, the WNIT semifinal and championship games hinted that women’s basketball is on the rise at Kansas.
A record 16,113 people flocked to Allen Fieldhouse for the WNIT title game, filling concourses and concession stands more than an hour before the game tipped off.
“They were so upset in the locker room because it means so much and hurts so much,” Henrickson said. “But we said ‘guys, look what you’ve done.’”
When players exited a nearby parking garage headed for Allen Fieldhouse, fans offered encouragement. When Henrickson pulled up for Saturday’s game, people had all ready begun tailgating.
It was the most people to ever see a game in a Big 12 arena. And it happened for a team that ranked eighth in attendance in the conference this season.
“Just by this game, even though we didn’t win, it will help bring fans in for next year,” McCray said. “They know how hard we work and how we came from the bottom.”
But the near-sellout wasn’t something Kansas expected after drawing paltry crowds in its first two WNIT home games.
Before Kansas’ semifinal game against Illinois State Henrickson stood in a large room with reporters surrounding her and one question kept coming back up. That one question, asked in a variety of ways, that no one seemed fully sure of the proper — or accurate — answer: Could women’s basketball draw a healthy-sized crowd?
“I’d be shocked if we don’t have five or six thousand people,” Henrickson said before the game. “I really would be.”
At the time, that answer appeared realistic, although considering Kansas combined for just 3,857 fans in its first two WNIT games, it may have been ambitious.
But the Jayhawks drew 8,360 people in the semifinal and doubled that number in the championship.
Therein lies the question: Were those two totals merely a fad, a trend people latched onto for the time being, or do they represent the foundation of consistent fan support?
“The next time we roll it out, we’re going to be at Late Night in front of 16,000 people again,” Henrickson said. “That’s awful exciting, and I think we build from here.”
— — Edited by Chris Hickerson
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