Women’s basketball has eye on the prize

By Christian Lucero, Ben Ward

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Flash back to April 4. The scene, Allen Fieldhouse. The air in the Phog thick with excitement, packed with screaming Jayhawk fans working themselves into a frenzy to watch postseason basketball.

In a venue rich with tradition, the Kansas women’s basketball team took center stage on the hardwood.

The team hosted the WNIT Championship, drawing a record crowd of 16,113 — the largest women’s basketball game attendance in Big 12 history.

Kansas ended up losing the contest to South Florida 75-71, but is determined to build on last season’s finish.

Gearing up for another postseason run, the Jayhawks have their eyes set on an even bigger stage.

“We have high expectations this year. We definitely expect to go far,” senior guard Sade Morris said. “Hopefully we’ll compete at the top of the Big 12 and go deep into the NCAA Tournament.”

In order to do so, the Jayhawks must first go through another challenging schedule, coming off a season where they had one of the toughest in the nation. Kansas will play eight games against conference opponents who made the NCAA Tournament, as well as five non-conference teams that qualified for postseason play.

The Jayhawks also lost four players to graduation but returning are nine players, including four starters from last year.

Additionally, Kansas welcomes six newcomers to the program, four freshmen and two transfer students. Coach Bonnie Henrickson thinks the Jayhawks have the necessary talent in place.

“We’re excited about this season,” Henrickson said. “We’ve got four starters returning, a really good group off of the bench, and also the young kids having a chance to come in and help us.”

The returning starters were all major contributors to the team last season. In addition to Morris, the Jayhawks return junior center Krysten Boogaard, junior forward Nicollette Smith and senior guard-forward Danielle McCray, who led the team in both scoring and rebounding.

The team has been busy working all summer, both in the classroom and on the court — but McCray had an especially busy offseason. The Olathe native recently helped lead Team USA to a gold medal at the Women’s World University Games in Belgrade, Serbia. Returning to campus as one of the team’s leaders, McCray hopes to use her experiences overseas to benefit the team.

“The experience of playing with all of those talented girls really motivated me,” McCray said. “I want to help take our team to that level of success.”

McCray also echoed Morris’ sentiments regarding increased expectations for this season.

“The WNIT was definitely good for our confidence,” McCray said. “We’re trying to get better and better, hopefully move from the WNIT to the NCAA Tournament this year.”

After all their hard work this summer, the Jayhawks should be more than ready for their Nov. 1 opener against Pittsburg State.

“We’ve had a great summer and our kids have been fantastic,” Henrickson said. “They’re excited about the season, and they should be.”

— — Edited by Amanda Thompson

Comments

The_National_League (anonymous) says...

i just read this and got chubbed up

August 31, 2009 at 3:14 p.m. ( | suggest removal )

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