Thursday, January 8, 2009
Moments after an uncontested layup by Fairfield’s Tara Flaherty cut Kansas’ 16-point halftime advantage to single digits, coach Bonnie Henrickson glanced towards the Allen Fieldhouse floor and shook her head.
On the other side of the court, one especially vocal season-ticket holder sighed and summed Henrickson’s frustrations up in seven words.
“We’ve got a long ways to go,” he said to nobody in particular.
Photo Gallery
Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Fairfield
A photo gallery of the women's basketball game Monday night against Fairfield.
Kansas would eventually coast to an unspectacular 80-60 victory in its nonconference finale, but those seven words ring true for Henrickson’s team as conference play looms large. The Jayhawks are 11-2 for the second-consecutive season, dominating their nonconference opponents by an average of 20 points per contest behind the spectacular play of junior forward Danielle McCray and much improved three-point shooting.
But as Henrickson will tell you, those moments that make her shake her head pop up all too regularly and must be corrected if Kansas intends to improve on its 4-12 conference record in 2008.
The Jayhawks faded down the stretch a year ago, losing all eight of their conference road games and dropping five-straight games to finish the regular season, dooming any NCAA Tournament hopes. Consistency remains an issue one year later, Kansas is last in the Big 12 in turnover margin, but Henrickson said her players are beginning to understand what it takes to be successful in the rugged Big 12.
Since Henrickson flip-flopped junior guard LaChelda Jacobs' role from starting point guard to bench contributor three games ago, both Jacobs and her replacement, senior guard Ivana Catic, have settled down to lead the Jayhawks to 13.3 turnovers per game. The timing couldn’t be better for a team averaging 17.3 turnovers against lesser opponents than the ones they will encounter in the next three months.
“It matters every single day,” Henrickson said of the focus necessary to succeed in a Big 12 conference that is mostly intact from a year ago. “I said ‘raise you’re hand if you think this is a grind’ and everyone kind of rolled their eyes and said yes. But it is a grind, an every-day grind.”
Ask the players if they feel a difference from this time last year, and they’ll point to the maturity and confidence gained from last season’s close calls and this season’s encouraging performances.
“Just talking to my teammates in the locker room, the environment is just so much better than it was last year,” McCray said. “After the game, we were already talking to each other about what (conference play) is going to be like.”
Henrickson knows her team needs a marquee road victory to bolster itself before what promises to be a grueling schedule. Kansas may not have a better opportunity to prove it’s moved past last season's road woes than the one that will present itself in Manhattan on Saturday night.
Kansas State enters the contest 13-0, one of only five remaining unbeaten teams nationally, but Henrickson said her players wouldn’t intimidated by their opponents record or the raucous environment. She pointed towards the close nature of the game in Manhattan last season, Kansas lost by six, and said the team felt confident that it could compete with Kansas State in Bramlage Coliseum.
For now Kansas has a long way to go, 16 games to be exact, but the slate is clean and a crucial Sunflower Showdown awaits before conference play begins in earnest.
“Its an opportunity for a signature win on our schedule right away,” Henrickson said. “But the Big 12 gives you that most nights. If not every night, every other."
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Comments
Conference play arrives for women's basketball team
Dear Coach, Let's play Wichita State in basketball next year at the Fieldhouse. You will get better attendance! My daughter will love it!
KU Alumnus
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