Thursday, March 5, 2009
Senior Katie Smith walked in the locker room after Kansas’ victory Wednesday night and told her teammates that she would probably remember two games against Baylor the most from her career.
The first: a 50-point loss to Baylor in Waco, Texas her freshman year. Then Ivana Catic cried after the game because she was embarrassed.
Photo Gallery
Kansas Women's Basketball vs. Baylor
A photo gallery of the women's basketball game against Baylor.
The second: a 24-point victory over the No. 5 Lady Bears on Senior Day. Smith cried this time; she couldn’t hold back the tears as she walked onto the floor covered in roses and picked up her framed jersey.
Look how things have changed.
“It just goes to show how much this program has grown,” Smith said. “It’s all thanks to Bonnie and her hard work and determination as a coach.”
But coach Bonnie Henrickson isn’t ready to rest.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do yet,” Henrickson said.
After losses to Missouri and Colorado, two teams currently at the bottom of the Big 12 standings, Kansas’ hopes for making the NCAA tournament, let alone the WNIT, were nearly impossible at best. But now that they’ve rattled off four consecutive wins and beaten a team like Baylor, they are most definitely back in the hunt.
“We’re still in the mix, we’re still in the conversation,” Henrickson said about their chances for the tournament. “We’re at the table at least.”
However, the absence of Baylor senior forward Danielle Wilson may have an impact on the committee selecting the Jayhawks for the 64-team field.
But both Henrickson and senior Ivana Catic realize that they can’t look into the future too much: a matchup with Iowa State at rowdy Hilton Coliseum looms on Saturday. Catic thinks they can win their fifth in a row, but they can’t slacken after this gutsy victory.
“Anything is possible, and that’s really exciting,” Catic said. “We need two days of good practice.”
The seniors, who all checked in with just under four minutes to play, may not play as much for the rest of the season, but Henrickson said they will definitely still affect practice.
Senior Marija Zinic and junior Rebecca Feickert are key members of the scout team. Smith said that while she can’t be a “body in there pushing and shoving” because of a knee injury that ended her season, she still tries to motivate the team as best she can.
All the motivation may be necessary if the Jayhawks want to make the tournament. Zinic hopes that this was her last game in Allen Fieldhouse and that the Jayhawks won’t host a WNIT game like they did last year.
But all in all, it was a very memorable day for the three seniors and one junior, collectively grouped together as the “four seniors” by Henrickson. All of them put the game among their favorite moments in their KU careers.
“It was a great day for four seniors who deserve that,” Henrickson said.
— — Edited by Chris Horn
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