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Women’s Basketball looking for improvement

By Andrew Taylor

Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Kansas Jayhawks’ 86-56 victory against Pittsburg State last Sunday was not as lopsided as it could have been.

The game was marred with some bad decisions and missed opportunities that generally make up the gameplay of an exhibition event.

“Our point guards made great decisions at times, and then tried to make things happen that weren’t there,” Henrickson said.

These miscues, if not corrected, may haunt the Jayhawks during regular season play against much tougher competition.

On the night the Jayhawks turned the ball over to the Gorillas 20 times, six turnovers coming from the point guard position. Often, those turnovers occurred when the guard would try to force the ball to a well-defended player under the basket. The post players also failed to help their guards by not making plays on the ball to keep the possession alive.

“As post players, if it’s a bad pass, we’ve got to save the pass or at least keep it in play and make something happen,” Henrickson said. “And we didn’t do that.”

These miscommunications weren’t limited to the half-court offense, though, as Kansas often failed to capitalize with their fast break offense following Pitt. State turnovers. On more than one occasion the Jayhawks gave the ball right back to Pitt. State because of bad execution down the court.

“I think we had six opportunities where we just didn’t catch the ball,” Henrickson said.

While the Jayhawks struggled to capitalize on the 24 turnovers they caused and get points on the board, they gave Pitt. State 26 attempts from the free-throw line on 17 team fouls. Although the Gorillas only knocked down 13 of the free throws for just 50 percent, the Jayhawks won’t be able to count on every team they play this year shooting poorly from the line.

This is well illustrated by looking at last year’s game against Texas, a team picked to finish tied for second with Kansas in the Big 12 this year. Kansas allowed Texas to take 34 free throw attempts. The Longhorns made 24 of those and the Jayhawks lost by just eight points.

“As far as missed opportunities, you know, we’ve got to clean up,” Henrickson said.

As the Jayhawks look to correct the mistakes they encountered against Pitt. State, freshman point guard Angel Goodrich looks to clean up her game as well.

“I’m going to work on my defense and getting through screens and just making better decisions,” Goodrich said.

With one more exhibition game to go before the regular season kicks off Nov. 15 against Oral Roberts, Kansas will seek to improve in various areas of their game.

“It’s fun to see how we fit in against another team right now and see what we need to work on,” senior guard Danielle McCray said following the game last Sunday.

— Edited by Alicia Banister

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