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PAGE 1C
WWW.KANSAN.COM
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: 73-51
'Hawks' switch-up pays off in UMKC match
Wisconsin match looms as telling test
BY RYAN SCHNEIDER
rschneider@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
Although final exams loom ahead for the student body, the first major test of the season comes Sunday for the Kansas women's basketball team.
Kansas, 6-0, plays its biggest game of the young season Sunday against Wisconsin, after winning consecutive victories by at least 20 points
against New Orleans and UMKC.
L.
Kansas women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson thinks her team is up to the challenge of playing a Wisconsin team, who has already played two of the top 20 teams in the country. She said the Badgers would be similar to teams the Jay hawks would play from the Big 12 Conference North Division.
think it's a great measuring stick for us, it will be a good learning tool for us, no matter what happens, win or lose, we'll learn a lot from the game."
The game should provide a good preview to future Big 12 games for newcomers who see major minutes, such as freshman guard Ivana Catic, freshman forward Marija Zinic and junior transfer guard Shaquina Mosley.
Bonnie Henrickson Kansas women's basketball coach
"I think it's a great measuring stick for us," Henrickson said. "It will be a good learning tool for us, no matter what happens, win or lose, we'll learn a lot from that game."
The feel of a conference-type game should be intensified by trying to stop one of the Big 10 Conference's best players.
Stopping Anderson, however, won't be an easy task. Two Wisconsin guards, Anderson and sophomore Janese
Wisconsin returns the reigning Big 10 Freshman of the Year, guard Jolene Anderson. Through her team's first seven games, Anderson averaged 15.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
Banks average double-digit point totals.
"It's definitely going to be a challenge," Catic said. "It will be a test for us just to show if we're ready to play or not."
SEE HAWKS ON PAGE 6C
VIEW FROM PRESS ROW
Young team running out of time to grow
After seven games and a 3-4 record, it's clear the Kansas men's basketball team is in for a bigger rebuilding process than expected.
Before the season began, every college basketball Web site and magazine agreed that coach Bill Self's squad was loaded with young talent that would make the Jayhawks a dangerous team by the NCAA tournament.
While it's true that Kansas is booming with potential, it's going to take a while for that promise to turn into victories.
Kansas' schedule is too difficult, the Big 12 Conference is too strong and the Jayhawks have already suffered too many losses to assume that reaching the NCAA tournament will be a lock.
So long, in fact, that the Jayhawks could find themselves in the NIT.
If the field of 65 were chosen today, Kansas would be so far away from receiving a bid that the selection committee wouldn't even consider the Jayhawks.
Unless Kansas defeats either California, 6-1, or Kentucky, 6-2, it will end the nonconference schedule without a single quality victory.
KELIS ROBINETT
KROBINETT@KANSAN.COM
That leaves Big 12 play, where every road game will be difficult because of Kansas' youth.
Of course, with three months remaining in the season, things can still change. But it does show just how much ground Kansas has to make up.
It wasn't until Kirk Hinrich, Drew Gooden and Nick Collison — a recruiting class often compared to this year's — were juniors that they learned to win on the road.
Even Missouri and Oklahoma State, which have already lost home games to Sam Houston State and Northwestern
Middle of the pack teams like Colorado, Texas A&M and Kansas State will also push Kansas to the brink because they will see this as their year to finally beat the Javhawks.
State respectively, will have enough fan support to give Kansas all it can handle.
With two virtually certain losses, if even a handful of the other games that could go either way go against the Jayhawks, and they finish with a record like 16-13, they could be on the wrong side of the bubble come March.
Then there's Texas and Oklahoma, both top 10 teams, that Kansas currently appears to have no chance against.
Of course, if Kansas learns from its early close losses and victories — the majority of its conference games — it could be a first-round favorite in the NCAA tournament.
Remember, Colorado has finished with a 10-6 conference record and missed the NCAA tournament.
But the team will have to grow up in a hurry.
Forwards Brandon Rush,
Sasha Kaun and C.J. Giles
have each showed flashes of
brilliance.
But for every great play the two sophomores make, they miss a lay-up by two feet or fail to properly execute a double team.
Guard play is also lacking. So much so, that senior Stephen Vinson, a former walkout of Lawrence High School, has at times outplayed the guards who were McDonald's High School All-Americans.
Then again, that team had Danny Manning as a senior. This team's best player is Brandon Rush as a freshman.
But who knows? Even the KU National Championship squad of 1988 was 12-8 before it started clicking.
Worst of all, no one seems to be able to make free throws. That's a problem that coaching can't fix by the time I graduate later this month.
♦ Robinett is an Austin, Texas,
senior in journalism. He is
Kansan sports editor.
Players take on new roles as bench players lead team
BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS
mphillips@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
It was opposite day at Allen Fieldhouse, as Ivana Catie did the scoring and Erica Hallman had the assists in Kansas' 73-51 victory over UMKC.
Catic, a freshman guard, came into the game leading the NCAA in assists per game with 8.2. Most of those went to senior guard Hallman, who was averaging 19 points per game.
But last night, Hallman finished with seven assists and Catic had 13 points, including three 3-point shots.
The game started slowly, with the score lagging at 11-8 midway through the first half.
UMKC was playing a zone defense, which was something the Jayhawks had not experienced often and that they did not adjust to quickly.
Catic scored eight of those points.
"They played it tentatively." Kansas women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson said. "Without the ball we weren't ready to take a shot."
"I think throughout the game we started attacking the zone more and getting more shots," senior guard Kaylee Brown said.
Henrickson left the starters in through the whole first half and most of the second, saving she was allowing them to adjust to the zone.
Only seven players saw time in the first 30 minutes of the game.
The lineup went on a run again early in the second half when the team scored seven in a row to increase its lead to 20 and seal the victory.
Most notable was freshman forward Marija Zinic, who beat sophomore forward Jamie Boyd off the bench and was just two points away from a double-double.
Foul trouble had been plaguing Zinic this season, but she finished with just two fouls, which she said allowed her to become more aggressive.
"Marija does a lot of really good things," Henrickson said. "I think she's going to help us out a lot."
Perhaps the most encouraging sign for the team was that it did not seem to care much about the victory or the 6-0 record, but instead focused on its play and how it would hold up against Big 12 Conference competition.
Catic was quick to dismiss UMKC's 28 turnovers, saying Kansas still needed work defensively.
Zinic said she was trying to prepare herself for the tougher competition she will face.
"Those are the numbers, but what we focus on more is how we defend our screens and how we communicate," she said.
FOOTBALL
SEE BASKETBALL ON PAGE 6C
BY RYAN COLIAMNI rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
In Banks Floodman's first year on the field at Kansas the team won two games.
Senior strides benefit program
Three years later, the senior linebacker and many other members of the team's senior class will be playing in their second bowl game in two years.
Many of the seniors on the team were taking a chance by selecting Kansas under first-year coach Mark Mangino in 2002. Mangino said it was a chance because of the previous struggles of the football team and that players had to select Kansas based on faith.
Oh, how far this senior class has come.
The senior class helped end an 11-year losing streak to Kansas State in 2004 and defeated Missouri three straight times. The most important streak that the seniors helped end was the 36-year losing streak to Nebraska, which ended in November. The seniors also were perfect at home this year, going 6-0 at Memorial Stadium, a school record.
Players like senior linebackers Nick Reid and Kevin Kane took that chance, and with the help of Floodman have built one of the top defenses in the country.
Floodman said that the team's chemistry was vastly different from when he first arrived at Kansas in 2001.
"The chemistry, as a hole.
can't be matched by many teams in the past. I think we have shown that even through some adversity that our team can come together and we love to play together," Floodman said. "It has been a pleasure to play with each other. How we have been growing every year is just so much fun to see everyone go out there."
After the team accepted an invitation to play in the Fort Worth Bowl, senior players talked about what it was like to be playing in a bowl game for their final college football game.
“It's exciting,” Floodman said. "It's an honor to be able to play with these guys and go on top in the bowl,"
Floodman expects many family members and friends to attend the game due to the proximity from his home in Wichita.
Before the season, the seniors talked about how important it was for the team to qualify for bowl play.
The senior class feels like playing in their second bowl game in three seasons shows that they have helped build the program.
"It's a big help for the program, for the future of the program," senior quarterback Brian Luke said. "For us seniors accomplishing all the things we did at home this year, you just can't help but feel good about it."
SEE STRIDES ON PAGE 6C