110 YEARS OF KANSAS BASKETBALL
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
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Marion Washington brought stability to the Kansas women's basketball program during her 31 years as head coach. Under Washington, the Jayhawks played in 11 tournaments and advanced to the Sweet 16 in 1996.
Henrickson seeks to improve team
The year after that, they hired Marion Washington, who helped bring stability to the struggling Jayhawk program, remaining Kansas' coach for 31 years, during which she reached 11 tournaments, advancing furthest to the Sweet 16 in 1996.
After Washington's retirement from the program, Bonnie Henrickson, the coach of the Virginia Tech Hokies, took the job. An expert at turning around a losing program, Henrickson helped Virginia Tech improve by a span of 12 games in her first year.
Opposing coaches have been quick in their praise of the development of the KU women's basketball program.
"Kansas is doing a tremendous job of building a program," said Indiana head coach Felisha Legette-Jack, after a loss to KU. "I have 100 percent respect for Bonnie Henrickson for her style, class and ability to grow a program."
Even in losing, her abilities were
praised by Kurt Budke, coach of thenranked Oklahoma State. "I love their team. I think Bonnie is a great coach, and I think they have a whole lot of options, and they have a true star in (Danielle) McCray. I don't think there's any question they're an NCAA tournament team."
Although the Lady Jayhawks have not validated coach Budke's remarks in their first six games of Big 12 play, going 1-5, they have still shown glimpses of becoming a national threat. With a team starring mainly freshmen and sophomores, morale is still high. Senior Taylor McIntosh confirmed this.
"We just have to keep on fighting and not get down on ourselves." McIntosh said. "We are in a bad position right now, but we can turn it around. Last year we started out bad but then we kind of turned it on and finished strong. We don't want to wait too late, but we can definitely regroup."
1976-1977: The Hawks slightly improved from the season before. Although they once again tied for fourth with a 8-6 record in the Big 8, they improved their overall record for the season, going 18-10.
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN