PAGE 6
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Going home to College Station, once again
KATHLEEN GIER
kgier@kansan.com
AQunesia Franklin hit a fade away jumper from the ground with one second left to defeat Kansas her freshman year in 2005. She and Texas A&M went undefeated against Kansas in her four-year career.
Now, seven years later, Franklin is returning to College Station for a game and a reunion, but the two-time AP All-American Honorable Mention recipient is on a different sideline now. Franklin joined the Kansas coaching staff as an assistant in May and works primarily with the point guards.
The Javahawks will face defending national champion No. 18 Texas A&M on the road Saturday night. This isn't Franklin's first game against the Aggies since graduation and her year as a graduate assistant, but this is her first one back in Reed Arena. The Javahawks lost to the Aggies on Jan. 21, and it was an emotional game for Franklin.
"She hit a shot falling on her rear end - I am over it now though - but it was in the second half on the left baseline," said Kansas coach Bonnie Henrickson. "She ended up with the ball, hit it and beat us, but I still hired her. I thought enough of her."
Texas A&M coach Gary Blair and a number of assistants and
other staff members, were familiar faces on the sideline from her years in the program.
"Seeing those guys, it was good, but there was a weird feel," Franklin said. "When the ball went up in the air I was totally fine, just ready to beat them."
After taking the Aggies to the Elite Eight her senior year, she returned as a graduate assistant. From there she coached the Houston Elite, an AAU team in Houston, before moving on to an assistant coaching job at Stephen F. Austin. She took the opportunity with some former teammates to attend every Texas A&M game on its way to its national championship last season.
When Franklin arrived at Texas A&M, the team was coming off a 9-19 season with a loss in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. But through her four years, they worked to a WNIT appearance, a Sweet Sixteen and then an Elite Eight her senior season.
"It was very emotional for me just because I know what the girls go through and where the program has come from," Franklin said.
Franklin is hoping to bring some of that success to the Jayhawks. She is quiet and hasn't scrimmaged with the team this year since she banged up her knee but keeps a watchful eye from under the basket. Each
day in practice she takes players to the side one-by-one and coaches them privately. She works mostly with the point guards junior Angel Goodrich and freshman Natalie Knight, but has built a relationship with each position. Her main objectives with these players are their timing and flow of the game.
"It is a pleasure to work with her and we really listen to everything she has to say, but she is not just our coach. We feel like we can talk to her about anything." Knight said.
Franklin prides herself on her connection with the athletes. They make up nicknames like "Aquafresh" and challenge her after practice and she plays along. She mocks them back, but it's all innocent fun. They take it as motivation and with these two players, their growth has shown this season. Goodrich is leading the nation in assists per game, and Knight has turned in a solid freshman campaign with increasing offensive production.
"She has helped me to be aggressive," Goodrich said. "She helps me be more confident and she helps me to take the little things off my mind, like if I miss a shot."
Franklin joins Henrickson, Chester Nichols and Tory Verdi. During her time with Texas A&M she played against Henrickson at Kansas and Verdi at Nebraska. She
was also recruited by Nichols when he coached at West Virginia.
Her connections run deeper as she drops the names of almost every Jayhawk from Texas with Carolyn Davis, Chelsea Gardner and Bunny Williams. She and Davis played for the same AAU team and then she recruited Gardner and Williams at SFA.
Franklin started playing basketball around the age of five when her mom gave her a hoop. She tried track, gymnastics, dance and volleyball, but she knew all along that she wanted to play basketball and she had the fortune of being pretty good at it. She convinced a YMCA coach to let her and a friend onto their all-boys team and she definitely earned her spot. From there she played high school, AAU, college, WNA and Euroball.
Three years out of the league, she is happy to be back on the sidelines, leading the layhawks and fighting for a win against her alma mater.
"Getting into coaching, I just wanted to give back and let young kids experience what I got to experience through my career and playing." Franklin said. "I love the game, I study the game and I really want to give back to those guys so that is why I got into coaching."
Edited by Nadia Imafidon
A'Qunesia Franklin, a two-time AP All-American Honorable Mention recipient while playing basketball at Texas A&M, now coaches point guards at Kansas. Saturday's game at College Station, Texas, will be her first time at Reed Arena as a visitor.
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
SWIMMING AND DIVING
Olympic swimmers visit, motivate team before duel
ALEC TILSON
atilson@kansan.com
CHRIS BRONSON/KANSAN
Members of the Kansas swimming and diving team gathered in Hadi Auditorium Jan. 29, and before them stood two five-time Olympic medalists, Ian Crocker and Josh Davis.
Sophomore diver Alyssa Golden flies through the air during the women's three-meter diving at Intrasquad meet on Sept. 30 at Robinson Natatorium. Golden won the event. KU's season began on Oct. 8 at Arizona.
The former U.S. Olympic swimmers spoke to the team, urging them to stay focused and be positive as they continue to prepare for the home stretch of the season.
The next step in that preparation comes Friday and Saturday when Kansas will compete in a non-traditional dual meet against Iowa State in Ames, Iowa. Kansas hopes to use Sunday's meeting as motivation.
"They talked a lot about good team chemistry and that's really what we want to see," coach Clark Campbell said. "We want to be a team that's really positive and supportive of one another and that will start this weekend."
Most events will be shortened, so much so that each session is scheduled for an hour each day. Instead of the standard 200-yard races, they will be 150 yards; instead of 400-yard relays, they will be 300 yards. The 200-yard relays will still be held. The format, designed and agreed upon by the two coaches, is the only one of its kind in the country.
Because races are shortened, times are not standardized, making it difficult to pace what exactly a good or bad time is. It's more or less a dead sprint in most events, and the swimmers tend to enjoy it.
"it's good that it's non-tradition- al," senior Kath Liggett said. "It's a
way of allowing people to have another racing opportunity without freaking out mentally so much."
Coaches from both schools formatted the meet to mimic the Big 12 Championships occurring later this month and have done it this way for many years.
Kansas divers junior Christy Cash and sophomore Alysza Golden will also use this final dual meet to prepare themselves for the major competitions at the end of the year.
"It's about being competitive and being fun and enjoying our last dual meet of the season," junior Rebecca Swank said.
Each of the coaching staffs has come to know the other well over the years, but diving coach Eric Elliot said both teams have the same goal.
They will dive a preliminary round on the first day and a final round on the next.
— Edited by Nadia Imafidon
FOOTBALL
Border War coaches regret loss of rivalry
ETHAN PADWAY epadway@kansan.com
The biggest collateral damage caused by Missouri's decision to leave the Big 12 last fall is the end to the Border Showdown, the second-most played rivalry in college football.
While the rivalry on the field has seemingly ended, the memories will live on with two Kansas football coaches, special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach Clint Bowen and linebackers coach DeMontie Cross. Each laced up their cleats for the game, though they played for different sides.
"It's ridiculous, Kansas and Missouri go together, that's just the way it is." Bowen said. "We're in the same conference, we play each other once a year, and that's the way it is. Why they would go and leave is very unfortunate. I think it's very unfortunate. Its one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports and it should've found a way to stay together."
Bowen has Jayhawk blood running through his veins. His great-grandparents lived in Lawrence and his older brother Charley played for Kansas. His grandfather told him and his brother that they could play football anywhere they wanted
in the nation, except Missouri.
Bowen left Kansas his sophomore year because of personal differences with a coach, but he returned after playing a season at Butler Community College.
In his senior year, Kansas shut out Missouri 28-0 in the Border Showdown.
Cross comes from the other sideline. A St. Louis native, he played for the Tigers and started his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Missouri.
But now that he'll be roaming the home sideline of Memorial Stadium for the first time in his career on Saturdays next fall. Cross has traded in his allegiance.
"There's a lot of history and there's a lot of love there, but my loyalty is to Kansas and coach Weis," Cross said. "That's where it lies, that's where it starts and ends right now."
Bowen began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for Kansas. He remained with the Jayhawks until the 2009 season, moving up the ladder to defensive coordinator.
Even while he was coaching at North Texas last season, Bowen admitted that his sons' rooms were decorated with Jayhawks merchandise.
Cross felt the full effect of the hatred between the schools
after he accepted the job as the linebackers coach at Kansas. Friends and former players sent him texts that read "Benedict, traitor, [and] just some I care not to share," Cross said.
"But it was hilarious, again they follow me throughout my coaching career and to come to a rival school. It's hard for them to cheer for me. They'll support me all the way, but I think it's a lot harder for them than it is for me," Cross said.
The pain Cross's former teammates will feel cheering for him as he teaches the Kansas linebackers this fall will be lessened by the fact that Missouri will not be on his schedule.
But for someone like Bowen, who grew up with the rivalry, the feelings will remain the same, even without the teams directly competing against each other.
As each side of the rivalry points fingers at the other, Bowen knows where he places the blame.
"Missouri messes it up again. Does Missouri do anything right? Those are my thoughts," he said. "If it can go wrong, just count on Missouri to do it."
- Edited by Max Rothman
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TRACK AND FIELD
Kansas to face first ranked opponents
The Kansas track and field teams will compete in the New Balance Invitational this weekend at the Armory Track and Field Center in New York City. The New Balance Invitational has become the biggest and best college indoor track and field meet of the season. The
MAX GOODWIN
mgoodwin@kansan.com
944 Massachusetts Street
785. 832.8228
This is the first meet of the year where the Jayhawks will compete against nationally ranked opponents. For many of the Kansas
competition is in its 11th year and is hosting 17 of the top 25 ranked teams on both sides of the men's and women's events.
teams' top athletes, they will face the same opponents whom they will later encounter during the Big 12 and National Championship meets.
"We're very excited to go to New York this
For sophomore sprinter Diamond Dixon, the 200-meter dash will be important event this weekend. She hopes to become a regular
from all over the country, and we're looking forward to competing against them to see where we are as a team."
in the 200-meter,
the 200-meter,
but but this will
only be the
her third time
running the
200 - meter
during her
college career.
" W h o knows how many more opportuni-
weekend and to have the opportunity to compete against the nation's best," coach Stanley Redwine said. "This meet will get competition
ties I'll have to
I have to run the 200, so I want to use this opportunity to do the best I can," Dixon said. "I think the competition is pretty fierce, but I feel like I
should do well."
The women's team is currently ranked No. 1 in the Midwest region after strong performances early in the season. The men's team has fallen to No. 10 in the Midwest, and will look to improve on what they've accomplished so far.
"Tough competition brings out the best and the worst in you," Red-wine said. "And in order to do well at the meets toward the end of the year, we have to be able to handle the pressure of having really good athletes going up against us. This meet will give us a good head-start to seeing how we can handle that pressure."
Kuathletics.com is running a live video of the New Balance Invitational starting today at 10:30 a.m. on the track and field page for anyone to watch.
Edited by Corinne Westeman