University Daily Kansan / Wednesday, March 4. 1992
SPORTS
13
Unexpected couldn't keep women from Big 8 crown
Just nine.
How many Jayhawks does it take to win a conference championship?
On Saturday, the Kansas women's team battled back from a 34-32 half time deficit and beat Missouri 70-57. The victory clinched the team's first Big Eight Conference title since it was co-champion in 1987, and its first outright championship since 1981.
This was an expected outcome at the end of last season when the Jayhawks seemed to be the obvious favorite to win the Big Eight Conference title in 1991-92. Kansas would return all of its starters, and add a nationally ranked recruiting class. However, to meet expectations, the team would have to overcome the unexpected.
The recruiting class was reduced from three freshmen to two when forward Caryn Shinn failed to meet academic requirements. To make matters worse, top reserve Misti Chennault transferred in the summer.
In the preseason, the Jayhawks still were picked by the conference coaches to win the Big Eight title. But Coach Marian Washington qualified those predictions by saying Kansas would need big things from junior center Lisa Tate and a season free of serious injuries to win the Big Eight.
She got neither.
After setting a conference record with 82 blocked shots last season, Tate was expected to play an even bigger role in the paint this season. But a stress fracture limited her to just five games before she was relegated to the bench in early January. With the 6-foot-3 center out of the lineup, the 'Hawks were a much smaller team, and Kansas lost two straight, including its conference opener to Missouri.
But Kansas bounced back as senior forward Tanya Bonham and junior forward Marthea McCloud picked up some of the slack in Tate's absence. Beginning with the Creighton game—Tate's last —McCloud scored 45 points and grabbed 36 rebounds in a five-game period.
However, the day before Kansas' Jan. 21 contest with Iowa State, Bonham suffered a career-ending tear at the anterior cruciate ligament. Four
Coaches poll results
In the 1992 postseason Big Eight Conference coaches poll, Coach Marian Washington and players Terrilyn Johnson, Kay Hart Mary and Angela Aycock earned awards.
First Team Honors Position Height Year
Tricka Fields, Missouri F 6-0 Sr.
Terrilyn Johnson, Kansas F 5-11 Sr.
Karen Jennings, Nebraska F 6-2 Jr.
Lisa McGill, Oklahoma State C/F 5-11 Jr.
Kay Kay Hart, Kansas G 5-7 Jr.
Honorable mention: Angela Avock, Kansas
Player of the Year: Karen Jennings, Nebraska
Coach of the Year: Marian Washington, Kansas
Newcomer of the Year: Shelley Sheetz, Colorado
Almee Brainard, Daily Kansan
Source: Big Eight Conference Service Bureau
days later, McCloud suffered a similar injury and was lost for the season. The serious injuries were over, but three starters would miss action as they suffered a myriad of the bizarre: a bruised kidney, a concussion and bronchitis. Washington, the Big Eight coach of the year, has utilized eight different starting lineups and eight different players have led the team in scoring at least once.
In fact, the conference champions' unselfish style of play is so team oriented that just three Jayhawks, senior point guard Kay Kay Hart, senior forward Terrilyn Johnson and freshman guard Angela Aycock, received All-Big Eight honors. Junior reserve guard Stacy Truitt led the team in scoring averaging 12.4 points a game, but did not even receive an honorable mention in the voting.
Nevertheless, as the number of Jayhawks in street clothes increased the reserves continually stepped forward. Early in the season — when Kansas was cruising with a deep bench and a perfect record — Washington said she
planned to bring freshman Alana Slatter along slowly. Before the injuries to Bonham and McCloud, Slatter logged double-digit minutes in just two games and never got off the bench at all in six contests. Since the injury plague she has played about 20 minutes a game and scored in double figures three times.
Colorado kept the heat on the front runners down the stretch. But the Jayhawks dwindling squad finished 23-4 overall and 12-2 in the conference, one game ahead.
This weekend the team will head into the Big Eight Tournament in Salina as the No.1 seed. In three tournaments this season, the team has won two and finished third-once.
A conference tournament championship would guarantee the Jayhawks their first NCA1 tournament bench since 1988. And even if the 14th-ranked Jayhawks stumbled in Salina, they still might merit an at-large berth.
Regardless of what happens in the post season, the 'Hawks already have accomplished the unthinkable.
"I'm just really happy for them," Washington said after the Missouri game. "They've really gone through it this season. When you see, one by one, people leaving the lineup — I don't think anyone would have believed it."
■ David Mitchell is a DeSoto senior majoring in journalism.
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