SPORTS
3B
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2008
Freshman guard Angel Goodrich kicks the ball out to junior guard Danielle McCray during the women's basketball scrimmage Friday night at Allen Fieldhouse. Goodrich will battle for the starting point guard position this season with junior guard LaChelda Jacobs and senior guard ivana Catic.
Jon Goering/KANSAN
Late Night scrimmage ends with 17-17 tie
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
BY TAYLOR BERN
tbern@kansan.com
The women's basketball team didn't raise any banners at Late Night in the Phog. Nor was Bonnie ball responsible for making fans cry with last season's highlights.
"It felt like this year people were more into it," junior Danielle McCray said.
"It was even more fun than last year," added sophomore Nicollette Smith.
Still, the deafening excitement for Bill Self's boys flooded into the women's portion of Kansas' annual tradition, and it resulted in the best Late Night of the Bonnie Henrickson era.
The team started practicing its dance routines at the start of school and kept up with it three times a week leading up to the performance.
Freshman Angel Goodrich didn't visit Late Night before committing to Kansas, so Friday was her first look at a full Allen Fieldhouse.
"I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be," Goodrich said. "It was exciting having so many people watch you."
Henrickson said she watched dance practice for the first time, and it made her more nervous than she's ever been at Late Night.
"I walked away thinking "That's why I don't dance in front of 16,000 people, because I look worse than that." Henrickson said. "If they have fun, I'm all for it."
The team split into two groups for the dance routines. Goodrich and fellow freshman Aishah Sutherland were in the first group, which danced to Ne-Yo's "Closer."
The second group donned trench coats and boogied down to "When I Grow Up" by the Pussycat Dolls.
After the dancing, the layhawks changed into their jerseys and prepared for the first practice of the season. Goodrich emerged from the fog first, leading Kansas out of the tunnel.
The teams, split into red versus blue, played a back-and-forth contest that very much resembled the first practice after a long off-
"They looked a little anxious and a little nervous at first, but then they kind of settled into a decent rhythm," Henrickson said.
said.
Neither team could gain much of an advantage and the contest ended in a 17-17 tie.
The game came down to a showdown between Goodrich and senior Ivana Catic with time running out. Goodrich looked over to Henrickson for a play, and while the incumbent guard was trying to run the play, last year's starting point guard stole the ball and took it down the court.
Catic traveled as she tried to score the decisive points, but the play showed that competition at every position will be stiff this season.
Goodrich and Sutherland will each have a chance to crack the starting lineup because Henrickson has started a freshman every season at Kansas.
"Kids come here understanding that there's an opportunity to play right away as a freshman, if you produce," Henrickson said.
Senior Marija Zinic, who has come off the bench for the majority of her career, led all scorsers with
seven points.
"We just told her, 'It's your senior year, and if you can rebound the basketball then you can help us." Henrickson said. "At some point you need to figure out that this is your last go-round and make the most of it."
Smith said that the team chemistry at this point is better than it was last year and the team seems more motivated to perform after a disappointing end to the 2007-08 campaign.
The sparkplug in turning the corner and getting to the NCAA tournament could be its new pint-sized point guard. Goodrich doesn't have a championship ring, but as much as any of the men's team, she appreciates wearing the crimson and blue.
Kansas coach Bill Self agreed. Self, Collins and the rest of the Jayhawks gathered underneath the scoreboard at the northwest corner of Allen Fieldhouse to watch the 20-minute highlight video and banner ceremony in its entirety.
"I'm so excited for practice to
MEN'S BASKETBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Self said he had nothing to do with putting the video together and saw it for the first time alongside the 16,300 fans filling Allen Fieldhouse.
— Edited by Rachel Burchfield
"I almost started crying," Self said. "I don't think I was the only one."
Self especially liked the way the video was chronologically compiled. It started with highlights from the regular season before pausing to uncover the new Big 12 Championship banner.
start," Goodrich said. "Putting on this jersey felt so good."
From there, it was on to the NCAA Tournament and a new Final Four banner. After prolonged highlights of the Final Four game against North Carolina and national championship against Memphis, the black tarp dropped and exposed the 2008 National Championship banner.
"I thought that was big-time," Self said. ___.
The night, however, consisted of more than just nostalgia for the basketball team. It also provided an opportunity to dance.
Junior guard Mario Little took full advantage. Little's moves led the tuxedo-cloaked juniors — plus redshirt-sophomore Brady Morningstar — in a dancing rendition of Missy Elliott's "Ching-a-ling."
The juniors capped off their performance by tearing off their jackets and letting loose on the Allen Fieldhouse dance floor. Self looked at his assistant coaches on the bench, put his head down and lost it laughing.
"I've been working with them on some different things," Self said. "I thought Brady started all that nonsense. That was funny."
If the juniors owned the dancing portion of the night, the freshmen stole the show in the inter-squad scrimmage.
SELF GETS ANOTHER COMMITMENT
Eliiah Johnson, a point guard from Las Vegas, sat behind the Jayhawk bench chewing on a sucker during Late Night in the Phog Friday.
He must have come away impressed. Johnson orally committed to Kansas Saturday night while still in Lawrence for his official visit, according to rivals.com.
Rivals.com ranks the 6-foot-2 Johnson as the fifth best point guard and 27th best player overall in the 2009 class.
Johnson and Thomas Robinson,
Johnson
a Washington,
D.C., forward
and No. 18
player in the
country, are the
first two players
to commit to
Kansas for next
season. Self is
now down to
one available
scholarship and one of the three shooting guards in attendance for Late Night will most likely snag it.
DARNELL JACKSON
SIDELINED
Oklahoma City's Xavier Henry, the No. 3 ranked player in the nation, is the most highly touted of three. No.16 Dominic Cheek, from Jersey City, N.J., was high school teammates and best friends with current Jayhawk Tyshawn Taylor. Michael Snaer from Moreno Valley, Calif., the No.11 player in the nation, rounds out the list.
Former Jayhawk Darnell Jackson made several appearances on the number of highlight videos shown at Late Night in the Phog. The videos showed Jackson making big plays and celebrating.
His weekend wasn't quite as fun. Jackson, who now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers, broke his wrist and is out indefinitely. Jackson played four exhibition games before sustaining the injury.
"He's had a good camp," Cleveland coach Mike Brown told the Associated Press. "Now, he has to figure out the other side of it, to stay in shape and keep learning."
MLB
— Edited by Ramsey Cox
Young Rays go from worst to World Series contender
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Down to their last chance, the Tampa Bay Rays left no doubt they were World Series-worthy.
"it's unbelievable," center fielder B.J. Upton said. Baseball's doormat since starting play in 1998, the Rays were a 200-1 shot to win the World Series before the season started. Now, they'll host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 Wednesday night.
The Rays nearly let it slip away when they blew a seven-run lead late in Game 5 and lost meekly Saturday night. But when rookie David Price struck out J.D. Drew with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning, Tampa Bay showed it had plenty of resolve, too.
The Rays completed a stunning run to their first pennant, holding off the defending champion Boston Red Sox 3-1 Sunday night behind Matt Garza's masterful pitching in Game 7 of the AL championship series.
Associated Press
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