6A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
SPORTS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 30,2004
Henrickson to face familiar foe
Women's coach bounced Denver in 2001 postseason when at Tech
By BJ RAINS
brains@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTSWINTER
Even though this is Bonnie Henrickson's first season at Kansas, the Denver Pioneers women's basketball team and coach Pam Tanner are familiar with Henrickson her system. The Pioneers faced Henrickson, then the coach at Virginia Tech, in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament.
Heading into tonight's game at Allen Fieldhouse at 7, Tanner is looking for a different result than the 77-57 defeat her team received last time it faced Henrickson.
"They handed it to us pretty well that night." Tanner said. "Hopefully tonight will be different."
Henrickson also remembers that game. Although most of the players are different, she expects Tanner to come out with a similar game plan.
lead."
"Defensively, we'll run some of the same things. We were pretty experienced that year and they were a young team," Henrickson said "We jumped out on them early and got a big
Henrickson knows that tonight's game will be much closer, and her team will have to play better than in recent games if it wants to come away with the victory. The Ploneers are a young squad, with five freshman who see significant minutes. Henrickson said strong defensive pressure was the key when facing a young and inexperienced team.
"They have a young point guard, so defensively, we have to apply a lot of pressure," Henrickson said. "We need to force a lot of turnovers."
The Jayhawks did extensive scouting to prepare for the Pioneers. They watched film from two of the Pioneers games already and have another one arriving this morning. Though Denver is young, it is athletic, which concerns the Kansas coaching staff.
"They have nice athleticism, especially in the post," Henrickson said. "We need to keep them out of their half court game as much as possible. We need to control the tempo."
"T hey handed it to us pretty well
Tanner also focused her defensive game plan on stopping
that night. Hopefully tonight will be different."
Pam Tanner
Denver University women's
basketball coach
the inside game. Junior forward Crystal Kemp is averaging 16.7 points and 8 rebounds per game.
"No one person on our team can stop her. It's going to have to be a group effort," Tanner said. "She's going to get her points. We just have to stop their other shooters from making shots."
The Pioneers need to finish games strong. Denver was leading late in the second half in both of its games this season but ended up losing both. Denver was ahead of Wyoming by nine points in the closing minutes on Friday, but lost 55-54 in a game where it held Wyoming's offense to just 13 points for the first 17 minutes of the second half, but gave up 12 in the final three
minutes. Denver lost its season opener last Sunday by one point, 55-54 to the University of San Francisco. The Pioneers could have, and probably should have, won both games, Tanner said.
"Both of those games were winnable games," said Tanner. "We did a combination of things wrong, and in close ball games, you can't make mistakes."
For her Pioneer squad to sneak out of Allen Fieldhouse tonight with a victory, it will have to rely heavily on the play of senior guard Tasha Jones. Jones led the Pioneers, averaging over 12 points a game. Through the first two games of this season, she is averaging only 10 points per game. She had a game high 18 points in Denver's defeat against San Francisco, but had only two points in their loss at Wyoming.
The Jayhawks will look to win their third consecutive game of the season.
"They are a disciplined team and are very well coached," Henrickson said. "We will need to play well."
Edited by Steve Vockrodt
Chiefs injuries detrimental to team's record
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
KANSAS CITY, Mo.
Quarterback Trent Green was at the doctor for X-rays of his sore ribs yesterday and is listed as questionable for this week's game at Oakland, Kansas City Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said.
Green went to the Pro Bowl last year and has directed one of the NFL's most prolific offences for three years in a row. He extended his team record Sunday with his 59th consecutive start at quarterback but was "banged around pretty good" in the 34-31 loss to San Diego.
"He got hit a number of
times. He got a helmet in the ribs one time," Vermel said. "It's pretty sore in the back area. But knowing him, he'll get better quickly.
"But we're so spoiled by his
consecutive starts,
just take it for
granted he's going
to be ready."
Safety Greg
Wesley, who
injured his ham-
string Sunday
pregame warmups, is doubtful.
Vermeil also said running back Priest Holmes would miss another week. It will be the fourth straight game Holmes has
Counting the Tampa Bay game, the Chiefs (3-8) are 0-4 since he was injured.
missed since spraining medial collateral ligaments in his right knee on Nov. 7 at Tampa Bav.
"Priest continues to make
progress, but I think he's at least two weeks away. He won't be ready for this week," Vermeil said. Vermeil indicated the
injury may not be healing as quickly as doctors thought it would.
Vermeil also responded sharply to criticism that has been directed toward Holmes
for not joining his teammates on the sideline during games. Television cameras showed him several times on Sunday sitting in a press-box suite eating snacks.
The NFL limits the number of people who can be in the bench area during games and discourages disabled players from being there, team spokesman Bob Moore said. He said the Chiefs have been fined several times for having too many people in the bench area.
Vermeil said most of the injured Chiefs players also watched the game from the suite.
Colorado overcomes scandal to win North
BY RYAN COLAIanni
rcolaianni@kansan.com
KANSAN SPORTWRITER
When the 2004 college football season started, the Colorado Buffaloes were projected to finish in the bottom half of the Big 12 North. But after a 30-24 victory over Nebraska on Friday and an Iowa State loss to Missouri on Saturday, the Buffaloes will play Oklahoma in Saturday's Big 12 Conference title game.
Colorado's season
Colorado's season began in the shadow of turmoil created from an offseason where the program was accused of providing alco
hol and escort services for recruits on visits. Colorado coach Gary Barnett was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
"I am really happy for our coaches. The kind of things they went through and held up to, and the way they held this team together," Barnett said in yesterday's Big 12 conference call. "The players and their parents, they constantly believed and they constantly didn't let anything bother them. They stayed on course and they separated out what was important from what wasn't important and found a way to win the North."
The team worked through the adversity to make the conference championship game and finish 7-4.
"We did everything that we could after the Texas game to put ourselves in position to have things go right for us," quarterback Joel Klatt said, referring to Colorado's loss to Texas, after which they won three straight games. "Fortunately for us, our coaching staff and everybody involved in this program, we are going to get a chance to play in this championship game."
fourth in the Big 12 North by members of the media. But the Buffaloes silenced the critics and won their third North championship in four years.
Colorado was picked to finish
"If you think back to last January, we've been underdogs the whole time," Klatt said. "People thought that our program was buried and that coach Barnett wasn't going to be here. I give credit to the guys in our locker room who really hung
After Colorado's
After Colorado's 30-24 victory in Lincoln, they still needed help to win the North title. Members of the Buffaloos
sat and watched as Iowa
State went to overtime with Missouri. An Iowa State victory would place the Cyclones in the championship, but when quarterback Bret Meyer threw an interception in the end zone in overtime, the Buffaloes were headed to Kansas City.
"It was difficult to see that game," sophomore linebacker Thaddaeus Washington said. "At one point I turned it off. I couldn't watch it anymore. It was just too close and nerve wracking."
Colorado will now face the No. 2 team in the nation, Oklahoma. Oklahoma needs a victory this Saturday to keep its National Championship hopes alive as the Sooners are currently second in the latest BCS standings.
The Buffaloes are approaching this weekend's game the way they have approached each game all season, as they believed that no one thought they were good enough to win.
"We went into this season huge underdogs and found a way to prevail, and we'll go to work to find a way to prevail next week, too," Barnett said.
— Edited by Steve Vockrodt
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