TUESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2005 but ers n-ist nd-iof the is as-tes- 12 gth ce to SPORTS THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 11A ALEIICS CALENDAR TOMORROW * Soccer vs. Missouri State, 5 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex THURSDAY THURSDAY ❖ Volleyball vs. Utah Valley State (BYU/ UVSC challenge), 8 p.m., Orem, Utah FRIDAY FRIDAY Volleyball vs. Montana State (BYU/USVC) 11 a.m., Ironton, Utah ♦ Soccer vs. Arkansas, 6 p.m., Jayhawk Soccer Complex - Volleyball vs. BYU (BYU/USC challenge), 8.p.m., Provoc, Utah SATURDAY Cross Country, Bob Timmons Invitational, Bury Rock Farm SATURDAY ★ Football vs. Florida Atlantic, 6 p.m. Memorial Stadium A new club sport is taking form at the University of Kansas. New club allows students to go to bat for themselves The Kansas Club Baseball team will prepare to start its premier season at an informational meeting tonight. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in Room 202 of the Student Recreation Fitness Center. INTRAMURALS Anyone is permitted to participate in the league, but participants who intend to play must help with fundraising events as well. Despite the team's club sport category, the rules of the game will be like any other baseball team. The team will be part of the National Club Baseball Association and compete in the Mid-Plains Conference. Other members of the conference include Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Iowa State. Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Oklahoma Although the season will not start until spring, the baseball club will still be active in the fall. They plan to have practices one or two times a week for a month, and then have tryouts during the beginning of November. outs during the beginning. For questions about the club, or if you are interested in participating but cannot attend the meeting, contact BJ Rains, also a Kansan sports-writer, at stlku27@ku.edu. Eric Ammerman TALK TO US layers ready for early practice Tell us your news. Contact Kellis Robinett or Eric Sorrentino at 864-4858 or sports@kansan.com BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS mphillips@kansan.com KANSAN SPORTWRITER With six weeks remaining until Late Night in the Phog, the women's basketball players are already practicing together. NCAA rules allow the coaches to spend eight hours a week with the players before the formal start of the season on Oct.14. Kansas women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson used six hours of that time away from the court, where she focused on the strength and conditioning of her players. The other two hours were spent on the court, where "We're going to stay with all the individual work we've done, and I think with so many new kids, that's important for us," Henrickson said. This year's Kansas team will have a mix of six newcomers and six veterans. players worked on individual skills. As the month progresses, the coaches will split their allotted time differently. The team will spend three hours on the court this week. Veterans back together Senior forward Crystal Kemp stayed in Lawrence, but she said it was hard to find available leagues. "A lot of the things during the summer have to be certified by the NCAA, so you can't play in just any league," Kemp said. "I just worked individually and played in pickup games." Senior guard Erica Hallman returned home to Kentucky to play in the Northern Kentucky Women's Summer Basketball League. The league consisted of mostly collegiate players. Hallman's team went undefeated during the season and won the championship. She said she mostly played the shooting guard position because she probably would play that position more this year. Shaquina Mosley, a junior-college transfer from Arizona, was invited to try out for the USA women's national team along with 57 of the nation's top players. "That was really exciting, to meet so many new people," Mosley said. While at the trials, she played with junior guard/forward Camille Little of North Carolina, senior guard/forward Monique Currie of Duke, and junior guard Nikki Blue of UCLA. The players went through drills and workouts in the mornings before scrimmaging in the afternoons Edited by Nate Karlin Kansas hopes to emulate Baylor this season BY MICHAEL PHILLIPS mphillips@kansan.com KANSAN SPORTWRITER When the Kansas women's basketball team plays Baylor this year, the Jayhawks will be going up against more than just the defending national champions. It will be a match up against a team whose story the Jayhawks would like to emulate. It took Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey-Robertson just five years after coming to Waco, Texas, to turn the team into national champions. As Kansas women's basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson enters her second year, she said she saw the Baylor national title victory as a positive for Kansas. TOP OF THEIR GAME 2004-05 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Conference Attendance Leaders positive for Kansas. "It helps us to be able to look at how quickly they were able to turn it around and win a national championship," Henrickson said. The quality of play in the Big 12 Conference is as high as anywhere else in the country. The conference has led the NCAA in attendance at women's games for the last six years, according big12sports.com. LEVELS Big 12 - 937,611 (5,180 per game) Big Ten - 799,605 (4,998 per game) SEC - 687,655 (3,799 per game) Big East - 585,912 (3,290 per game) 461,360 (3,654 per game) kayhawk Bookstore 1430 Currant Rd. Milwaukee, WI 53210 Source: Big12sports.com 5. ACC - 461,760 (2,654 per game) "It's such a tough league to win on the road because of the crowds," Henrickson said. "It is hard to play in front of six or seven thousand people a night. That doesn't happen in any other league." "It's going to be more competitive, and we're going to try to prove that we can play with them," Kemp said in any other league. Senior forward Crystal Kemp said she expected the league to be even tougher than it was last year, when the conference had five teams ranked in the top 25. FILLING THE HOUSE Kansas ranked 11th in the league in home attendance last year with a 2004-05 Big 12 Women's Basketball Attendance Team (National Rank) Total Attendance Average 1. Texas Tech (3) 201,621 12,601 2. Kansas State (8) 98,874 7,606 3. Iowa State (9) 110,944 7,396 4. Baylor (12) 95,688 6,835 5. Texas (13) 95,360 6,811 6. Oklahoma (17) 74,032 5,695 7. Nebraska (25) 64,348 4,022 8. Texas A&M (36) 49,729 3,108 9. Missouri (52) 28,848 2,219 10. Colorado (53) 30,735 2,195 11. Kansas (55) 34,031 2,127 12. Oklahoma State (68) 26,472 1,765 total of 34,051. Its biggest crowd was when Kansas State brought its fans down 1-70 and visited Allen Fieldhouse. The game attracted 5,551 people, according to kuatletics.com. Henrickson said she was confident that success would generate fans for the Fieldhouse to be an intimidating venue for visiting opponents. She said she compared the style of the women's game to that of the NBA in the '60s, which put an emphasis on Source: Big12sports.com fundamental passing and scoring. fundamental passing and booking. If that holds true, Baylor will stand as the Los Angeles Lakers of the league, with its national title last season. Kansas will look to thrive on increased attendance and success on the court to work its way toward Baylor's level of success on the hardwood last season. 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