THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008
SPORTS
9B
》 WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Junior guard ivana Catic plans on returning to the Kansas team next season. The Jayhawks won only two of their road games this season, but expect a more experienced team will change that next season.
Team to rely on experience
BY ANDREW WIEBE
awiebe@kansan.com
Bonnie Henrickson and the Kansas Jayhawks didn't want to see senior forwards Jamie Boyd and Taylor McIntosh's college
careers end. But while these athletes will be missed, their departure represents a point of no return in Henrickson's first four seasons as coach of the lajhwacks.
its rebounding production. It's a far cry from a year ago when Shaquina Mosley and Sharita Smith played their final game in crimson and blue and left Henrickson with six sophomores and three freshmen.
"I think the competition will be great for the program. I think it's what we need. It enhances competitiveness and production."
The Jayhawks will have the kind
Boyd and McIntosh, the only players who spent four years under Henrickson, a former Virginia Tech coach, are gone, and Henrickson's fourth recruiting class is on the way to Lawrence, led by the silky Angel Goodrich, a point guard from Thalaquah, Okla.
BONNIE HENRICKSON Kansas coach
When the season kicks off with Late Night in the Phog next fall, there will be three seniors and six juniors in the program, a total of nine upperclassmen out of 15 players. Sophomore guard Sade Morris said now was the time to make the next step — to find a way to win on the road, contend in the Big 12 and make a trip to the NCAA Tournament.
"The NCAA Tournament, it's that or bust," Morris said. "We don't want anything less."
It definitely looks possible. But the Jayhawks have to shake their dreadful road form and find a way to limit turnovers. It's hard not to forget that Henrickson's team was 2-11 on the road this season and winless on the road in Big 12 play. Junior guard Ivana Catic was the only player with a positive assist to turnover ratio.
of depth that Bill Self boasts this season. Like her male counterpart, Henrickson will have the ability to send waves of players coming off the bench, all
But Kansas returns 89 percent of its scoring total and 81 percent of
with experience battling together in the trenches.
"I think it will get us out and run," Henrickson said. "You can sub and get someone fresh to continue to push. All these kids can run. It will be the quickest team we've had."
The recruiting class is solid, not to mention the luxury of having sophomore guard Kelly Kohn and freshman guard Chakeithea Weldon healthy for an entire season. Henrickson is convinced the battle for playing time could only make Kansas a better team in the long run.
"I think the competition will be great for the program," Henrickson said. "I think it's what we need. It enhances competitiveness and production."
Perhapsthemostheatedbattlewillbe at point guard, where Goodrich will be added to an already talented pool of players. Though Catic held the starting spot for all but four games, sophomore LaChelda Jacobs' minutes rose steadily all season and Weldon was making strides before tearing her ACL. Whatever happens, Kansas enters this offseason's workouts and pickup games with a goal; a benchmark for success. Henrickson said improving would be their only focus, and one that would begin immediately.
"It starts right now," she said. "We've got some kids in the gym already starting to work."
》OLYMPICS
— Edited by Patrick De Oliveira
Protests hinder torch parade
Police officers apprehend an anti-China, pro-Tibet demonstrator, as he tries to interrupt the Olympic torch parade before an athlete in a wheelchair, left, takes the relay, shortly after its beginning near the Eiffel tower in Paris, on Monday. Security officials have extinguished the Olympic torch for a second time amid heavy protests during the torch relay in Paris.
BY JEROME PUGMIRE AND ELAINE GANLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Security officials appeared to interrupt the procession for the
PARIS - Organizers canceled the final leg of the Olympic run through Paris after chaotic protests Monday, snuffing out the torch and putting it aboard a bus in a humiliating concession to protesters decrying China's human rights record.
Worried officials extinguished the torch and placed it on the bus five times throughout the day as protesters tried to grab the torch and block the relay. At least two activists got almost an arm's length away before they were seized by police.
Another protester threw water at the torch but failed to put it out before being taken away.
The 17.4-mile route started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-Elysées toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium.
The chaos started at the Eiffel Tower moments after the relay began. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first torch-bearer, former hurdler Stephane Diagana, and shouted "Freedom for the Chinese!" before security officials pulled him back.
The torch went back on the bus less than an hour later after the procession was halted by activists who booed and chanted "Tibet!"
The torch moved on but was soon put out by security officers and placed aboard the bus after a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags confronted the torchbearer on a road along the Seine.
"We respect that right for people to demonstrate peacefully, but equally there is a right for the torch to pass peacefully and the runners to enjoy taking part in the relay," International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies told The Associated Press.
third time simply because they had spotted demonstrators ahead. Protesters threw plastic bottles, cups and pieces of bread at the bus, and at a male athlete in a wheelchair.
"Nothing is happening as planned. It's unfortunate," Diagana told France 2 television.
The torch went back inside the bus a fourth time shortly after a protester approached it with a fire extinguisher near the Louvre. Officers grabbed the demonstrator before he could start to spray. Police said later that at least 28 people had been taken into custody.
The flame was whisked into a bus for the last time outside the National Assembly, where protesters gathered and a banner on the building read: "Respect for Human Rights in China"
Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral and hung banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.
"The flame shouldn't have come to Paris," said protester Carmen de Santiago, who had "free" painted on one cheek and "Tibet" on the other.
Activists carrying Chinese flags
held counter-demonstrations.
"The Olympic Games are about sports. It's not fair to turn them into politics", said Gao Yi, a Chinese second-year doctoral student studying computer science in Paris.
Police had drawn up an elaborate plan to keep the torch in a safe "bubble," hoping to prevent the chaos that marred the relay Sunday in London, where police repeatedly scuffled with activists angry about China's human rights record.
One protester tried to grab the torch; another tried to put out the flame with what appeared to be a fire extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.
In Paris, about 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and with inline roller skates. Torchbearers were encircled by several hundred officers. Boats patrolled the Seine River, which slices through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing depending on how the situation evolves in Tibet.
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