10B SPORTS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 2008
COMMENTARY
Jinkees! Who's in charge? Like, zoinks, women's basketball needs a leader!
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Taylor McIntosh contributed important leadership to the Jayhawks this season. The Hawks will have to find new leadership in her absence next season.
BY TAYLOR BERN
KANSAN COLUMNIST
TBERN@KANSAN.COM
The best way to imagine the current state of Kansas women's basketball happens to be the best way to imagine almost anything. Think of Scooby Doo.
When Scooby and Shaggy first see the (insert seemingly normal guy) dressed up as a (insert bad guy costume), they yell and then try and run away. However, before they shuffle off in front of an eerily similar background for 30 seconds, they're suspended in the air for a while — feet frantically churning with nothing getting accomplished.
That's what coach Bonnie Henrickson's team looks like right now. For all of their recruiting prowess and stellar nonconference records, the Jayhawks are still suspended in the air, running as fast as they can and not going anywhere
Instead of trying to get away from a scary monster like Shaggy and Scooby, Kansas is trying to catch up to a frighteningly good Big 12, which is one reason it hasn't made any progress.
The Big 12 is without a doubt the best conference in women's basketball top to bottom. Eight league teams made it to the NCAA tournament and through the first round all eight were still alive. Also, Missouri was the only conference team not to participate in a postseason tournament.
Even with all of that in mind, it's not enough for Kansas to dream big in the preseason — this year's goal was 20 victories and the NCAA tourney — then fall short only to
blame it on a difficult conference or a youthful squad. This team is getting older and freshman mistakes like turning the ball over out of a time-out can no longer be excused
time but can no longer be excused.
The core of the lajahaws is still
the six sophomores that all came
in together as freshmen, and one
of those players holds the key to an
NCAA tournament bid next season
... but she's not named Danielle
McCray
Sophomore forward Porscha Weddington started the first 11 games of the year before relinquishing the role to freshman center Krysten Boogaard, and the fate of the 2008-09 season may rest on her shoulders.
Kansas will be guarded heavy next season because every one of them is coming back. The only players graduating are forwards Jamie Boyd and Taylor McIntosh,
but McIntosh meant more to the Jayhawks than a box score could ever show.
The difference between wins and losses wasn't whether McCray was playing well but how well McIntosh performed. More than that, she looked after all of the players and yelled at players when it needed to be done. Kansas will need that leadership on and off the court again, and who better to fill that void than the player taking her starting spot?
Try and think of it like Scooby Doo. Daphne and Freddy drive the Mystery Machine, but Velma gives them the directions. Shaggy and Scooby run from the villains while Velma solves the mystery. For Kansas, Velma just graduated, and it's time to buy Porscha some glasses. Jinkees!
Edited by Samuel Lamb
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COMENTARY
Jayhawks carry the blame Lost opportunity brings resilience for next season
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
BY ANDREW WIEBE
BY ANDREW WIEBE
KANSAN COLUMNIST
AWIEEBE@KANSAN.COM
Kelly Kohn turned heads her freshman season, but her sophomore season she struggled to overcome injuries. Coach Henrickson hopes a healthy Kohn will help the team reduce the number of turnovers they average and make it to the NCAA Tournament.
At times this season Bonnie Henrickson had to wonder what exactly her players were seeing on the court. Time and time again Kansas shot itself in the foot, showing a puzzling inability to limit turnovers and losing 14 of its final 20 games in the process.
The Jayhawks became predictable for those who watched them enough. Kansas would play well enough to keep it close in the first half, but the second half was always another story. Costly turnovers and the lack of any offensive rhythm destroyed any chance for victory.
The trend finally came to a head late in the conference season. The Jayhawks wasted their opportunity to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1999-2000 season by losing five consecutive games to end the Big 12 schedule.
Before the streak, Kansas was 4-7 in Big 12 play and 15-9 overall with a chance of earning an at-large NCAA tournament bid with inspired play. After Texas Tech, Missouri, Iowa State, Texas and Kansas State finished punishing Henrickson's team for its carelessness with the ball, even an appearance in the WNIT wasn't guaranteed.
It isn't hard to see why Kansas faded to an 11th place finish in the conference. The Jayhawks turned the ball over more than any other team in the Big 12 and were last in turnover margin and assist-to-turnover ratio. No team gave away possessions as frequently as Henrickson's. But if the Jayhawks wanted to pass their mistakes off on extenuating factors, they never showed it.
After all, Kansas was one of the youngest teams in the Big 12
On top of that, freshman guard Chakeitha Weldon and sophomore guard Kelly Kohn spent much of the season watching from the bench with injuries. There were plenty of opportunities for justification, but Henrickson and her players never took the blame off their own shoulders.
It's a good thing they didn't become accustomed to making excuses to explain their poor play because the Jayhawks certainly won't have that opportunity next year. There will be no excuses with another offseason behind them
Kohn and Weldon will both be back and Kansas will add Angel Goodrich, a three-time Oklahoma
state championship winner, to an already crowded stable of perimeter players. The crop of talented but inconsistent sophomores will be juniors and will have two years of Big 12 battles under their belts to look back on.
Henrickson knows turnovers must go down from the 19.4 the Jayhawks averaged this season. Although Kansas won 11 of its first 13 games this season. Turning over the ball frequently will need to stop if the Jayhawks are to make the next logical step to a top-half conference finisher and a NCAA tournament appearance.
There's a reason teams that value the ball have more success. They have more offensive possessions to do damage and limit transition opportunities for their opponents. If Henrickson and her players want to continue climbing their way toward national relevance, they know what has to be done.
Now comes the hard part, doing it.
— Edited by Mandy Earles
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