If there’s one thing Kansas University women’s basketball coach Bonnie Henrickson learned from her childhood days in Wilmar, Minn., it was the importance of hard work.

“My parents never told me to work hard,” Henrickson said. “They showed me.”

Bonnieball reflects just that, and it officially was introduced Tuesday at KU women’s basketball media day.

Henrickson, who came this spring to KU from Virginia Tech, on Tuesday pointed out her team’s shortcomings — lack of height and lack of bodies, to name a couple — but said they could be overcome by other strengths and, most importantly, hard work.

The players have been taking notes.

“It’s tough in a good way,” senior Blair Waltz said. “The workouts are hard every day. We compete and get challenged every single time we’re in the gym.”

Waltz is one of just 10 players suiting up for the Jayhawks. Junior Crystal Kemp, at 6-foot-2, is the tallest, with Waltz, Alicia Rhymes and Jamie Boyd each 6-foot — making the Jayhawks shorter than Big 12 Conference standards. Texas has nine players that are at least as tall as Kemp.

The potential nightly mismatch puts added pressure on KU’s perimeter players, including Waltz and senior Aquanita Burras, returning starters from last year’s 9-19 team.

“It’s exciting,” Waltz said. “Whenever a shooter gets a chance to shoot even more, you can’t help but be excited.

“I think it’s going to put our team in a great position. We may not have size, but we’ll have speed and quickness and we’ll have to really outplay teams.”

Which brings the Jayhawks back to the importance of work ethic. As undersized and undermanned as the Jayhawks are, they’ll have to be even more scrappy.

So far, so good, according to the players.

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“That’s not even a problem,” Burras said. “We’re being conditioned every day. We have a great strength coach, and we progress everyday.”

Fans will get to see for themselves Friday when the KU women scrimmage at “Late Night in the Phog” for the first time. They’ll tip off at 11 p.m., one hour before official practices begin and one hour before the men’s team takes the floor. Because of that, Henrickson and the coaching staff aren’t allowed to watch. They’ll have to watch it on film, and hammer out the mistakes Saturday morning at practice.

If Henrickson is sure of one thing, she knows there will be plenty of blunders. Midnight scrimmages, by men or women, typically are chock full of them. Henrickson saw it from her days at Virginia Tech, which had both women’s and men’s scrimmages every year.

“It’s a great opportunity,” Henrickson said, “but it’s ugly.”

Kansas University freshman Jamie Boyd poses during KU women's basketball media day. The Jayhawks, with new coach Bonnie Henrickson, met the media Tuesday at KU.

KU’s evolution into Bonnieball won’t always be smooth, but Henrickson and her players are convinced better days are on the way.

“Right now, it’s my responsibility as well as our coaching staff’s responsibility to find a way to win each night,” Henrickson said. “It’ll be a little different each night. It wont be typical of teams I’ve had in the past. But right now, we’re going to find any way we can to win.”