Taylor McIntosh (above), Ivana Catic and Crystal Kemp - have something unusual in common: the three starters for Kansas University's women's team are left-handed.

If you haven’t seen Kansas University’s women’s basketball team perform, then you’ve missed what may be the most unusual basketball team – male or female – in the world.

I’m not talking about the Jayhawks’ 9-0 record.

The unblemished record is unusual for Kansas – at least based on recent history – but how many basketball teams do you suppose there are on the globe with more left-handed than right-handed starters?

Coach Bonnie Henrickson has three lefties who answer the opening bell – forwards Crystal Kemp and Taylor McIntosh and point guard Ivana Catic. The other two starters – wings Erica Hallman and Kaylee Brown – are right-handed.

How strange is it to have three left-handers? Hard telling. It’s impossible to compute the odds because no one really knows what percentage of the world’s population is left-handed. Most estimates are around 15 percent.

At the same time, males are believed to be one-and-a-half to two times more likely to be left-handed than females, making Henrickson’s starting lineup even more of a curiosity.

Crystal Kemp

No Kansas University men’s team ever has had three left-handed starters. In fact, I’m not sure the KU men ever have had three southpaws on the roster at the same time.

If you look at a list of the top 48 career scorers in KU men’s history, you’ll find only five lefties – Raef LaFrentz, Keith Langford, Dave Robisch, Ron Kellogg and Rex Walters. That’s barely 11 percent.

KU’s women’s career-scoring chart lists only the top 15. Of that number, two are left-handed – Kemp and Brooke Reves (1999-2001). That’s about 13 percent.

Kemp, a 6-foot-2 Topeka High product, already is the highest-scoring left-handed player in the relatively brief history of KU women’s basketball. Blessed with a deft shooting touch, she is a threat inside as well as from 12 to 15 feet from the basket. And it’s not like Kemp’s right hand is tied behind her back. Every now and then, she’ll use her off-hand to score from underneath.

McIntosh is more athletic than Kemp and has a knack for rebounding, yet the 5-foot-11 Wichita native is not as polished offensively.

Ivana Catic (front)

Catic, the third lefty, is a freshman from Serbia & Montenegro (Yugoslavia to those of us who remember Marshall Tito) and is probably the most ambidextrous of the KU portside trio.

When she is dribbling the ball – something she does very well, by the way – you would swear Catic is right-handed, yet she always shoots with her left hand.

Not that it really matters, of course, whether the KU women shoot right-handed, left-handed or drop-kick the ball into the basket. What does matter is that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, and vice versa.

With four returning starters from a 12-16 team of a year ago, the Jayhawks’ perfect start is surprising. Sure, all nine games have been in Allen Fieldhouse, and many of those nine foes were woeful, but 9-0 is 9-0 is 9-0.

Henrickson’s second KU team won’t overwhelm anyone with athleticism, skills or depth, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it finished in the first division in the Big 12 Conference chase.

That certainly would be noteworthy, because in the last five years the best conference record the Jayhawks have fashioned is 5-11.