Woodling: Henrickson has Kansas headed in right direction
Kansas City, Mo. ? Who says women are the weaker sex?
You’ve been reading all winter about the injuries suffered by the Kansas University men’s basketball players — Wayne Simien’s thumb, Christian Moody’s ankle, Alex Galindo’s groin, C.J. Giles’ foot, Keith Langford’s elbow and now ankle, etc.
Now guess how many KU women’s basketball players have missed one or more games this season because of injuries.
The answer is none. Zip. Zero.
Surprised? I was.
“We lift weights and work out for two reasons,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said, “to get better and to prevent injuries.”
Yes, but so do the men. They pump iron, too, yet only four of coach Bill Self’s players have performed in all 27 games and one of those four — Langford — missed all but three minutes of Sunday’s 72-68 loss at Missouri when he rolled his left ankle and needed crutches.
Meanwhile, Henrickson has used six of her nine scholarship players in all 27 games. The three who haven’t answered every bell sat because of Henrickson’s decision not to use them.
Luck, it has been said, is the residue of design, but luck is still luck, and Henrickson clearly has been fortunate she hasn’t had to deal with injuries and ailments during her first season as the Jayhawks’ head coach, and she knows it.
“With our kind of depth, absolutely,” she said.
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Jayhawks seek sweep today against TigersUnder Henrickson, Kansas wasn’t the most surprising team in the Big 12 Conference during the 2004-2005 season, but the Jayhawks were in the top three. Nobody predicted Kansas, which hadn’t had a winning season in the 21st Century, would climb as high as eighth place in league standings.
In fact, in the coaches’ preseason poll in October, the Jayhawks were tapped to finish 11th — ahead of only Oklahoma State — in the conference chase and, based on KU’s defection-riddled roster, 11th place seemed optimistic. Even if the Jayhawks had been tapped for 12th, it’s doubtful Henrickson would have complained.
“I didn’t feel like we were slighted,” Henrickson said about those preseason rankings. “We had too many question marks.”
Over the last three years, KU’s women basketball players haven’t had much reason to feel good about themselves at the end of the regular season. Kansas was 0-16 in the league in 2002, 3-13 in 2003 and 2-14 in 2004. This year’s conference record was 5-11. That’s hardly a quantum leap, but not baby steps, either.
“Eighth place is definitely a plus for us,” junior Crystal Kemp said. “Even if we’d have been 10th, we’d have accomplished something.”
The accomplishment didn’t occur because of an influx of talent. Henrickson had just two new faces — freshmen Taylor McIntosh and Jamie Boyd. McIntosh, who had been signed by previous coach Marian Washington, started most of the season and showed a knack for rebounding, if not offensive punch. Returnees Kemp, Erica Hallman, Aquanita Burras and Kaylee Brown completed the lineup.
Once Henrickson determined her starters, she stuck with them. Hallman, Burras and Kemp finished among the Big 12 leaders in minutes played. Several times, either Hallman, Burras or Kemp, or all three, went the full 40 minutes.
There were times when weariness caught up with the Jayhawks and they had sinking spells — like in the 70-37 home loss to Iowa State and the 73-46 flogging at Kansas State. For the most part, though, KU was competitive.
“That’s a credit to them,” Henrickson said, deflecting the praise to her players. “On offense, they learned about shot selection, taking shots you could make. And they became pretty good defensively. Overall, they’ve done a great job of adjusting.”
KU won the first Big 12 Conference women’s basketball championship in 1997, but it’s been downhill ever since. Now there is hope the roller coaster is heading up again.