Keegan: Jayhawk has fierce genes

Zale-Graziano. Ali-Frazier. Leonard-Duran. Bowe-Holyfield. Gatti-Ward. Derek Boogaard vs. any poor undersized, overmatched tomato can on skates.

Don’t believe Boogaard deserves to be ranked with those pugilists? Type “Derek Boogaard compilation” in the search box on YouTube.com.

It’s 4 minutes and 4 seconds of highlights of the Minnesota Wild hockey player’s greatest moments. Right hooks. Right crosses. Right uppercuts. He knocks them down, shoves them aside and heads straight for the penalty box, his home away from home.

Asking Boogaard to name his favorite fight is like asking Penny Lane to name her favorite rock star, Roseanne Barr her favorite dessert (or cuss word), Bruce Jenner his favorite cosmetic surgery procedure.

“All of them,” Boogaard said in a phone interview. “Obviously, I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t love it. If you don’t love what you’re doing, you’re not going to be any good at it.”

Oh, he’s good at it, all right.

The video is so entertaining the Kansas University women’s basketball team should see if it can secure the rights and play it before home games. Crowds would double in size and quadruple in volume, especially if his sister can crack the Jayhawks’ starting lineup as a freshman.

Recruited by Bonnie Henrickson out of Canada, Krysten Boogaard was 6-foot-4 the last time her brother saw her, which was March.

“I wasn’t as tall as she is at the same age,” said Derek, who is listed at 6-7. “She’s still growing. I didn’t stop growing until I was 22.”

He said he last saw his sister play basketball a year ago in Colorado Springs for Canada’s junior national team.

“I don’t know too much about basketball, but she looked good to me,” Boogaard said. “You know, I’m not going to lie to you. I really don’t have a clue. But it was nice to see how much she improved.”

Guys his size are easier to find on hardwood than ice.

“I was always a hockey player,” he said. “With basketball, when you got mad at guys the only thing you could do was stare at ’em. In hockey, you could teach ’em a lesson.”

Aaron Boogaard, one of Derek’s two younger brothers, is in the Pittsburgh Penguins organization. Asked what he thought of phenom Sydney Crosby, Derek said, “Obviously he’s a good player. Hopefully my brother can look after him in a couple of years.”

Surely, the Boogaard brothers looked after Krysten, babied her every step of the way, right?

“Krysten, she’s not scared, obviously, of getting in the tough and rough situations,” Derek said. “Just living with three brothers, we didn’t treat her any different just because she was a girl. Maybe that was a bad thing, I don’t know, but that’s just the way it was.”

It’s not a bad thing for the Jayhawks, who have been overpowered in the post at times in recent years. Whatever deficiencies Krysten might bring to Kansas, she’ll figure out a way to turn them into strengths, Derek predicts.

“Oh yeah, that’s the thing about our family,” he said. “You say we can’t do it well, we’ll prove you wrong. Nobody was saying I would sign an NHL contract. They were saying I’d be playing semi-pro hockey. You just have to laugh at those people.”

Or, if they’re carrying a stick for the bad guys, beat them up, and then laugh at them.