A crowd of more than 16,000 basketball fans watch the women’s Kansas University basketball team prepare to take on the South Florida bulls in the WNIT championship game Saturday in Allen Fieldhouse. The crowd was the largest ever to watch a KU women’s game in the fieldhouse.

They did it before, and now they’ll have to do it again.

Kansas University’s women’s basketball team lost point guard Angel Goodrich prior to last season, and now the Jayhawks will be sans Goodrich for the remainder of this season.

Goodrich tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee during preseason practice in October of 2008 and sat out the ’08-09 season as a medical red shirt. Then Tuesday against Oklahoma State, the 5-foot-4 point guard from Tahlequah, Okla., suffered a similar injury to her right knee.

“We’re sick for Angel, but I think we’re better prepared for it,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said. “It’s better than the shock of last year. There’s a purpose about what we need to do.”

As Goodrich prepares for surgery a week from Monday and the ensuing six months of rehab, Henrickson says the position will be filled “by committee” starting today against Missouri.

Tipoff will be at 1 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. Metro (Sunflower Broadband 37) will carry a live telecast.

Clearly, there will be a drop-off because Goodrich ranked second in the Big 12 and fourth nationally in assists with 7.1 per game.

Senior LaChelda Jacobs will start today, with junior-college transfer Rhea Codio in reserve. Neither Jacobs nor Codio is as accomplished a passer as Goodrich or as much of an offensive threat. Too, both have shown turnover tendencies.

“The problem is without Angel — and we went through it last year — is you don’t have a scorer there,” Henrickson said. “But we could use Sade (Morris), if need be.”

If Morris, a 5-11 senior who has started every game as a wing, moves to the point, then freshman Monica Engelman, who has been the Jayhawks’ most potent offensive threat off the bench, will see more playing time.

Kansas (10-5) has dropped three straight, has fallen out of the AP poll and is in danger of repeating last season, when the Jayhawks won only two of their first 11 conference games.

“It’s huge,” Henrickson said of today’s game. “It’s important because it’s a rivalry game and because we have to learn to adjust and play without Angel.”