Another Fieldhouse win streak on the line ...

Posted by Jesse Newell

January 14, 2009 at 4:27 p.m.

Now that the Kansas men's basketball team's Allen Fieldhouse win streak is safely at 34 games, another Jayhawk squad will have a streak of its own on the line tonight against one of its biggest rivals.The KU women (11-3) face Missouri (9-5) in the Jayhawks' conference home-opener. KU, which is 8-0 at Allen Fieldhouse this season, will be going for its 10th straight home win.To be blunt, the Jayhawks need this one badly — both for confidence and for the conference standings.KU opened the Big 12 season with a 72-39 loss to Kansas State on Saturday. Though the Jayhawks probably weren't supposed to beat the undefeated Wildcats at Bramlage, they probably expected a better showing. The Jayhawks shot just 33 percent — their lowest percentage of the season.This KU team looks, at this point, like it's running the risk of having the same fate as last year's squad.This year, KU finished non-conference play with an 11-2 record — the same record that the Jayhawks had heading into conference play a year ago.In 2007-08, the Jayhawks went just 4-12 in conference and had to settle for a berth in the WNIT. KU lost six of its first seven Big 12 games and couldn't recover from there.The goal for this year's team, from the beginning of the year, has been the NCAA Tournament.If the Jayhawks want to avoid having history repeat itself, they need a victory tonight.Missouri is the kind of game that NCAA Tournament teams win at home. MU looks to be struggling again this season, as an earlier 10-point loss to Illinois indicates (the Illini promptly lost 13 of their next 14 games).A victory tonight would be a good start in helping the Jayhawks build what they hope to be an NCAA resume.I'll be live-blogging from tonight's game at Allen Fieldhouse, so be sure to check back to KUsports.com for updates.