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Late Night in the Phog 2008

Sherri Coale, coach of perennial national women's basketball power Oklahoma, offered Angel Goodrich a scholarship. Except when a Tennessee or a UConn is offering, that usually means the next words Coale hears are, "I'm coming to OU."

Those words never came out of Goodrich's mouth. It didn't feel right. So she continued to look for a school that did. She visited Kansas. At the end of that visit, she made up her mind in the parking lot outside the athletic department offices. Her mother asked her where she wanted to go. She said Kansas. Her mother liked the answer. Goodrich walked across the parking lot where coach Bonnie Henrickson and her assistants were waiting. Angel said to Bonnie what she didn't say to Coale. She said yes.

"The coaches started screaming," Goodrich remembered with a smile. "And then they ran and got the players, and they came out screaming."

Goodrich had the ball on the left wing Friday night in the women's intrasquad scrimmage during Late Night in the Phog festivities. A hesitation dribble, the blink of an eye, and she's at the hoop laying in a bucket. She heard some screams then, too, from fans who mostly came to see the seven newcomers on the men's basketball team.

None of those players will be counted on to do as much for Bill Self's team as Goodrich will need to do for Henrickson's. She'll need to change it, lift it all the way into relevancy in the minds of local basketball fans who either look for something to do on nights the men's team is idle or don't have the means to experience Allen Fieldhouse when it's packed.

Goodrich is just intriguing enough to bring curiosity-seekers out to the fieldhouse for at least one look. For one thing, she said no to Oklahoma to say yes to Kansas. That's akin to a men's basketball player saying no to Kansas to say yes to Nebraska. Picture the excitement that would generate in Lincoln. For another, Goodrich is 5-foot-2 in bare feet, yet, when she plays, her size isn't as noticeable as in pregame introductions.

If Goodrich wanted to blend in and wait her turn, she would have gone to Oklahoma. She wanted to change a program, and that's why she's at Kansas. Finally, Henrickson has a player worth marketing, a player to bring out the best in do-it-all junior Danielle McCray.

Asked for comparisons to Goodrich, Henrickson said personality-wise she calls to mind Russell Robinson, the point guard on KU's national championship team, in that she's not the most vocal player on the court, but makes smart decisions. For a play-alike, she mentioned NBA point guard Chris Paul of the Charlotte Hornets.

"I'm not going to try to hide my enthusiasm for what she can do," Henrickson said. "She came here to be a program-changer, and I'm not going to tell her anything else."

Self didn't bring in any program-changers, which is a good thing because the last thing Self wants is for his program to take a turn off its championship path. Kansas won't win a national championship this season, but jet-quick guard Tyshawn Taylor and the rest of the players who took the Allen Fieldhouse court for the first time Friday, and a couple of the recruits watching from behind the bench, most notably Xavier Henry, might.