Leila Meng’t a big fan of the food, and the public transportation system leaves a lot to be desired.
Other than that, Mengnsas University’s 5-foot-6 women’s basketball point guard from Stockholm, Sweden, is tickled to have left Scandinavia behind for midwestern America.
“I really like it here,” Mengd. “I like the campus and the people. Everybody said Kansas was flat, but I don’t see it.”
Mengho will make her American collegiate debut Wednesday, when the Jayhawks play host to an exhibition game with the Basketball Travelers came to KU with help from Dalma Ivanyi, a family friend who plays for the WNBA’s Utah Starzz. Ivanyi and Mengister, Aila, played at Florida International, and Ivanyi saw Leila play and tried to get her recruited by KU.
“She knew I had a dream, like many Europeans, to come here and play basketball for the university,” Mengd. “She wrote a letter and I sent them two or three tapes. They said I should come for a visit, but that was the hard part. I always had games, so I couldn’t just jump on a plane.”
Mengiggest beef about her new home is the food.
“I don’t like it,” Mengd with a laugh. “Everything’s so greasy. I wish I had my own kitchen. I miss potatoes. I never thought I’d say that, but I do. What do you call those things you put your fries in? A fryer? Everything tastes likes it’s done in that.”
Mengther complaint? No buses.
“You have to have your own car here,” she said. “I don’t think the American people are as concerned about the environment as Europeans. I don’t have a car. That’s why I’m so disappointed.”
Mengn-court performance has been anything but disappointing for KU coach Marian Washington, who plans to rotate returning starter Jennifer Jackson, Selena Scott and Mengthe point this season.
“She has a real point-guard mentality,” Washington said of her Swedish freshman. “She’s willing to take charge. She’s out there fighting. She’ll be fun to watch. She’s had some jump balls where she’s hanging on for dear life. It’s good to see. She digs in deep, and that’s going to spill over.”
Still, Meng been frustrated at times this preseason. Mengraged 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals for her Avlik Club team last season, and she was team captain for Sweden’s under-20 national team.
But she’s been flummoxed at times by the step up in talent.
“I think it’s progressing,” Mengd. “I have to remember that the other guards have been here a long time. I get frustrated when I can’t do something as good as they do it. I know what I can do back home, and when I can’t do it here, I get frustrated.”
Sometimes when she’s frustrated on the court, she’ll let fly with a little Swedish slang. A speaker of five languages Finnish, Turkish, German, Swedish and English Mengists her favorite on-court outburst is not something little kids shouldn’t hear.
“When I get excited, I do start talking Swedish,” Mengd. “I don’t do it much anymore. They used to think I was saying something (profane), but it’s just a name.”
Menginguistic proficiency paid dividends back home when her club team was playing a Scandinavian tournament game against Finland.
“They were talking in Finnish all the time, and I knew what they were saying, so I told my team, ‘They’re going to do this and this,'” said Menge daughter of a Finnish mother and Turkish father. “After the game, we lined up and thanked them and I started talking in Finnish. They said, ‘Oh, no, you knew what we were saying.’ “
