As many strides as the Kansas women’s basketball team has taken this season following last year’s winless conference record, the team has still shown growing pains on the court.
Today, the Jayhawks head into the first round of the Big 12 Conference tournament as an underdog, facing the Iowa State Cyclones.
Iowa State has defeated Kansas twice this season, most recently Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Whether the Jayhawks’ season ends today or lives to see another game, the team has still left a huge impression off the court that can do nothing but make the University of Kansas proud.
You can say it starts at the top, with coach Marian Washington and her staff.
Washington always makes sure that her athletes emphasize the most important part of the term “student-athlete.”
“Academics is number one, that’s just the bottom line,” Washington said. “If they’re not doing what they need to do in the classroom, they don’t travel, they don’t practice, and we’ve lost some players because of that. It’s always been first and foremost and that will never change as long as I’m here.”
The importance of academics showed its dividends last week, when four members of the team were named to academic all-conference teams.
Junior guard Leila Mengüç, sophomore forward Valerie Migicovsky and sophomore guard Blair Waltz were named to the All-Big 12 first team, while sophomore guard Brandi McGinest was named to the second team.
Even that number of players is misleading, since freshman and transfer student-athletes are not eligible in their first year.
That rule meant that nine team members could not be recognized for their academic achievements.
Washington said that had they been eligible, the team would have had six or seven members to the all-conference teams.
The best part of the team’s off-court contributions is that academic success is just the tip of the iceberg.
Over the years, Washington’s teams have made a yearly trip to Lawrence Memorial Hospital during Christmas time to visit children who are not able to spend their holidays at home with family.
Also, in August, members of the team took part in a project called “Women Build,” working with the Lawrence Habitat for Humanity. The project involved helping build a home for a local family.
“It’s important that when they leave out of here that they’re good people and that they have a purpose in this life and that is not a selfish one,” Washington said. “We should be all out there trying to support each other, and any time that I can give them that experience, I think it’s very important.”
While their 10-17 record did not draw 16,000 fans to Allen Fieldhouse every game, the players’ interactions with the fans who do come, even after a tough loss, keep their loyal following coming back for more.
A perfect example of this welcoming attitude came in the form of an e-mail delivered to coach Washington and her staff last week from a family in Fort Scott.
The family came out to their first Kansas women’s basketball game and was amazed by the attitude the players gave toward the fans. Even after a tough 61-55 loss to Missouri, the players still had conversations and signed autographs for the kids waiting outside the locker room. Freshman forward Tamara Ransburg even put the family’s 8-year old son on her back and ran up and down the hallway with him.
It is responses like these, among other things, that give Kansas athletics the great reputation it has, and the women’s basketball program is a shining example. After a gut-wrenching loss to a bitter rival, the players could have very easily walked into the locker rooms hanging their heads, but they realized they have a reputation to uphold.
Even if the Jayhawks lose today against Iowa State, the pain of a loss will subside rather quickly.
Marian Washington’s players will never go on to have multi-million dollar contracts or huge shoe endorsement deals after college. Instead, they will leave the University with something much more valuable — a better understanding of what life is all about.
