Let’s make one thing perfectly clear.
The tattoo on Shaquina Mosley’s right shoulder makes no reference to her status as reigning junior-college women’s basketball player of the year.
In fact, the 5-foot-6 Mosley wishes people would forget she wore that laurel after leading Central Arizona College to the NJCAA championship last season.
“It’s just a title,” Mosley said during Wednesday’s Kansas University women’s basketball media day. “I don’t really think about it. I can’t live off my past. I’m at Kansas now. I’m just here to play.”
For the record, Mosley’s tattoo depicts a basketball with the words “Against All Odds” around it.
KU fans won’t see it during games because, while Bonnie Henrickson allows tattoos, KU’s second-year coach mandates they be covered while players are in uniform.
At the same time, Henrickson also believes it’s time to put a moratorium on references to Mosley’s super sophomore season at the Arizona two-year school.
“I don’t introduce her as the junior-college player of the year anymore,” Henrickson said. “I don’t need her to live up to the title. I need her to run the team.”
It’s no secret returning senior Erica Hallman, who played point guard out of necessity last year, will play the point only in an emergency this season.
Hallman probably won’t even have to caddy for Mosley because Henrickson brought in a freshman point guard who, by most accounts, is a natural.
“She’s already barking at the kids,” Henrickson said of Ivana Catic, a native of Serbia who played high school ball in Wheeling, W. Va. “Ivana can penetrate and dish or knock down the open jumper.”
Marija Zinic, another freshman, was a Catic teammate on Serbian junior teams, and she came to Kansas, in large part, because of the heady 5-6 left-hander.
“She’s an amazing player,” said Zinic, a 6-foot-2 forward who is expected to make an impact up front. “She can shoot, and she plays defense. She’s the right hand of the coach on court.”
Quite likely, Catic and Mosley often will be on the court at the same time because Catic is a prototypical point guard, while Mosley is a multi-skilled athlete who can run, touch the rim and wreak havoc on defense.
“We’re different types of point guards,” Mosley said when asked for a comparison to Catic. “She has a great shot. People don’t expect point guards to be able to shoot, and she can do that.”
Mosley, by contrast, scores most of her points off transition.
“I shoot when I have to,” she said. “Coaches tell me to shoot more, but my strength is definitely running the floor.”
The addition of Zinic and Omaha, Neb., product Jen Orgas, also 6-2, gives Henrickson more options up front and, more important, potentially more rest for senior Crystal Kemp. The 6-2 Kemp led the Jayhawks in scoring (13.8) and rebounding (8.8) last season while logging 33.3 minutes a game.
Henrickson believes Kemp will be more effective if she plays about 28 minutes. The same goes for Hallman, who averaged a team-high 35.4 minutes.
“Fatigue became our enemy, I thought,” Henrickson said.
On paper, compared to last year’s 12-16 team, the Jayhawks have more depth, more offensive punch and more athleticism. Only time will tell, of course, if all that will translates into the Jayhawks’ first winning season in six years.
“We certainly haven’t arrived,” Henrickson said, “but in the last 18 months I feel we’ve moved forward.”
Notes
¢ Henrickson will have six recruits – five of them on official visits – at Friday’s Late Night in the Phog hoopla. The KU coach has seven scholarships available, and she said she planned to use all of them. :
¢ All but two of KU’s regular-season games are scheduled for live television on either a local, regional or national-cable basis. :
¢ All of KU’s November and December games will be in Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks were scheduled to go to New Orleans for a two-game tourney Dec. 2-3, but Hurricane Katrina forced a venue change.
