A quick look at the 5-foot-3 girl would suggest that program couldn’t possibly be the women’s basketball team headed by Bonnie Henrickson.

Wrong.

The prize of a recruiting class widely considered Henrickson’s best of five since she bolted Virginia Tech in favor of Kansas, Angel Goodrich hasn’t let her size or the size of her high school prevent her from doing big things as a point guard for Sequoyah High in Tahlequah, Okla.

A four-time all-state selection, Goodrich led her high school to three consecutive Class 3A state titles and a second-place finish as a senior. This past September, the Lady Indians went 3-1 in the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix against heavyweights from across the country.

One of the highlights of Goodrich’s high school career came as a junior when she scored 26 points to lead her team to a victory against a 6A powerhouse led by Alyssia Brewer, a Tennesse-bound center.

Goodrich was one of 20 athletes selected to play in the WBCA All-American game. Oklahoma offered a scholarship. So did Texas A&M and Oklahoma State..

Still huffing and puffing from her first race of the season – she plays center field for the softball team and runs only when there isn’t a conflict – Goodrich discussed the reasons behind her decision.

“I liked everything,” Goodrich said of her visit in September of 2007. “The campus, the players, the people around here. It’s a great atmosphere.”

Still, choosing Kansas over Oklahoma is not the sort of thing that tends to happen in women’s basketball. Moreso even than in the men’s game, the elite talent tends to flock to the powerhouses, and the rest of the schools must pick from the leftovers.

Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale doesn’t lose too many recruiting battles, but she lost this one.

“I felt like I fit better here than at Oklahoma,” Goodrich said. “I connected right off the bat with the players and the coaches. And there, I kind of was a little, I don’t know, there was no connection, no chemistry. Here, right when I stepped on campus and I met everybody, I knew I belonged here. You get that feeling.”

Goodrich, who identified herself as “half Cherokee, half black,” attends a Native American school with an enrollment of less than 400 students. She is the first student from the school to earn a Division I scholarship.

During Henrickson’s tenure at Kansas, the point guard position has been something of a revolving door. Finding a floor leader who is both quick enough and poised enough to compete in the Big 12 has been a challenge.

Goodrich plans to keep that revolving door from spinning by becoming a starter from Day One of her Kansas career.

“I hope so,” Bonnie’s heaven-sent point guard, who also is an Angel in the outfield and a sprinter, said with a smile. “That’s my goal.”