With six games down and umpteen to go, it’s clear Bonnie Henrickson doesn’t have much faith in her bench. Not yet, anyway.
Kansas University’s women’s basketball coach has been using primarily a six- or seven-player rotation … unless her regulars are in foul trouble — a situation that occurred late in the first half of Thursday’s 54-49 victory over UCLA.
While unimpressive overall, the subs at least treaded water.
“We were a nightmare offensively,” Henrickson said, “but they did a good job defensively.”
In theory, Henrickson should be able to give her bench players some much needed floor time today against Northern Colorado (3-4), a so-so mid-major.
In practice, however, that may be wishful thinking because the Bears started their two-game swing through the Sunflower State with a stunning 65-54 victory over Wichita State on Friday night in Koch Arena.
Tipoff will be at 1 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse. Sunflower Broadband channel 6 will carry a live telecast.
While Henrickson’s reserves have been for the most part shaky, the regulars haven’t exactly been terrors.
Lately, the Jayhawks, who have made it clear they plan to earn the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than a decade, have looked like a team worried about peaking too soon.
They haven’t shot particularly well, the rebounding has been so-so, and the turnovers — a bugaboo last year — have been piling up. KU coughed the ball up 20 times against UCLA.
“This team is capable of being great,” Henrickson said, “but they haven’t shown it yet.”
Today’s game is the second of five straight home games.
The string will continue Thursday against UMKC and a week from today against Creighton.