Nine games in and with nine games to go, Kansas University’s women’s basketball team opens the second half of Big 12 Conference play at 7 tonight, when it travels to Texas A&M to take on the 18th-ranked Aggies at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
The Jayhawks opened conference play by winning four of their first five games, but have lost three of their last four. They will take a 5-4 league record into tonight’s rematch with A&M, and KU coach Bonnie Henrickson insists that her team won’t be thinking about what was, what could have been or even what should have been.
“You really gotta get your blinders on and think one day at a time,” Henrickson said. “Spending any time looking ahead or looking backwards … the only thing you can control is when you’re in the moment and working and trying to get better. If you get away from that, then you’re gonna lose time that you should be dialed in and trying to do what you can to win.”
Of course, part of what goes into preparing to win involves a certain amount of looking back, as in watching hours and hours of game film, both from the last time you faced a team you’re about to play and from all the games they’ve played since you last faced them.
“You learn a lot from your first game, obviously,” Henrickson said of KU’s 76-65 loss to Texas A&M on Jan. 20. “There were a lot of things in that one that we should’ve been able to control and we didn’t, so it’ll be good to clean up those areas.”
For starters, the Jayhawks turned the ball over 23 times in that game, compared to just 12 give-aways by the Aggies. What’s worse, 11 of KU’s miscues came from their point guard, junior Angel Goodrich, who also scored 28 points and dished five assists in 39 minutes. Beyond that, foul trouble for junior forward Carolyn Davis forced her to play well below her season average for minutes and allowed the Aggies to pound the ball into forwards Kelsey Bone and Adaora Elonu, who finished with 18 and 17 points to lead A&M.
KU fell behind 10-2 and never cut A&M’s lead to fewer than eight in the second half. At the time, the Jayhawks were hot and were looking for a signature win to help validate their positioning near the top of the conference standings. Today, Henrickson said her players were not even thinking about standings any more.
“What’s that gonna do? How’s that gonna help you,” Henrickson said. “(We’ll) worry about fixing the mistakes we made against Texas A&M the first time.”
Texas A&M has won three of four games since facing Kansas and will take on a KU squad that not only is interested in snapping a two-game losing streak, but also in revenge.
“We’re a little bit bitter that we lost at home, and we’re blessed to have another opportunity to get them back and square things up,” junior guard Monica Engelman said. “We’re excited. We’re motivated.”
Kansas trails the all-time series with Texas A&M 10-7, but the record is 4-4 in games played in College Station.
