For the second-straight season and for the 13th time overall, Kansas women's basketball will be a part of the NCAA Tournament, as the No. 12-seeded Jayhawks will take on former Big 12 Conference foe and No. 5-seeded Colorado on Saturday, March 23 at approximately 5:30 p.m., at the Coors Events Center in Boulder, Colo. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
Junior Ashley Wilson was named to the Pac-12 All-Defensive Team and junior Rachel Hargis was an honorable mention honoree for that specialty team.
SHE's BAAAAACK
Senior Angel Goodrich was one of storylines from the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Heck, she even trended on Twitter. Goodrich led the Jayhawks to the NCAA Sweet 16 after posting victories over Nebraska and Delaware. Goodrich averaged 23.3 points per game over the three NCAA Tournament games last season, while shooting 50.8 percent from the field (30-for-59).
DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN?
Last season, before Kansas made its NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 run, the Jayhawks opened the 64-team field with a game against a former Big 12 Conference member - Nebraska. KU went on to win that game, 57-49. This season, Kansas is in the NCAA Tournament again and opens against a former Big 12 Conference member - Colorado.
PLAN FOR POSTSEASON
Faithful followers of the Kansas women's basketball program have learned to plan for postseason play. In Bonnie Henrickson's nine seasons with the Jayhawks, KU has advanced to postseason play seven times, including six straight and back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. In fact, in Henrickson's head coaching career, she has led her team to postseason play 14 times in 16 seasons.
TWENTY SOMETHING
When Carolyn Davis scores 20 or more points in a game, the Jayhawks usually come out on top. Davis has 35 20-point efforts in her career and KU boasts a 29-6 (.829) record in those contests.
NOW WE HAVE BOTH OF THEM
Kansas made its NCAA Sweet 16 run last season without 2012 First Team All-Big 12 selection Carolyn Davis, who had her season ended after 23 games due to injury. In her absence, then-freshman Chelsea Gardner sparked the Jayhawks by averaging a double-double in three NCAA Tournament games last season. Gardner posted 13 points and 11 rebounds per game for KU. Now, Gardner is a sophomore and Davis is back for her senior season and leads the Jayhawks in scoring (15.7) and rebounding (6.7).
THREE-BALLIN'
Over the last six games, Kansas has had a pair of players scorching hot from three-point range. Junior CeCe Harper is leading the way with a 9-for-13 (.692) effort during that span, while senior Monica Engelman is also hot from three, sinking 12-of-22 (.545).
CHELSEA LATELY
Kansas sophomore Chelsea Gardner posted her third double-double of the season and the fourth of her career with 11 points and 19 rebounds against TCU in the first round of the 2013 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship. Gardner's 19 rebounds established a new career high and tied Lynn Pride's performance against Baylor in 1997 for the best-rebounding effort by a Jayhawk in the Big 12 Championship. Gardner's 16 defensive boards marked the second-most ever in Big 12 Championship play.
FIRST WADE, WOODEN, LIEBERMAN, MEYERS DRYSDALE AND NOW NAISMITH
Kansas senior Angel Goodrich is being watched by everyone, basically. The 5-foot-4 point guard is on the watch and finalist lists for the Wade Trophy, Wooden Award, Lieberman Award, Meyers Drysdale Award and the Naismith Award.
PUT IT ON THE BOARD
Over the last nine games, Kansas has not had a lot of trouble putting some points on the board. In fact, KU is averaging 74.9 points per game during the stretch, including an 83-point effort against TCU in the first round of the 2013 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, the most ever by Kansas in the Big 12 event.
SENIOR CLASS IS NOW 4G
With 20 points against Texas on Jan. 23, senior Angel Goodrich became the 26th player in Kansas history to score 1,000 career points. Goodrich joins Carolyn Davis and Monica Engelman, who also became a member of the club this season. The last time KU fielded three 1,000-point scorers in the same season was the 2000-01 campaign with Jaclyn Johnson, Brooke Reyes and Jennifer Jackson. This year's senior class also went 4G with a combined 4,225 points scored.
HAWK SWOOPS IN
Junior Markisha Hawkins entered the Oklahoma (March 2) game with 11 points scored on the season. After the last four games, Hawkins now has 49 after scoring 38 points during that span. The junior college transfer scored a career-best 15 points against TCU to end the regular season.
THE BEST OF ALL DIMES AND ONE OF THE BEST IN BIG 12 HISTORY
Senior Angel Goodrich dished out 10 assists on Feb. 17 against Oklahoma and became Kansas' all-time career assist leader in the process. Goodrich surpassed Lisa Braddy, whose 686 assists owned the school mark since 1990. Goodrich now has 742 career assists and became the eighth player in Big 12 Conference history to post 700 or more career assists. Goodrich ranks fourth in Big 12 history behind Erin Grant (844 - Texas Tech), Shalee Lehning (800 - K-State) and Stacey Dales (764 - Oklahoma).
TWICE IS NICE
Senior Angel Goodrich enters the NCAA Tournament with 216 assists on the season. As a result, it is just the third time in Kansas history a player has posted 200 or more assists in a single season. But Goodrich has two of the three, in fact, she has the top two. The KU point guard collected a school and Big 12 Conference record 250 assists last season. Lisa Braddy tallied 207 assists in 1987-88.
OFFENSE GOES THROUGH GOODRICH
Point guard Angel Goodrich has 440 points this season and 216 assists. By calculating two points for every assist, Goodrich is directly responsible for a total of 872 of Kansas' 2,172 points, which comes out to 40.1 percent of the Jayhawks' scoring.
THAT 70's SHOW
Kansas' success during the Bonnie Henrickson-era has been pretty much based on 70 points. When the Jayhawks score 70 or more points, Kansas owns a 102-13 record (.887) during her tenure. When KU opponents score less than 70 points, the Jayhawks are 133-69 (.658) during that span.
MONEY MONI
Senior Monica Engelman poured in a career-high 26 points at TCU, including 18 in the second half, and followed that performance with a 21-point game against Oklahoma in Allen Fieldhouse. The back-to-back 20-point games marked the first by Engelman since Dec. 19, 2010. Over the last nine games, Engelman is averaging 15.3 points per outing, while posting three 20-point scoring efforts.
ELITE COMPANY
With her 23 points and eight rebounds at Texas (Feb. 20), senior Carolyn Davis joined the elite 1,700-point and 700 rebound club at Kansas. She is only the seventh member, joining Lynette Woodard, Adrian Mitchell, Angela Aycock, Danielle McCray, Vickie Adkins and Lynn Pride. Davis now has 1,779 career points and 739 career boards.
SIX SCORE AND ...
A group of 20 units is known as a score and KU has six different players on its roster who have grouped together 20 points or more in a single game this season. Monica Engelman is the most recent member with a career-best 26 points at TCU on Feb. 13. Joining Engelman as 20-point scorers are Carolyn Davis, Chelsea Gardner, Natalie Knight, CeCe Harper and Angel Goodrich.
GARDNER FOR THE BLOCK
Since the Big 12 season, sophomore Chelsea Gardner has been in the center of the lane for the block. Gardner posted 40 swats against league opponents, after posting nine rejections during non-conference action. She ranks fourth in the league for Big 12 games only with 2.2 blocks per game. She needs one more block to crack Kansas' top-10 for blocks in a single season.
MOVING ON UP
With her 17 points against Iowa State, senior Carolyn Davis has scored 1,796 career points and is in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time scoring charts. The KU senior now needs four points to become only the fifth player in Kansas history to score 1,800 or more career points.
START2FINISH
Senior national player of the year candidates Angel Goodrich and Carolyn Davis have built a career on complimenting each other. Goodrich, the nation's assist leader last season, is the all-time career leader at Kansas, while Davis is also atop the all-time career field goal percentage chart. So the duo is truly the essence of start to finish. To highlight their senior season, a promotional website KUStart2Finish.com has been created to promote these player of the year candidates.
SHE GIVETH and SHE TAKETH AWAY
Angel Goodrich's ability to share the ball is well documented after leading the nation in assists per game last season. Goodrich is also pretty good at taking the ball away. The Kansas senior leads the Big 12 Conference in steals per game and she also ranks No. 24 nationally with 2.9 steals per game. Goodrich currently ranks No. 10 in the Kansas' single-season record book with 91 steals this season.
MASTERS OF THEIR CRAFT
The senior writers of espnW collaborated and came up with the top-five players in the nation by position. Once again, Angel Goodrich and Carolyn Davis found themselves among the nation's elite. Goodrich was classified as one of the country's top-five point guards, while Davis was tabbed as one of the nation's best five centers.
A NATIONAL LEADER
Angel Goodrich entered this season as the reigning national champion in assists per game. She paced the Jayhawks with a school and Big 12 record 250 assists last season, or 7.4 per game. Goodrich currently averages 7.0 assists per game, which ranks second in the Big 12 and No. 5 nationally.
RELOADING
How does a top-25 program stay in the national polls? Sign a top-25 recruiting class. That's exactly what head coach Bonnie Henrickson and her staff did during the early signing period, inking the No. 14-ranked recruiting class in the nation, according to Collegiate Girls Basketball Report, and the top among Big 12 Conference schools. The class also ranked No. 25 nationally by Blue Star Basketball. The Jayhawks signed Jada Brown (6-0, F, Las Vegas, Nev.), Dakota Gonzalez (6-0, G, Pocatello, Idaho), Dylan Gonzalez (6-0, G, Pocatello, Idaho), Caelynn Manning-Allen (6-4, F, Chicago, Ill.) and Keyla Morgan (5-8, G, Rancho Dominguez, Calif.).