Hello again My Kansas Fans,

It seems like it has been a while since I have updated you all with what has been going on with the Jayhawks. The month of November has been full of new and exciting things and I think that most of you are very curious as to what has been going on.... So here is some inside information!

First off, I will like to THANK all of those who came to support us at Late Night. We had a blast. With the fieldhouse full of red and blue and the noise that was rocking the gym, it was Amazing. The best part of the night was seeing the 2008 National Championship banner rise for the men's basketball team. The dance that we put together for our fans was great and the scrimmage hmmm... very interesting!! That is one way to describe it. I would say five percent of the team was nervous and the rest was excited to show off there dance moves. There are not many times that we can shake our boom boom..Ha!! Unfortunately, there was no winner from the scrimmage, but the good thing about that was we competed well against each other.

I can say from all the sweat dripped and the bumps and bruises, practices have been going really well. Now that we are past our third game and with the season opener under our belt, we are off to a great start. One game down on our way to get to the big DANCE (NCAA tournament).

Our freshmen Aishah Sutherland and Angel Goodrich are hanging in there and everyone loves them. It's good to see that those two are fitting in very well. I know Coach Bonnie is thrilled and feels much better that there are only two freshmen compared to when there were six my freshman year. Wow!! The rest of us are doing great. By the atmosphere in practice, the positive energy, the commitment on and off the floor and the determination, I feel that we have something special awaiting us.

By the way Fans, there is an ESPN game on Tuesday. We have prepared to come up on the right end of things. We are hosting Iowa at 11 a.m. Yes 11 a.m!! We all know that it will be an early game, but its a great opportunity for us to be on the tube. I am so excited for the game and I hope that you all will be in Allen Fieldhouse to support us. I would advise you to get a nice breakfast and come out and bring your loudest voice and help cheer us on.

Something to remember for Tuesday is to bring a sign so that you can maybe get the chance to be on ESPN!! Dun na-na Dun na-na!!

Again Fans, Thanks for your support and dedication. There is nothing like playing in front of all of you and hearing the you cheer.. We all appreciate it. It's now time for me to go to, but until next time Rock chalk!!

-Danielle

Welcome Back Jayhawk Fans!!! It seems like it has been a while since you last heard or saw anything about my fellow KU teammates or myself. It has been forever since I have written a blog to keep you up to date, so we have some catching up to do!

This past summer was filled with a lot of excitement. It felt almost like Christmas! We were blessed to have two new Jayhawks join our squad. Aishah Sutherland and Angel Goodrich are wonderful gifts added to our program. In addition, new assistant coach Tamika Raymond is going to be an amazing mentor for us once she finishes her 2008 WNBA season. (Go Sun!)

Okay....enough about Christmas during summer!

Although they were extremely challenging (thanks Hudy!) our summer workouts went very well. Everyone on the team has worked really hard to improve their own individual skills. We played lots of pick-up games and I cannot wait for our coaches to see how much our hard work has paid off!

A few of us also had the pleasure of doing some interesting things off the court during our summer hiatus. Krysten Boogaard was invited to play back home with the Canadian National Team. After making the cut for their development squad, she ended up traveling to China for some games. I know she did really well over there and I am looking forward to seeing her progress. Also, my fellow junior Rebecca Feickert had the chance to visit Spain for over a month as part of the study abroad program KU offers. Becca said Spain was "amazing." She didn't want to come back! Angel played one last tournament with her team from Oklahoma. They went out to Arizona for the Native American Basketball Invitational, taking home the title. Believe it or not, Angel hit a big shot to claim the win in the championship game! Last but not least-I had a great opportunity to enhance my own basketball skills by attending Point Guard College in Texas. (yes, it was called Point Guard College, but I am still going to be a shooting guard!) I hade a great time at the camp and learned some valuable things that I didn't even realize existed in basketball!

Overall the summer was great! Now we are getting back into the groove of school and individual workouts. We are all focused on producing a season for Jayhawks fans to remember!

Rock Chalk Jayhawk-

Danielle McCray #4

Not many teams in America get a very special person to come and give great motivational speeches. On October 29th our team got the chance to have Felicia Allen come and give us some vision on this 2007-2008 basketball season. When I first met her I was a little frightened, she stood about 6-foot-4 and had a very strong body. She is the former teammate of Karen Lange, and she seemed as if everyday in practice she threw Karen around. The first thing she said to me when she met me was "Oh you are Danielle McCray". At that point I did not know how to take it, having a huge lady say this to me was a little intimidating so I just answered "Yes I am", and I kept on walking. After a while I came to realize that she has made an impact on many great players and has been around many great people. She just loves to have fun and at the same time give teams a vision of success and she did just that when she spoke with us.

During the four hour meeting with Felicia, we did a lot of fun things. The theme of the meeting and also the theme that we are relying on this year is "Building a Championship Culture." She motivated us to this goal that we have here at Kansas. We also had some fun activities, like playing a game that involved us being back to back and answering questions. However, my favorite was having each person in a group of four pick a dance and everyone had to do it.... With this in mind the coaches were involved too.. Karen decided to Crank Dat Soulja Boy... and Bonnie decided to take it old school. We had a blast and everyone was dying laughing. We had to show some talent.

6-20-64!! 6-20-64!! We made this up in our meeting too. I'm pretty sure you have no idea what this means. When we make it through each one then we will let you "in" on our little secret. Until then you'll just have to hear us chanting it before and after every practice and before every game! We are in a really good place at the end of the year when we make it through those numbers.

As I wrap this blog up I am going to give you the last activity we did in the four hours we had with her. She had us write a letter to our younger self, telling ourselves what we have been through or how you should be appreciative of the things that you have or will have. I chose to write about the things I have been through and how it has impacted me. I started it off with:

Dear Younger D,
Although practice and Hudy workouts were tough and tiring throughout the season this has given me the mental toughness and has made me strong as a person. I believe there is nothing that can be done to me that I could not handle and face in adversity. From the meetings with Randy Bird, university nutritionist, I have learned how to have the perfect body, and the discipline to maintain it. Believing in what Coach Bonnie told me to do or change was the hardest thing, but it has given me the opportunity to play at the next level, the WNBA. With Lew Perkins, our athletic director, and our coaching staff giving me a chance, I now have my dream job as a computer engineer, working on computers (not at a fast food restaurant saying "May I take your order"!!) I have come a long way on a bumpy road and made difficult changes, but I have had great success along the way and I am very glad that I chose to follow the yellow brick road to the University of Kansas, being a Jayhawk!! There is no better place to be than at the University of Kansas..

P.S: I will not look back!

Until next time 6-20-64!! 6-20-64!!

ROCK CHALK # 4

Wow! I can't believe we are back at it again....with six sophomores, three newbie's, three juniors and two seniors we are all getting ready for a new year. However, I can still hear "Hoodie," I mean Hudy, in my head yelling and pushing us to cross the finish line in preseason workouts. I can still hear her saying "Let's go Mc-CRAZY," a nickname I have inherited over time, but it was all worth the troubles.....waking up early for workouts or rushing after class to get to the locker room to be on time for Hudy preseason workouts was a thriller, but as Bonnie says, "WE ARE STILL ALIVE." I will admit, YES, we are still here standing strong and getting better and better as the days go by!!

The year is flying by as Late Night in the Phog has already come and gone. I can remember my freshman year how nervous and afraid I was to dance in front of 16,000 people, but after graduating from that level it was not as bad this year. This time we all felt like celebrities, with our fancy dresses on and rolling up in nice whips such as a Mercedes Benz, stretch limo, Infinity, convertible Lexus and an Avalanche on 22's!!! Yeah that's right, Kelly and I were "BALLIN" in the Avalanche on what Sade calls "deuce deuces," meaning 22's. We were styling....Who wouldn't feel as high class as the Jayhawks when we walked on the red carpet? We were rolling "FIRST CLASS" like Fergie says ... But besides that, from Walking It Out to Cranking that Soulja Boy, I believe our team has grown and we have gotten a lot better. Late Night was so much fun! Our step dance this year was choreographed by Ms. Trena "Superstar" Anderson. When we first heard what we were doing, we knew there were going to be some problems. When you go from dancing to a step, you kind of worry how a big 6-foot-5 girl will reach the floor and stomp her feet at the same time. This was the case with Krysten Boogaard. Her first question to us, however, was not "can you teach me how to do it?" but it was "What is step?" We knew right away there was going to be some trouble. Trena spent long hours giving Boogaard lessons and it turned out to be quite helpful. In fact, I believe Boogaard did better than some of us after LOTS of practice! On the other hand, the upperclassmen did not have this problem. They were what I called, the bang-loud noise making STOMP group. Their performance included trash cans, drum sticks, chains and a basketball that made all kinds of cool sounds. Their performance turned out to beat ours, but if it was up to me I think ours was better! Karen picked them in favor of us because they got the crowd into it, so they gave the title to the upperclassmen. Besides that, we all had a blast and we gave a preview to our fans on how this season will be when we scrimmaged. With Late Night down, it's time to start our first practice. We are all ready!

Until next time.....Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU!

#4 Danielle McCray