Kansas women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider says team has shown it deserves support

LAWRENCE — Brandon Schneider has been in this position before.

Schneider, Kansas’ head women’s basketball coach, is in his seat at a press conference inside Allen Fieldhouse. There’s an upcoming home game for the Jayhawks that’s just been referenced in a question. And the topic of fan support is being mentioned in the same breath.

This time Schneider is moments removed from guiding Kansas to a 72-52 victory against Wichita State. The future home game in question is Friday’s game against Tulsa. And Schneider, whose team is off to a 9-0 start and recently upset a ranked Arizona squad on the road, is being asked if he has a message for the student body or the KU community as a whole.

But if anyone was expecting Schneider to pound the table in front of him and deliver and impassioned plea for more support, that’s not what followed. No, Schneider spoke with the same calm confidence that was on display during his answers regarding the Jayhawks’ latest win. Because the team’s play so far this season can speak for itself.

RELATED:If Taiyanna Jackson can keep this up, Kansas women’s basketball may thrive in Big 12 play

RELATED:How Kansas women’s basketball signed S’Mya Nichols, one of the nation’s top players

“(Sunday), I don’t know what the attendance was, but it felt much better,” said Schneider, whose squad played in front of a crowd of 2,556, a season-high at home. “But, I’m not going to sit up here and beg. I think that our players have demonstrated that they deserve support. We’ve got a lot of teams in our league that average 4,500, 5,000 fans a game that aren’t near what our team is. So, we appreciate all the support that we can get.”

Kansas entered the top 25 of the coaches poll this week at No. 24, making it the fourth-highest ranked Big 12 Conference team in the nation behind No. 12 Iowa State, No. 18 Baylor and No. 20 Oklahoma. But, as of Wednesday morning, the Jayhawks’ average home attendance of 1,993 ranked eighth in the 10-team conference this season. Last season, Kansas averaged 1,564 per home game and finished last in the Big 12 in that respect.

There’s something to be said for how the Jayhawks struggled ahead of last season’s run to the NCAA tournament, their first appearance in it since 2013. That was just Schneider’s second winning season in seven tries. But the buzz around the program ahead of this season hasn’t translated to attendance just yet.

That could change now that they're in the top 25. Just like in recruiting, it certainly doesn’t hurt for the Jayhawks to be able to say they're ranked when they’re looking to bring in more fans. But even if Kansas’ status as a member of the top 25 fluctuates in the weeks and months ahead, it looks primed to enjoy more success in the Big 12 than it has in more than a decade.

“I think they’re a hungry team,” Schneider said. “I think they’re a team that defends, is trying to develop an identity as a team that defends and hangs their hat on that and is tough to score against. I think offensively, they’re trying to be a team that plays together and moves the ball...I don’t think we have a team that feels like we’ve got to have one player go get 30 a night to give ourselves a chance. I think we’re balanced. I think we have good perimeter play, good front-line play."

Last season, the Jayhawks went from being picked to finish last in the Big 12’s preseason coaches poll to finishing fifth. That was their best finish so far in Schneider’s tenure and their best finish as a team since they finished fourth during the 1999-2000 season.

This year, the Jayhawks were picked to finish fifth in the Big 12 by the league’s head coaches. In addition to being ranked in the top 25 of the coaches poll right now, the NET rankings had them at No. 20 as of Tuesday. That's the third-best among Big 12 teams.

If fans are waiting to see how Kansas finishes out non-conference play, after the Jayhawks play Tulsa there’s a Dec. 21 game on the road against Nebraska. If fans are waiting to see how Kansas starts out during Big 12 play, the Jayhawks open that up on Dec. 31 on the road at Oklahoma State before playing on Jan. 4 at home against Texas Tech.

Should Kansas keep this up and hold up as a top-half in the Big 12 team, it’ll be up to the fan base to decide when they start to respond with top-half of the Big 12 support

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Undefeated Kansas women's basketball deserves fan support, says coach