Feb. 10, 2002
By Amy Fiscus
MU Media Relations Office
Most college athletes will tell you the hardest part of their job is time management, and Missouri junior guard Kerensa Barr is no exception. However, with Barr, you get the feeling that it is not because she's required to spend three hours a day in class, three hours at practice, an hour in the weight room, etc., but because she can't tear herself away from the basketball.
"I've been playing basketball for as long as I can remember," Barr said. "I can remember shooting the ball and I couldn't even get it to the basket. I didn't have my own team until I was 8, but I used to go to my brother's practices before that."
That passion continues. On Barr's only day off in a week that includes a game against nationally ranked Kansas State and another against archrival Kansas, she headed to the Hearnes Center on her own, wearing gym shorts and running shoes, more than likely ready for a game of one-on-one. The most telling sign, though, is the basketball she dribbles between her hands, underneath her chair, almost constantly for an hour.
"There's rarely a time I feel like I'm not playing basketball," Barr says, absentmindedly flipping the ball up in the air. There is not a twinge of regret in her voice, either.
And there should not be. The basketball gods have been good to Barr. She was Missouri's player of the year in 1999 and an honorable mention All-American coming out of West Plains High School in southern Missouri. She narrowed her college choices to Arizona State and SMS (her father, Tom, is the men's coach at SMS-West Plains Junior College) before choosing MU.
"I took visits to other places and I liked them but I really felt like Missouri was the place for me," Barr said. "I wanted to stay close to home where my family could see me play. I just really felt like I liked the direction the program was going and I liked the coaches and the people. I'm really glad I came here. I love the college life and just being a student here."
She has helped lead the MU program in the right direction. During her freshman year, Barr was third in the Big 12 in three-point field-goal percentage (42.4) and set her own career high with seven steals in one game. Her role increased as a sophomore in last year's Sweet 16 campaign, scoring in double figures 15 times and recording 148 assists to rank third on MU's all-time list.
This year, Barr has become more of a leader for the Tigers.
"Last year, I could just pass it to the right people and we'd score," she said. "I do that somewhat this year too, but I have to take a bigger role in the offense."
Barr has almost doubled her scoring average from last season, going from 8.2 points per game to this year's 15.6 mark, and leads the team with 90 assists.
Even though Missouri is a young team, Barr said there is still some potential to turn some heads.
"We have six games left and we're in a spot right now that if we win, it will be interesting to see how our team responds to that kind of pressure," she said. "We're young but we play in such a tough conference that it forces us to grow up. If we win some more games, we can peak at the right time and make a run at the Big 12 Tournament."
And Barr knows that it might be up to her to make this season memorable.
"I was captain last year, too," Barr said. "My personality is that I'm very vocal. That's how it's always been, not only in basketball, but in everything."