soonerboomer
3/8/2012, 12:39 PM
Today the Sooner Women play Missouri. During the regular season they only beat Missouri in Columbia by three points (62-59) and in Norman by four points (64-60). During their last 10 games, they won only five of them. Today they play in Missouri's back yard and Missouri will probably have a good number of fans supporting them. Unless they approach today's game with a positive attitude, I believe Missouri will upset Oklahoma today. The mistakes that they make are characteristic of freshmen and inexperienced players. However they are correctable which they seem to not have done during the regular season. What are they doing wrong? Turnovers, poor shots, trouble getting the ball in when pressured, not taking shots when open and letting the shot clock run down, trouble picking up the ball on the floor, allowing the other team to make offensive rebounds, not getting offensive rebounds, poor ball handling, etc. I could include others. I believe Coach Coale needs to emphasize to the players that self-control and discipline on the floor is needed. It's obviously lacking. They seem to be out of control too often. As an high school and college athletic (baseball and football) I made sure of my mental preparation, always going through the plays in my mind. Bud Wilkinson preached mental preparation and self discipline and I always made it a part of my mental preparation prior to taking the field. My high school baseball coach who played for the Boston Red Socks emphasized, "I can't discipline you, but I can control you by benching you. You have to discipline yourself." This is my advice to the Sooner women during the Big 12 tournament, especially today playing Missouri.