Sooner womens basketball thread

What's the deal with the Swine B**ch UCLA cheerleader announcing OUr game????

 

So can we overachieve again and beat skeletor so I have a reason to go to the Final 4 down here?

 

SF.com womens thread flashback: Do you remember the last time Sherri's Sooners made the Sweet 16?

Danielle Robinson pictured here crushing the hopes and dreams of every Cane.

Badger used to play with Microsoft Paint more in this thread.

We ended up losing to ND in the Sweet 16, but at least we took down one football foe.

Our last run also spawned this photo of the Sweet 16 sendoff, who from that day forward, became badger's personal hero.

Joanna McFarland was just a sophomore, but she still willed her team to win come tourney time.
And now, a sweeter 16 than ever before...

85-72

There was so much to love about this game. Our bench was fired up the entire time, singing along to school songs during timeouts, Ellen Burger just couldn't miss from three when Lady Broohaha left her open, Joanna McFarland had yet another senior moment game, and then postgame, the entire team celebrated with every Sooner in attendance, from the cheerleaders to the mascot. I just couldn't believe how well things turned out.

[youtube]fLrpBLDWyCI[/youtube]

There was one moment where UCLA was the better team, and it was the closing minutes when they were pressuring and trapping (cue "It's a trap!" clip in keeping with the Star Wars references) to the point that Sherri had to blow our last several timeouts to keep from turning it over. speaking of...

Key statz:
7 turnovers: No typo, no joke, we had a total of seven. And here I thought UCLA was supposed to be one of the more academically challenging schools on the West Coast. I guess their tough admissions standards don't apply to athletes, heh, because there is NO reason why Ooo-clah shouldn't have been forcing us to the turn the ball over (as they attempted to late in the game) throughout the entire game. Not trying to insult UCLA (yes i am) but there is no excuse for this obvious scouting oversight.

Foul trouble: We had 6 Sooners with at least 2 fouls at the beginning of the second half. In keeping with the "what are you thinking UCLA" theme, there is no reason for them not to try to capitalize on this. But, to our benefit and their discredit, they did not. Even when Sharane Campbell came in with foul fouls, they were not trying to force to pick up her fifth, or at least try to play tough against her when they knew she couldn't play hard defense without fouling out. Seriously, where is your brain UCLA (heading home since we ousted you from the tourney, tee hee).

Joanna McFarland is unquestioned queen and supreme ruler of the court. All your rebounds and points are belong to us: 20 points and 16 rebounds. On at least one occasion I saw her pull a CP3 (where you miss your own shot so you can up your rebounding stats) and pull a CP3 mini double-double (grab two misses for 2 rebounds, then sink your own shot for 2 points on a single possession). She was the Bruin's bane last night, sneaking in for rebounds off our missed free throws when they lazily forgot to box out, drawing blocking fouls on dribble drives, even getting a few blocks. They are going to have nightmare flashbacks whenever they see someone with red hair for the rest of their lives thanks to last night.

Ellen Burger put defensive schemes to shame: Let's trap Morgan Hook since she's the Sooner point guard... oh crap they just passed to Aaryn who just sank a three. Well, let's triple team whoever has the ball... dammit, just left Aaryn open for another three. OK! This time we're just going to guard Aaryn and make sure she doesn't hit a three DAMMIT SOMEONE ELSE SANK A SHOT WHAT THE HELL ARE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO?!

Sherri?

And so, not for the first time, Sherri will be facing Tennessee in OKC.

Maybe they can get him to come back now that Whitney's a senior (she was a freshman that game) and he can fall in love with Aaryn or Joanna instead. Seriously, I'd love it if ESPN would do it, because no matter how much the other ESPN guys tried to talk about the celebrities in the crowd (such as Courtney's and Ashley's dad), Bobby Knight would have none of it and direct attention back to the game... especially Whitney Hand.

Next game: Sunday, tip TBA, television TBA.


Beat the rush: Jump on the fan bandwagon now

 

Two added reasons why I enjoyed this win all the more:

1. I hate everything SoCal, especially in LA (that also comes from going to grade school up the coast in the Bay Area for 4 1/2 years).
2. A girl who rejected OU (Brewer) got to be on the wrong end of a score against us. By the way, what is up with those Sapulpa girls? Did Sherri look at one of them wrong when she was still at Norman High?

 

I haven't had the displeasure of meeting the Cal-Berkeleys yet, but I have experienced the other Pac 12 Cali schools and they have never exactly been classy or friendly, with one exception: The Stanford band would send freshmen members over to us with nachos from the concession stand. However, due to Stanford's what-you-would-say reputation, especially with their "marching" band, most of us were not brave enough to touch the nachos, let alone eat them.

As for why an Oklahoma high school star would choose Tennessee, it's the same gripe that our hardcore football fans have had in the past, where we've lost players like Robert Meacham to Rocky Top. Some kids just want to get outta state. It usually works in our favor though, as we've had tons of imports from the state of Texas Hook em

 

That reminds me: Cal-Berkeley was an awful place to be on the losing end of a football game in 1997. I still hate them because of how they acted as we were leaving on foot for the city bus back to our hotel.

Sapulpa has also sent girls to Texas, Colorado and K-State in the recent past. That's why I wondered if their coach hated Sherri or something. There was scuttlebutt that some in-state prep coaches were holding grudges over beatings they got from NHS when Sherri was there. It also happens out here in New Mexico more than you'd think - some "legend in their own mind" coach got bent out of shape because an ENMU-level recruit didn't get a UNM offer in football or hoops. So they resort to back-stabbing and general sabotage.

 

Aggie lost. This pleases me.

 

Seeing Griner expose her REAL genitalia in public would also be a pleasing act.

 

George and Laura Bush are at the game tonight watching us roll FSU.

 

I've got nothing against the Bears but it sure would be nice to see someone give them a game.

 

Forget coaching skills for one minute. Suzy merchant or Sherri coale?

 

You mean Cheryl Hines???

 

Certainly worth tossin in the mix. Couple er 3 bball beauties

 

Heard today that the OU ticket office is warning of very long queues at will call before the OU-Tennessee game at Chesapeake Energy Arena this Sunday. They've opened up will call at the ticket office on campus this afternoon and all day tomorrow.

 

Oh man here's hoping that the Sooner show up Sunday so that they can also show up Tuesday

 

Previewing Rocky Top:

At 3:35 p.m. Sunday in Oklahoma City, we will once again try to defy Einstein's theory of bracketility and prove that seedings mean nothing if you don't water them properly. We will try to show that intangibles like home field advantage, playing for our injured and uninjured seniors and proving doubters wrong, are incapable of being perceived by the senses, incapable of being realized or defined, incorporeal.

Yes, I stole that from the dictionary, but we have our backs against a wall here against a shade of orange that is NOT America's brightest. What the hell are we going to do.

What the hell we are going to do:

- Let Vegas score lots. Cute feature in today's paper here. We need to let her make as many threes, fast break shots and free throws that she wants. We need her to score in the 20s if not the 30s. And, we also need to hope that she doesn't get too many silly fouls by ambitiously trying to steal the ball back.

- Joanna needs to double the double-double. 10 and 10 is no longer an option, we will need closer to a 20/20 from Joanna McFarland. Any assists, blocks and steals she can throw in would also be much appreciated.

- Nicole needs to step up majorly. Please, Nicole, pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease step up majorly. Double figures in anything except for turnovers is all I'm asking. Rebounds? Fine. Points? Sure. Blocks? Now THAT would major kick arse.

- Sharane needs to be Aaryn-in-training. She has about one season after this of job shadowing and then it's all on Sharane to be the Vegas sequel. I really, really believe that she is capable, so by no means am I heaping UCLA men's basketball-sized expectations on her (Three Final Fours in a row?! FIRED!!!!). Thus, she is our safety net should Aaryn not score 30, but rather, "only" 20 or so.

- Morgon Hook: Just... don't give me any reason to scream at my TV in a profanity-laced way. It's gonna be Easter after all.

While I set the vBetting line at 10.5 in Rocky's favor, looking at their inconsistent performances this season, this team can be beatable if you catch them on the right night (kind of like we did with UCLA tee hee). I am not sure how else you explain a team beating Mizzou by 45, then losing to them by 17. This type of inconsistency is very promising. It tells me that they don't have depth. It tells me that there is a chance in hell.

Alas, their record also shows me that they lost to Satanford by a mere 13, and THAT TEAM by only 23. Our luck is likely about to run out.

But, on the oft chance that it doesn't, Oklahoma's (via OKC) economy is going to get a hearty boost on Sunday and Tuesday. Sherri, what say you?

So, as Oral Roberts would suggest, "expect a miracle!"

Boomer!

 

In 2002, as our pep bands preparred for possibly the most memorable pep band ever (they sent us down San Antonio's Riverwalk in a boat toward fans waiting on the other end), the Final Four bands mixed and mingled... well, three of us did (the uppity Dukies stuck to themselves, followed by us Sooners sticking it to them in the Final Four game, tee hee).

Tennessee was among the others (UConn of course beat us in the title game). Both Tenn and UConn were really nice, we exchanged email addresses, talked about how awesome our teams and our seasons were, then they sent us out in separate boats.

So, it was quite touching to see the Tennessee and OU teams 11 years later mixing at center court for a postgame prayer and I wish them nothing but the best, especially in their next game against the trashiness (more on that later)

Recapping the Sweet 16 loss:
Sadly, this game kind of exposed how much we rely on Aaryn Ellenberg's shootingness, so when she went 1 for 10 from 3, 5 for 21 from the floor overall, we were kind of screwed. When Morgan Hook went down in the first half with concussion-like symptoms, we were furtherly doomed, even if Jaz did well in her 36 minutes of her final senior year game. Sad that the season's over, but there are many reasons to be optimistic about next year:

1: Kay Kay Williams and Maddie Manningham return: There's two (potential, but likely) starters that we missed this year. Maddie started for us for a game right before her season-ending injury, and Kaylon was a starter for us late last season.

2: Nicole Griffin is tall: Jokes aside, she showed yesterday that she could contribute in ways other than being tall, diving for balls about to go out of bounds, bailing out trapped players, etc. Since it will be her senior year, her breakout year will be next year or never!

3: Aaryn has to endure an entire offseason of remembering a terrible shooting day: And she doesn't seem like the kind of player to let it bother her in a bad way, but rather a good way. Beware, opposing teams. Beware.

4: Sharane Campbell skipped having a sophomore slump: And will become a junior, which by definition, can't be a slumpy season, right?

5: Sherri Coale will still be our head coach: Thank goodness she declined the UCLA men's basketball job and will be returning to coach the Sooners next year. I would have hated for her to get fired for only taking UCLA to the Sweet 16 or some sh!t like that.

Sherri?

Here is the postgame presser video if you want to be sad.

In conclusion: Go Tennessee. Yes, they just beat us and ended our season, but there's no reason to hate them. Louisville and Baylor both were playing dirty, their coaches were absolute BRATS and both teams had players that received a technical for absolutely uncontrolled and embarrassing moment. I challenge anyone to find a time when a Sherri Coale player got a technical at OU. It just doesn't happen here, and it shouldn't happen elsewhere.

I'll be back later with final season grades.

Boomer!

 

About the closest thing I've seen in women's basketball like Baylor's sorry program behavior was a team that Sherri and Jan played against when they were at OCC. They played USAO in the '85 NAIA District 9 playoffs and lost a home game to them, after sweeping them in the regular season. Their players did a little dance around the court at the Eagles' Nest just to rub it in. USAO had this husky, mean-looking girl who'd apparently played really dirty with Jan in Chickasha earlier that season. She basically led the taunt/dance, too.

I was even more disappointed that Cameron hired their no-discipline coach away from USAO the next year. CU wasn't as bratty as USAO was in '86, but they actually had a former OU player whose attitude was embarrassing (but not on par with some of the Lady Bears). And OCC got some revenge on that coach at least (the guy who'd been at USAO) by pounding Cameron in Lawton for the District 9 title in '86.