Oklahoma womens basketball blog 2010-11

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This season's blog is dedicated in memory of Rosalind Ross, who was fatally shot this past September. Ross was a key member of our team's first Final Four appearance in 2002, when the team took down Duke and nearly defeated undefeated UConn in the championship game. Ross was a tremendous athlete and first-round WNBA draft pick whose three-point shooting caused fans to hold up not one, but two "3" signs in tribute to her jersey, #33. Our thoughts and prayers are with her friends and family during this difficult time and we thank you for sharing Ross with Sooner Nation, who provided us with such wondering memories.


You get a little bit of tear in your eye just writing that out... but a new season with many new faces following the graduations of Ny Stevenson, Abi Olajuwon and Amanda Thompson is upon us. It's November! First, the FAQ:

Q: What the heck is this?

A: Due to previous friendly ribbing for interjecting womens basketball discussion into this primarily mens basketball forum, I started a blog thread last season to keep my chatter about the womens team to a single thread. Lo and behold, that team surprised us all and went to the Final Four, so perhaps it's lucky?

Q: What exactly, other than lack of blog, would keep the team from going back to the Final Four again?

A: Much like last year, graduations. We lost the Paris twins before last season and this offseason, we lost Abi, Amanda and Nyeshia, three strong starters. Plus, we have a LOT of newcomers... and Whitney Hand is injured till January again.

Q: Speaking of the seniors, how are they?

A: Alas, all of our WNBA players were either cut during preseason or during the season, so we have no Sooner representation currently in the WNBA. However, many of them compete overseas during the WNBA's offseason, so don't give up on them yet! It is a testament to the Sherri's coaching that we have such success as a team with non-WNBA players on our rosters.

Q: If not the Final Four, where is this team headed?

A: Nowhere but up. After the pollsters mistakenly ranked us 20th last preseason (ha ha!), we are now a top-ten preseason ranked team for the third time in four seasons. Check out the preseason poll here.

Q: I'm new to womens basketball. Who should I hate?

A: Without a question, hate Baylor. They are the unquestioned front runner for the Big 12 this year and are being touted as the team to dethrone UConn. They are also, if I'm not mistaken, the only Big 12 team to have a national championship. Also, we beat them twice out of our three meetings last year, so this is not just blind jealousy hate we're talking. We have a very good chance of taking them out, but it will be difficult. More on them as the season develops.

Q: So...um... about that offseason poll...

A: It's cool. You can view all of the pics and the voting and such at the following links here (round one), here (play-in round), here (round two), here (final four) and here (finale). Don't complain about the results - you all were the ones who voted.

Welcome back everyone. Hope we have another awesome season to talk about here

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In case you all didn't hear, D-Rob is a preseason AA pick. Kudos to her, she definitely deserves it

Link

As per tradition, our season starts off with an exhibition against Coale's alma mater Oklahoma Christian 7 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday). After the team's male counterparts on the other side of LNC squeaked by against their first opponent, I hope the ladies don't take anything for granted.

But really, I expect nothing but good things to come out of this game. The freshmen are going to get valuable experience, and a chance to get the crappy fouls and turnovers out of the way in the exhibition, rather than against Baylor. I would not be surprised if everyone got at least a few minutes on the court.

Boomer!

EDIT: I like this pic, so I'm dropping it here for future reference:

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The dog days of pre-season are over, the adrenaline kick of early practices has passed, and we're just a day away from our one and only chance to make a first impression. Ready or not, on Thursday we go.

With the popularity of last year's shoddily-drawn Microsoft Paint cartoons, I'll try to do a few more for big games this year:

We're a long way from being good right now, but I have to admit that this bunch has me. I like them. I like their hunger. I like their wide eyes. I like their diligence in little things. And I enjoy teaching them because they want to learn.

If there is anything to be pessimistic about this team, it's the fact that we have five freshmen, and as Danielle Robinson knows, being young and in the college game for the first time means lots of silly fouls and turnovers. The college game still means lots of silly fouls and turnovers even for upperclassmen, so D-Rob will have to set a good example for our younger players on how to handle the ball. However, since she was now named a Lowe's Senior CLASS Award finalist, I think she's at that stage where turnovers and fouls will get minimal... hopefully. If not, prepare for tons of death stares from the lady in charge on the bench in stilettos.

Link on D-Rob

The quotes from Coale that I'm stealing are from a blog they posted on SS.com yesterday. You can read it in its entirety here.



There really is a lot of reasons to be excited about this upcoming season, even if it follows one of the best surprise seasons ever.

Anyway - 7 p.m. tonight! Something called the "OU Drum Line Team" makes its debut at halftime. So, make lots of noise or you'll be covered up by drum noise, I guess Preview of the game here.

Boomer!

[NormanPride]

Usually when we have rebuilding seasons it's with a new PG. We have a lot of young people, but D-Rob is still the keystone. She'll keep us afloat in the games where the young girls are flailing around, and when the youth clicks we'll be really good.

Good luck this season, girls!

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So, since this is exhibition and all, I thought I'd start off this game overview by introducing you all to some new players on the team.


Everyone, this is Alexann Yancey. She is a 5-10 froshie guard from Plano. You all will probably demand that she be included in some offseason poll, but save your demands till I get to all of the freshmen, mkay?

Yancey was among the 12 Sooners (Both Whitney and ROFL were out with injuries and didn't play) that recorded minutes in our 91-42 exhibition win over Sherri's alma mater Oklahoma Christian University. We apparently generated 40 points off of their turnovers... but this is exhibition, we are a top-10 team and I have very high expectations

So, as was the case last year, honors and dishonors - and unless you have a really big game, being in the dishonor list means NO player of the game honors for the game.

Scoring Sooner: D-Rob
Danielle had 19 points in only 25 minutes. She usually played 38, 39, 40 minutes per game, so you can only expect this number to go up... minutes-wise and points-wise.

Rebound machine: Jelena Cerina
Who? Why, yet another newcomer that I will introduce you to this exhibition season, but of course! She also shot a perfect 4 for 4 from the field. She is a junior transfer originally from Serbia... a 6-foot, 5-inch transfer. Baylor, eat yer heart out.

Free throws should be free award: Lauren Willis
Yes, the Christmas scholly recipient has made us all proud, shooting a perfect 4 for 4 from the line last night.

and now, the dishonorable mentions:

Turnover queen: D-Rob
Danielle, remember what I said yesterday about setting a good example for all of our freshmen? SEVEN turnovers?! Second-place was tied with 3... Joanna! You're not a freshman, either!

CP3 tribute award (for missing free throws): Jaz Hart (0 for 2)
ANOTHER non-freshmen with a dishonorable, eh? I apologize whole-heartedly to the froshies I was poking fun at yesterday in the shoddily-drawn toon. But, considering the whole team shot 15 for 23, maybe I'm being too hard on Jasmine?

Field goals are the goal: Jasmine Hartman
When you shoot 0 for 3 from the field and shoot 0 for 2 from the line, your total point total for the night is... zero. In 21 minutes, poor Hartman logged zero points due to missed shots both at the line and the field. No, they were not 3-point attempts. She just... missed shots. She was the only player that played to score zero points. C'mon Jaz. I know you can do better!

Player of the game: Lauren Willis
Looking at the entire stat line, she stands out in multiple categories. As already noted, she was the only Sooner that was perfect from the line. She was also 2 for 3 from three-point range (Morgan Hook, another froshie that I'll introduce later, shot 2 for 4. Nobody else on the team hit two). Tied for leading the team in assists (3) and was second on the team in steals (also 3, D-Rob had 6) oh and get this - ZERO turnovers. Perfect! Congrats, Lauren! You're showing everyone why you earned your Christmas scholarship!



And now, for a quote:

We want to be able generate our offense with our defense and we did a good job of that... We got a little greedy and either gave them an angle to the rim or fouled. But I liked their aggression. I like the way, particularly, Danielle (Robinson) was getting after the ball. I like the way my big girl Joanna (McFarland) goes diving after the loose ball and makes a play. Lauren Willis comes in and flies around, dives on the floor and gets a loose ball. So I thought there were some really good things in that regard in the effort category.

Read the SS.com recap here. Read the Associated Press recap here. Norman Transcript column on froshie Aaryn Ellenberg here. NewsOK recap here.

Boomer!

PS: For those of you who are ESPN Mag subscribers (or have access via Insider online), you might be repulsed by the cover, which makes Duke look like Coach K gives players rabies. But, you will be absolutely appalled by another story inside, should you not burn the mag upon seeing the cover. Will cover this crap in next blog entry.

[NormanPride]

I would imagine D-Rob is turning the ball over like crazy because she doesn't know where the newcomers will be. It will get better!

It's also good to see some outside shooting!

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You know how I said the most repulsive image in this edition of ESPN Mag was not the cover?




Well, here is a link to it, complete with a Baylor Behemoth feature story on how she likes to eat pig and play like a man or whatever. If you feel no need to look at that story after the initial image, that's OK - you're not missing much. Just google her name and you'll see all you'll need to know about Baylor's tall chick.

...and btw, we met them three times last year and won two of 'em. The two that weren't in Waco. Boomer, beyonce!

PS: Next OU exhibition is 7 p.m. Weds versus Cameron.

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Our exhibition season continues at 7 p.m. tomorrow (Wednesday) and Amanda Thompson has a reminder for the team in this week's shoddily-drawn Microsoft Paint toon:

I didn't come up with "The Waitress" nickname, but it's on her facebook, myspace and twitter I've heard, so it's what she prefers to be called, heh. Still, the team should look back to AT's constant clutch performances at the line and shooting from the field to know that those little shots worth a paltry one point each make the difference down the stretch, especially against the likes of some of our Big 12 foes.

You can view a complete schedule here. Alas, no articles since last week's game, and even some of the local media just lifted the AP wire story, so nothing to share on that front.

Boomer anyways

[NormanPride]

Free throws always seem to be at a premium...

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For the fans of all of my "Texas loses" pictures over on the fark board, a good ESPN.com read on why Texas womens basketball sucks:

Link

If you don't have time to read, in a nutshell, Texas tried to buy a winning coach with a lot of money and it didn't work out. Exiting the first round of the NCAA tourney when you're playing at home isn't exactly a good way to end a season.

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Not sure if you all realized this, but it's early signing season in college basketball. As such, Sherri early-signed four.

Link

You can see ESPN's recruiting profiles for each here:

Dashawn Harden

Sharane Campbell

Katherine Zander

I could not find a profile for Kaylon, but there were several wire stories about a player of the same name verbaling to UW-Milwaukee's men's team last April... um... ok...

Read more at SS.com here.

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Know-your-new-Sooner time!

This is Morgan Hook:

She is a 5-10 guard from Arkansas (we recruit a lot of Arky girls, don't we?).

I feel a lot more comfortable (in games) than I do in practices. I don’t know why, but practices, I feel like my mind is going a hundred miles an hour. But during the games I feel really calm. I know Danielle, she always has to tell me to calm down, you’ve got the shot. So I look to her to keep my head during the game.

Glad to have her aboard. Should provide some help in shooting these upcoming seasons. And now, onto the game!

85-23

Of course, Cameron is a D-2 opponent who apparently turned over the ball 43 times, so that means a lopsided game, and a lot of minutes to share! Cameron's leading scorer had 8 points... so... let's just talk about our girls, shall we?

Scoring Sooner: D-Rob (20)
20 points in 22 minutes? Oh man... I know it's Cameron and all, but... wow.

Rebound machine: Joanna McFarland (7)
She must not like the "Four Foul" nickname I gave her last season, because she only had one last night in 14 minutes of play. Honorable mention to both Carlee (yes, back starting from ankle injury) and Lauren Willis, who both had 6 each.

Free throws should be free award: Team (19 for 23)
They must have hated the crappy toon I drew, because the worst at the line was D-Rob at 4 for 6, which is something I can live with. For the most part, when we went to the line, we made shots... and there were no oh-fers. Everyone who shot at least one made at least one.

Giving Tree award: Jasmine Hartman (6)
Better name for assists leader to be determined. Her shot was much improved over last game as well, shooting 2 for 2 at the line and 2 for 3 from the field.

and now, some of the less appealing statistics:

Turnover queen: D-Rob (5)
I should put more of this stat on the team as well, since someone has to be there to catch the passes, but still...

Field goals are the goal: Team (30 for 70)
Yes, we shot 30 for 70 last night... but Cameron shot 9 for 49, so maybe I shouldn't be so harsh? Dishonorable mention to Nicole Griffin, who like Jaz in the first exhibition, missed all shots from the field and the line to end with zero points

Whitney's watching you miss her shot: Aaryn Ellenberg (0 for 5)
When the game is really out of hand, it might be fun to lob up some crazy 3-point shots, but when you lob up five of them and miss all five, that's not a good thing. She's a freshman so I'll forgive her.

Player of the game: Jasmine Hartman
I'm sorry for calling out your shot last game Led the team in assists (6 to 2 assist-to-turnover ratio), minutes (23), second in steals (3) and shot perfectly from the line. Congrats, Jaz! Keep it up!

Stat of the game: 13. Once again, every non-injured player logged minutes (at least seven each) last night. Carlee ROFL started in place Lyndsey Cloman.

And now, a quote!

Once again I was really proud with our kids' effort. They played extremely hard for all 40 minutes. For everybody who went in, for whatever the situation was when they went in the game, I really liked our effort. I love how this team gets after loose balls. It’s really hard to get six new players to buy into that this early in the season and I think the credit for the fact that they have belongs to the seniors and Whitney (Hand), as a captain, as well, in demanding them and expecting it from them on a daily basis. I love that. Those are intangible things that really are going to help us as we go into the stretch of early pre-conference play.

Boomer!

EDIT: Don't I usually provide links in these? Yeah, so here they are, read more on signing day here, a recap on the game at SS.com here, or tulsaworld.com here, or normantranscript.com here, or oudaily.com here, the AP wire off Sports Illustrated's site here or newsok.com here.

If you only have time for one, SS.com is the best this time. Hopefully will have some better recaps from local media during the regular season. Seems like many are lifting wire or press release info during exhibition.

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PS: Happy Veterans Day!

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We start our regular season on the road to Milwaukee (yay, state of Wisconsin!) tomorrow. I'll be down in Norman with NormanPride for the Tech football beatdown, but I'll be back Sunday to recap.

To preview the game at SS.com, click here.

I really can't say anything about womens basketball at UW-Milwaukee, but as a college-bound high school student presented with tons of crap on the UW system back in my old home state, I can say without a doubt that despite the fact that UW-Madison (the place where the Badgers play) is the Big Ten school with all of the fans and stuff, UW-Milwaukee was constantly the highest-priced state school in the state. Sure, neighboring Marquette is private and pricey, but combine it with UW-Milwaukee and you've got a very expensive higher education town.

Milwaukee, while home to the state's lone MLB and NBA teams, hardly reflects the rest of the rural state's culture and is pretty much an extension of Chicago and is the state's most-populous city with craploads of traffic compared to everywhere else.

So - yay Wisconsin, boo Milwaukee, but don't boo them entirely, because they gave us our tallest player in OU womens bball history (6'6" froshie Nicole Griffin) and the late great Rosalind Ross, who will be honored by both teams before the game.

Boomer!

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I am still exhausted from driving late last night and the last football home game of the season. All of you empty seaters gave me extra leg room, but I'm short and you weren't there to block the cold air so I kind of don't like you absentee fans right now

But, I'll save that for the football forum. Isn't this where I intro another new Sooner face?

Everyone, meet Aaryn Ellenberg:

She is proof that our Las Vegas recruiting extends beyond the football field and also that a freshman, if awesome enough, can just step in and start on a top-10 Sooner team. The 5'7" guard is d@mn good and you are going to be seeing a lot more of her this season.

76-59

We only led by 3 at the half in front of 700 fans, so you know that playing on the road is a little bit of a difference. I can also say without a doubt that forcing turnovers was the difference maker tonight, because when a team out-shoots you at the free throw line and has higher percentages at in field goals and three-pointers, there's gonna be issues. However, it's everyone's issue, because 12 players logged at least a minute.

Scoring Sooner: Danielle Robinson (20)
Someday, I might rename this award in her honor. Was 8 for 14 in 37 minutes.

Rebound machine: Hart and McFarland (5 each)
Really? McFarland has to share this honor? wtf, Joanna. This is your area of expertise. There were also two players with four (Cerina and Cloman)

Free throws should be free: D-Rob (4 for 4); Morgan Hook (2 for 2)
Sherri probably took off her stilettos and shaked the pointy end at the players till they shot better from the line. While more are hitting their shots, I wish we had more opportunities at the line.

Unselfish Sooner: D-Rob (11)
11 assists is really, really good. But, I wish more players had them - second in this category was two (Hart) and four logged a single assist. SINGLE ASSIST?!


Ball thief: D-Rob (8)
So, we can safely assume that D-Rob destroyed Milwaukee at this point. Hail, Danielle. Your game is as awesome as your red hair.

And now, the dishonors:

Foul happy: Cloman (4)
For the record, Joanna only had one foul. We also had four players with three (Carlee, Aaryn, D-Rob, Cerina). Now that exhibition is over, this dishonorable award makes its return

Whitney's watching you miss her shot: Team (8 for 22)
I know 3-pointers are low-percentage shots, but still, not a good stat. Individually, Aaryn (3 for 8) Morgan (3 for 7) and Lauren (2 for 5) probably all made Whitney cringe a little more than our Texas A&M football game

Turnover queen: D-Rob (5)
The only downside to an otherwise awesome game. So...

Player of the game: Danielle Robinson
Turnover queen status aside, I have decided that so long as her turnovers are trumped by her assists, it can be forgiven during winning games. She really has been the top player every single game this season for us and she deserves recognition.

EMPTY MILWAUKEE STADIUM, RECOGNIZE HER!!!!!

And now, a quote:

"That's what she does... That's why she is a candidate for the Wade Trophy and on everyone's preseason All-American list.

"She was a little more aggressive looking for her shot, but really it was leadership, the way she carried herself... It was the intensity in her face."

Boomer!

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Big kudos to the men for also starting their season off with a win.

In case I didn't appreciate Danielle Robinson enough in my last post, the Big 12 just named her player of the week.

Link

Unfortunately, that respect did not carry over to this week's AP poll, as OU dropped a spot to #11.

Link

Bastards. Other ranked Big 12 teams include Baylor (#2) A&M (#8) Texas (#17), and Iowa State (#19).

[NormanPride]

Get those young kids experience so they can contribute in Big 12 play.

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En route to work and at the gym, all the chatter is about a certain #1 vs. #2 matchup. Yup, UConn's hosting Baylor at 5 p.m. tonite on ESPN2. In case you haven't heard, there's this chick from Baylor who can dunk

Link to Baylor site

While I was working out, ESPN was showing lowlights from last year's Final Four game where Britney was getting pwn3d repeatedly by UConn - either guarding too far away from the basket, or getting dribbled around, or missing shots because she couldn't get close enough to the basket.

Sports Animal was interviewing Sherri about it this morning. She said that she "didn't have a dog in the fight," but said that men's basketball really took off around the time UCLA had it's big John Wooden streak going, which created parity and more competition in the game, not to mention a lot of fan interest. So, she said a 1-2 matchup like this is good for the game.

Then, Sherri was asked about Joe C. possibly moving onto a different program and... asked if she would consider taking over for Joe when he's done at OU.

Sherri laughed, because at first she thought she was going to be asked if she would work for UConn's coach Geno and she was all like NO, I'm NOT going to work for Geno! And then she said that she was loving coaching and that if she was AD, she'd never be able to have the time to get on the court and play ball like she does now

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It has been too long since an update. Oklahoma is still #9 in the coaches poll, despite the AP dropping us a spot in theirs.

Link

Also, as noted in my first entry, the late Roz Ross is still being honored by the team. Here's the ball UW-Milwaukee and OU presented to her parents when they visited her hometown:


Anyway, we host Western Illinois 7 p.m. tomorrow (Friday). Our schedule doesn't get as busy as the men's till about a week from now when we go to some early-season tourney. Alas, no TV time yet.

Since there really isn't any wire stories out there on the team, I'll share with you what I found yesterday when i was looking through the past Blake Griffin/tourney threads:



Who can't wait more for Whitney to return - her or you guys?

Boomer!

[Bourbon St Sooner]

So when is Whitney expected to return?