2013-14 OU womens basketball thread

[panhandlesooner]

love it...thanks badger..you made me smile....

[badger]

Btw, speaking of future OU commits, here's a really cool article on our top 2014 prospect via ESPN.

Whether it has been soccer or basketball, whether he has been a coach or a fan, Ortiz has been there. He has made that commitment even though, as a flight attendant for American Airlines, he doesn't have a 9-to-5 job. He has committed to being there for his daughter in part because she lost her mom -- and he his wife -- nearly 17 years ago to a heart attack. Gabbi was just 7 months old.

And because I know you all love photos:



Obligatory: It is awesome to see another Wisconsin girl coming to OU

[Soonerjeepman]

wow, cool article...she'll fit in perfect.

[Salt City Sooner]

Gabbi highlight reel:

[badger]

I was trying to hold out for the media guide, but I just SS.com just isn't gonna post it. FINAL FRESHMAN!

Felisha Gibbs #43


Since she doesn't have a name which can be confused in pronunciation, I just want to state that she is from Parkin, Arkansas. Therefore, her preseason nickname is Parkin-Arkin' or something like that

Park Ark is a 6'2" forward who averaged 21 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks and two steals as a senior at Earle High School, according to SS.com.

Judging on our other recruiting pickups and our existing roster, Earle Bird will probably be our insurance policy against our taller girls getting in foul trouble, getting winded, or just -- dare i even say -- getting injured. After last season, we need as much bench contribution as possible in practice, in exhibition early games, and later on in the season as we need to rotate our roster to face unique opponents.

It is my sincere hope that one-time star froshie Kay-Kay Williams will take our defacto "power" position and will retain it this season and that she can help Arky Earle make the transition to the college game. With any luck and no injuries (which we are off to a shining wonderful optimism brewing start, btw), we could even have both in anti-bullying lineup to face some of the more notoriously brutal punchy opponents.

I mean, I dunno about the rest of you, but as a mother... of children... I am against bullying.

I will probably do at least one more entry before our 7 p.m. Saturday exhibition against Cameron. The preseason poll was as predictable and boring as the football preseason polls.

Boomer!

[tycat947]

After watching Felisha at scrimmage last week, you can tell that she's an exceptional athlete (much like a previous Arkie, Nyeshia Stevenson) and if she really improves with her basketball skills, she will really be a good one by the time she's a junior/senior. I think Felisha is going to be another good find for Sherri and staff!

[badger]

All right you effing hillbillies (does anyone even still remember Bill Callahan? Did you even know his name till you just now read it?), one last preseason entry before entering another phase of preseason: Exhibition!

USA Today released its preseason womens basketball poll, and here it is.

1 Connecticut (31) 0-0 799
2 Duke 0-0 735
3 Stanford 0-0 714
4 Tennessee (1) 0-0 663
5 Louisville 0-0 631
6 Maryland 0-0 630
7 Notre Dame 0-0 624
8 Kentucky 0-0 621
9 California 0-0 490

As much as I'd love to be ranked higher, I am glad someone else isn't for the first time in years. I must admit I'm kind of surprised at Tennessee's staying power post-Summitt, but then again, they DID send us home (with a postgame prayer, thanks again btw) in the Sweet 16 last season.

10 Baylor 0-0 407

If losing Britney Griner drops them nine spots, imagine what a loss-loss will drop them. How about all of the spots and be unranked

11 North Carolina 0-0 387
12 Nebraska 0-0 381
13 Texas A&M 0-0 368

Traitors. Oh, and North Carolina too. I do long for the days of the old Big 12 in womens basketball season at times. Meh. Have fun losing lots. Traitors.

14 Oklahoma 0-0 354

This is about right. I haven't looked at our pre-Big 12 schedule yet, so I'm sure Sherri has a lot of competition in store as usual.

15 Penn State 0-0 313
16 Dayton 0-0 307
17 LSU 0-0 276
18 Michigan State 0-0 185
19 Colorado 0-0 172

This is around the part of the poll where regional bias comes out. I see a collective "meh" in this area.

20 Iowa State 0-0 163

Good ol' Iowa State, Sherri's early aught nemesis.

21 South Carolina 0-0 158
22 Georgia 0-0 152
23 Purdue 0-0 129

More meh.

24 Oklahoma State 0-0 127

They really made a solid investment in their basketball programs at the same time with their facility upgrade. They still have a lot of empty GIA seats to fill for non-Gooner games (just like football, amirite Pokes? BUY YOUR SEASON TICKET WITH POSSE MEMBERSHIP FEE FOR BETTER SEATS OR MISS BEDL@M RAWR) but should they ever find their footing, we are in for a future fun rivalry similar to when Andrea Riley was still around.

25 UCLA 0-0 114

Others receiving votes: Vanderbilt 99, Gonzaga 68, DePaul 54, West Virginia 53, South Florida 37, Georgia Tech 34, Kansas State 32, Green Bay 18, Florida State 18, Marist 17, Rutgers 11, Creighton 10, Saint Mary's 8, Syracuse 8, Toledo 6, Middle Tennessee 6, San Diego 4, Quinnipiac 4, Iowa 4, Delaware 2, Minnesota 2, Pacific 1, Florida 1, Brigham Young 1, Southern Methodist 1, St. John's 1

Despite our 10-strong (more like 9 because TCU will always suck at basketball a la Baylor will always suck at foo...grrrrrr), the Big 12 remains one of, if not the, most competitive and strongest conferences in womens basketball. Unlike its other two major sports, Texas already parted ways with their former big name coach (Gail G formerly of Duke) so there's hope for them to return to prominence.

Far more hope than Mack or Rick leading whorn football or mens basketball back to dominance, that's for damn sure.

Boomer!

[badger]

One more poll for you all... the AP one. Big 12 teams in bold

1 UConn's football team sucks
2 Duke crazies don't show up for womens games
3 Stanford pretentious twits and tree
4 Tennessee gets a pass on insults
5 Louisville does too thx for beating Baylor
6 Notre Dame does not. Eff you domer uppity Catholics too good for Big 12
7 Kentucky doesn't know the SEC is a football conference
8 Maryland probably had Under Armour make it new ugly unis
9 California was too busy protesting to notice their ranking
10 Skeletor's minions sans Britney. Sweet 16 nyah nyah
11 Oklahoma made it to the Sweet 16 too nyah nyah
12 North Carolina adds powder to their blue; it makes you sneeze ka-choo
13 Penn State deserves to lose at everything forever
14 Dayton welcomes you to Ohio. Ha ha now you're stuck in Ohio
15 LSU fans eat corn dogs and smell like them too
16 Texas A&M is part of an elite exclusive bloated to 14 member conference
17 Nebraska used to husk corn but now are just a bunch of cornholes
18 Purdue has a rally train whistle. Choo choo DE-FENSE choo choo DE-FENSE
19 Colorado legalized marijuana so it could tolerate boring things like Colorado athletics
20 Michigan State fans dress like the naked men of '300' Harumph!
21 Oklahoma State is our younger sibling that wants to play with our older friends. Shoo!
22 South Carolina is so immature that they can't say their mascot without giggling
23 Iowa State wonders where it will go when the Big 12 dissolves
24 Georgia eats peaches then tosses the pits in front of old lady's walkers and canes.
25 Gonzaga laughs when those old ladies trip saying 'That's the pits' then laugh again.

Others receiving votes are not worthy of being joked about: West Virginia 77, UCLA 70, Vanderbilt 61, Green Bay 48, DePaul 44, Chattanooga 41, Georgia Tech 39, Creighton 21, Middle Tennessee 11, Missouri 10, Marist 10, Texas 7, Washington 6, Quinnipiac 2, Florida State 2, James Madison 1, South Florida 1, UT Martin 1

[badger]

Point of information: SS.com is never going to post its media guide online. Bastards. Thus, I will just have to spam you all with game photos whenever possible. Up first, Nicole Kornet:


OU 102, Cameron 48

Ah, exhibition, that magical time when you get to see everyone leave the bench, the Sooners score 100 and nobody really cares how uncompetitive the scoreboard looks. Who knows? It may even provide a hint to what we'll see from freshmen, post-injury players, and returning stars the rest of the season.

Game notes:

Starting at point guard, freshman T'ona Edwards: With Morgan Hook out with a stubby thumbbie, and Maddie Manning ACLing, T'ona started and made the most of it, with 8 pts, 12 assists and 7 rebounds. A point guard with double digit assists? Yes, please.

We were ahead 68-19 at halftime: Don't complain, or you'll look like media blowhards that didn't tune into 77-0 in 2003 (they ran up the scorrrrrrrrrrrrrrre). Cameron decided that it would be a good idea to lob 12 three attempts (and they only made 2 of them). Thus, their field goals in the first half was a facepalm worthy 7 of 31. At the same time, they sent OU to the line 14 times in the first half and allowed us to shoot nearly 50 percent from 3, nearly 60 percent overall from the field. And, once again, it's exhibition, it doesn't count, nobody cares about the final score.

And now, Kay Kay provides a post-injury photo break. Doesn't she look happy to be back:


Aaryn scored 24 points in only 18 minutes: I still remember talking about how great she was as a freshman but alas, she, Morgan and Nicole are now seniors. College sports are so unfair. Four years of eligibility?! Who still graduates in four years (actually, I did in 2005 so I shouldn't be questioning it)

Eerrrybody gets minutes: The only exceptions were the injured ones.

Btw, Sharane Campbell now has short hair:


And now, the bozo stats of the game:

19 turnovers: When this problem is there game after game, you zero right in on the number at first box score glance. How bad was it this time? It was bad. If a team wants to beat us, all they have to do is wait for our turnover mistakes and capitalize. Oh, you want to fast break, Sooners? Nope, I'm gonna take this errant pass the other way and you're going to have to silly foul to stop me. Grrrrr arrrrrrgh %^%&%&^%^&

52 percent free throws: So you stand on this line in front of the basket unguarded and the points still count if you make the shot?! That sounds like cheating! Wait, you missed almost half of those free shots? How considerate of you to the unfairness of the situation. Maybe we should just ask the other team to contest our shots since we shot those almost as well (50 percent).

Nicole Kornet and T'ona Edwards both had four fouls: Now that Joanna McFarland is gone, the "Four Foul" nickname is up for grabs. Who wants it?!

Player of the Game: Ellen-burger


At least she attends the games so she hopefully hasn't heard national TV announcers butcher her name, but it's much cooler than "Vegas," right? She had 24 pts, 4 steals, 6 assists and ZERO turnovers in just 18 minutes.

What did Sherri say postgame?

“I was really pleased with the first half with how we came out," OU head coach Sherri Coale said. "We were very attentive to detail, pushed the ball in transition, got good looks, shot it extremely well. It’s always pretty when you shoot it well.

"I thought we defended in a disciplined manner and that was one of the biggest things I was looking forward to the opportunity to do tonight with the new emphasis in the officiating."

Next game: 7 p.m. Tuesday vs Central Oklahoma in exhibition. TV is FS Southwest Plus/FCS Central

Boomer!

[badger]

I have created a GIF recap of the first half for those of you that missed it last night:


Central Oklahoma spells Broncos with an "h," and after lobbing 3s aimlessly for about 18 minutes, the Sooners went on a 37-0 run. The game stopped being competitive after the first two minutes and both teams let it show.

UCO attempted 32 shots and only made two (again, within the first two minutes of the game). After that, it truly was an exhibition... of how many players we could get off our bench and show off what they can offer this program when the *real* season starts.

Game notes:

Billy Tubbs returns again to "commentate": If you want professional analysis with in-game information pertinent to the live action you are viewing... **** you, go away, tune into Longhorn Network. Billy Tubbs is awesome. I wish I could sit next to him and listen to him ramble, while occasionally interjecting "I think UCO touched the ball last." Love you Billy. Please keep showing up for OU womens games.

They called her "Ellen-burger" again last night: She deferred to the bench players in this blowout mostly, so she *only* got 16 points, 6 rebounds, 2 steals. And no joke, I even DVR rewound it to be sure, the not-Billy guy called her "Ellenburger" lol

Kay Kay is awesome: Redshirt sophomore extraordinaire Kaylon Williams had 18 pts, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks. She is going to be someone that will give every opponent, Div. 2 or NCAA tourney bound, fits. She is the one that Skeletor will be screaming at refs about come conference season.

Is T'ona Edwards our future starting point guard?: I swear I heard Sherri call her "Toy" in the postgame interview. In any event, she moves the ball very well and with a few more solid showings, dare I suggest that she'll start in place of Morgan whether Hook's thumb is healed or not?

Over-board: We outrebounded UCO 68 to 35. Based on positioning, I will go out on not much of whim here and suggest that we are going to have similar results against higher than Div. 2 competition. It isn't just Nicole being tall, it isn't just Kay Kay being stronger, it isn't just the guards being faster, everybody is already exactly where they need to be post-shot, waiting for a miss to fall. It's perfect, we rule.

Bozo stats of the game (where we are not perfect and don't rule):

17 turnovers: Admittedly I saw a lot of errant-ness during mopup duty near the end, but even during those first few competitive minutes of the game, I was seeing conduct unbecoming of senior players in regards to valuing possession of the ball. This leads me to suspect that the point guard position is not as set in stone as our other two seniors, center Nicole, because she's tallest, and shooting guard Aaryn because she scores and steals a lot.

Cheat throws: This is the only way that I'll feel better about missing so many of these shots, by thinking that we are rising above this obvious circumvention of the rules and therefore declining to accept ill-gotten pointage. 24 of 36. The only thing good about those numbers is if you're in elementary school math and know that you can divide both of those by 12 to get an easier fraction. 2 of 3! That's 67 percent! Ish. Gaaaaaaaaaah

Player of the game: Kay Kay

Welcome back, we missed you. Please continue frustrating the hell out of defenses. What does Sherri think of Kaylon?

“I thought she established herself in the second half particularly. We talked at halftime about demanding the ball. Sometimes our post guys can be too unselfish. They want to catch and make the extra pass and swing it and they need to understand that they have an advantage in that situation. She did that in the second half. Her first move in the second half was kind of soft and iffy and from that point forward was really explosive. That’s one of the things we teach is to score closer than you receive it. I thought down the stretch in the second half she did a great job of that.”

Next game: Preseason WNIT in Norman! We kick this off 7 p.m. Friday vs Stetson. It's televised by "Sooner Sports TV," aka badger-wont-be-watching-argh.

Boooommmerrrrrrr

[8timechamps]

LOL...loved the comment about Tubbs. Had a chance to catch the men's exhibition game on FoxCollege and I laugh every time I hear him talk for the first time in a game. My kid (who has no clue what Tubbs means to OU) said "is that guy drunk?". I laughed and simply said, "No son, that guy is Billy Tubbs".

[badger]

LOL...loved the comment about Tubbs. Had a chance to catch the men's exhibition game on FoxCollege and I laugh every time I hear him talk for the first time in a game. My kid (who has no clue what Tubbs means to OU) said "is that guy drunk?". I laughed and simply said, "No son, that guy is Billy Tubbs".

I implore anyone who has been holding off on watching Sooner basketball on Fox Sports these past few seasons to tune in and not wait till the professionals take over during conference season (because they usually replace Billy with someone more neutral by then). Billy Tubbs makes the two hours (ish) worth it! He does both mens and womens games!

[badger]

Oh look, Sherri's blog now has a logo:

She just posted a new entry on the importance of practice here, addressing the added challenges with all of the newcomers/redshirts.

Once again, we have a game at 7 p.m. tonight. It's late notice, so I won't do vBetting on this one, but I promise to get on that soon. I'm thinking a bingo format where we see how many milestones/targets we can hit each game/week would be more fun than just inventing an arbitrary point spread (OU by 60! No, I'm sorry, but we only beat UCO by 59. D'oh!)

The game is being "televised" by its online Sooner Sports TV thingie, plus radio on KOKC 1520 AM.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Badger, would you do live reports on this evening's game? Thanks.

[badger]

I may cave eventually, but for now, not subscribed to SS TV. I will consider doing live reports on future womens games, but admittedly, they may include a lot of curse words (substitutes --- SF.com has a language filter).

btw, the women won 78-60 over Stetson Friday and 89-70 over Wichita State on Sunday. I'll recap both as best as I can later this morning.

I also plan to vBookie things up for both mens and womens next games, so please be on the lookout for that in Sports Book

[badger]

I do apologize for taking the weekend off, because our team certainly didn't!

OU 78, Stetson 60

The top photo's Gioya Carter. Here's one of Nicole Kornet:


Game notes:

Aaryn "Vegas" Ellenberg(er) is awesome: She would definitely hit that vBet thing that I put up for a Sooner scoring 30... if Sherri would just leave her in the entire game. 24 pts in 31 minutes. Now... how much would she score in an overtime game? Not that I want to find out, I like winning in regulation just fine, thanks... 5 steals, 6 for 11 from three,

Kay Kay is awesome too: What the vBet hits on double-double, it will probably be Kay Kay that you should thank. 17 pts and 8 rebounds in 16 mins. off the bench. Is Sherri holding her back due to her injury last season? I am fine with that, since I'd love to be full strength (yes, i KNOW maddie's already out! i mean BESIDES her!) against our conference opponents.

Sharane also solid: 10 pts, 6 rbs in only 23 mins. Did have 4 fouls and 0 for 4 for three, though...

Bozo stats:
15 turnovers: We did have 16 assists to make up for it, but I'd rather this number be a lot lower.

Cheat throws: 17 for 26 for 65.5 percent.

Three throws: 25 percent for the entire game is nothing to write SF.com about. There were several players that were 0-fer to bring this number lower than typical Sooner three-ness.

Player of the game: Vegasburger

You cannot stop her. You can only hope to contain her... and Stetson didn't, probably because their mascot is the Hatters.

Sherri?

“The one thing I will say though is that everybody needs to relax a little bit. It’s the first time we’ve seen the zone and we’ve maybe spent 10 or 15 minutes on zone offense in practice. The lack of rhythm and the second guessing and just some of it felt disjointed. It’s just because we don’t run a half-court zone ourselves and so we don’t see it in practice very much. I don’t think we’ll see it a lot during the year. Maybe I’m wrong. If we continue to shoot 23 percent from the 3, we’re probably going to see it a lot. I don’t think that’s going to happen. Obviously that exposed us a little bit but considering we only spent about 10 to 15 minutes on it, I think we did okay.”

I'll be back later to recap the second weekend game...

[badger]

A day or two late, but still a great win:
OU 89, Wichita State 70
Can they give the Heisman to Aaryn?

Sherri's hair this season is higher, wavier and longer:

Kay Kay: You mean i STILL haven't earned a starting spot yet?!


More puzzling than a 5,000-piece jigsaw on almost every game this season, that question is. I really think that Kay Kay will work into the starting lineup soon, based on some stellar games. For the time being, barring injury, the current starting lineup is Hook, Kornet, Griffin, Campbell and of course, Ellenberg.

The Shockers decided to eliminate Aaryn's scoring threat in the first half (she only had one basket), yet we still led 46-34. Well, there goes that idea, Big 12 foes. You'll have to try something else if you want to beat us later this season, nyah nyah

Game notes:

Free throws once again: Hooray, we made 27 of 31, including 11 of 12 in the first half. I will table this ongoing complaint for at least *this* game.

Board game: We outrebounded the Lady Shockers 54-30, including 37 on defense.

Aaryn's heir: Sharane Campbell took over for our top scorer during her off-game, scoring 24 points in 25 minutes. She also added 6 boards and was a perfect 9 for 9 from the line.

And now, the bozo stats:

Three throws: 4 for 15, including 1 for 7 in the first half. Oh dear oh dear oh dear, I don't want us to be in trouble like Duke men when threes aren't falling. Are midrange jump shots out of the question? How about layups? Maybe pass to post players?

Big foul trouble: Or maybe not. Nicole fouled out, Kay Kay had four too. Sharane had 4 as well, with several more having 3 each. If our tallest and biggest players are in foul trouble, no wonder we were trying to lob threes. Ugggggh

Oh boy apple turnovers: Oh wait, these are just turnovers without the apples. Dammit, and there were 22 of them too (compared to Wichita's 12). Why do we give up the ball so much? We're not even getting free apples in return

Player of the game: Sharane Campbell

In case you missed the early season memo, she has short hair now. She stepped in when Aaryn was struggling early-on, so go Sharane! Yay!

Sherri?

“Sharane getting to the rim that was huge as well,” Coale added. “I’m just really proud of the team effort and I feel like we had a lot of guys who rose to the occasion and had really big games tonight.”

Next game: 7 p.m. Thursday preseason WNIT action continues vs Gonzaga. TV is FS Southwest Plus/FCS Central. I intend to watch, unless toddler baj has other plans. I may chime in here occasionally if it warrants it. Please check vBookie for all of your Sooner womens basketball vBetting needs.

Boomer!

[Soonerjeepman]

Sherri's HOT...really HOT. Don't tell the GF who is an unbelievable partner in ALL aspects...but mmm, coach does it for me~

That's all...

[badger]

Well-kept secret: She turns 49 in January. She actually gets her Jan. 19 birthday off for once (WVU on Jan. 18, ISU on Jan. 21) but since both of those games are on the road, odds are she's not going to be getting a party back home

[Soonerjeepman]

just my age..lol. I ran into her at fball game a few yrs ago, I was walking in, she was waiting by a bathroom I think for someone..kid? I walked up and talked to her for a bit. Very nice, told her I had coached HS girls, my sis played at KSU and that I appreciated her teams.