OU - Tennessee

[schooner2]

Wow, these girls are looking infinitely better than during the exhibition game. Keep it up! Only down 1, 16-15.

[schooner2]

C'mon Welch, hit those free throws.

Dionnah has to go out half-way through first-half with 3 fouls. Hmmm, didn't anticipate having to deal with that scenario. Looks like Luce will get a lot of minutes - we need you Steph, do us proud.

[schooner2]

36-28 at half. Overall, looking good for such a young team, in first game of season, AT TENNESSEE. Defense actually looks very good. Nice to see freshman Welch driving a creating fouls - now if she could just hit a few of them! http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

Hopefully, Dionnah can keep from fouling out. Really positive about the overall play. Just hit a few more shots and free throws and things would be looking great.

[MWC_Sooner]

The Vols 45 pts. at 18:09, are spread between 9 different players. OU's 31 pts. are spread between 4.

[catladyok]

Too many mistakes, but even so, they are doing very well for such a young team. Just remember who they are up against!

Can't you just see the killer team which is going to emerge out of all of this craziness? I can! This little squad is going to be great.

GO SOONERS!

[schooner2]

Wow, makes you wonder what OU could have done against UCONN had we had Shuknecht last season!

Too many offensive rebounds for Tennessee.

Having a hard time coming back against the VOLS, but I still like how OU is playing in the 2nd half (minus the first 4 or 5 minutes).

[MWC_Sooner]

Where's Maria?

[schooner2]

Has only played a few minutes. Maria still looks a little lost out there. Defense, ball handling skills, and offensive potential may be lacking behind a few others - even some of OU's freshman like Higgins and Welch. Wonder if Higgins may get a starting role over Maria?

[schooner2]

Hill has been real disappointing, only 2 of 13 from the field according to GameTracker. At least she is in double digits in rebounds.

[swok34]

I think Maria picked up 3 fouls in the first half, and she doesn't seem willing to go up against the bigger players, like we've heard she can do.

I was really, really impressed with OU's defense in the first half, a whole lot better than I expected.

I think it's obvious that Caton's elbow is really affecting her shot.

All in all, I think these young ones have done a really good job playing at this level for the first time. Schuknecht, though not a "newbie" is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

[schooner2]

Shuknecht the very early leader for Big 12 NOY.

Had forgotten about Hill's elbow injury - it did look like it was affecting her quite a bit.

Overall, I'm quite pleased. The freshman looked better than I thought, as did the defense.

Weak spots - Coale mentioned in post game show that the VOL offensive rebounding hurt. Mentioned blocking out, out of a zone defense is something they hadn't worked on yet. So, lots of stuff they haven't worked on.

Tennessee is just too deep for OU and much, much more experienced.

31-45 free throws. Not great, but not real bad as I thought it was. 68%.

Higgins 18 pts! Wow, that's fantastic. Wonder if she will get the nod over Maria as a starter.

27 pts for Shuknecht. Playing like this, wonder if Shuknecht may be able to make it to the WNBA.

Decent start. Will be fun watching this group. They will no doubt improve a lot during the season.

[swok34]

I think the free throw percentage came mainly from Chelsi Welsh, who was 5 of 12 from the line, ouch...and Jackson was 1 of 4, otherwise very, very good.....I think free throws being such a mental thing, Chelsi will work that out.

OU out-rebounded Tennessee 44-41. Teresa Schuknecht, Caton Hill both had double-doubles. Erin Higgins was 4 of 5 from the arc for a total of 18 points.

Maria needs more game experience WITH this team...I think it's very early in the year. I am so impressed with Erin Higgins, she reminds me a whole lot of Caton as a freshmen with her gutsy playing. And Chelsi's going to be good....I think of the three freshmen wing/guard players, Laura Andrews may be the slowest to come along.

I knew it was going to be a fun year.....though maybe one for the patient fan. I think mostly this team needs to find their own "character" and not the "what do we have left after the Dales, Caufield, Ross, Talbert era" and they will.

I don't know how serious Caton's elbow injury was/is, not sure she practiced Friday, though I know she was held out of practice Wednesday and Thursday.

[carolann]

Chelsi Welch may not have shot well from the free throw line today but I was very impressed with her. I thought she looked smart and poised overall. Higgins is also a very good freshman. Interesting that 2 former PAC 10 freshmen of the year may be competing for NOY in the Big 12 this year, Shuknecht at OU and Jamie Carey at Texas.

[vickie1ok]

Theresa for NOY? How about 1st team all big 12? That may sound bizarre but remember guys, this was Tennessee, not Okla. Christian College. One thing that was so impressive about her is she didn't foul on defense except a few cheap ones at the end.

I was also hugely impressed with Erin and Chelsea. I know Chelsea didn't shoot well, but her fearlessness in penetrating the defense, and again, this was no chopped liver defense, was impressive. And she will have few shooting days like this.

If our shooting had been even 10% better, it would have been a much different game. When you take Theresa and Erin out of the equation, everyone else only shot 5-38.

Last year, Dionnah had a much better first game as a freshman than today. Fouls took her out early; we must have Dionnah do what she is capable of.

In addition to poor shooting, we only had 8 assists. Of course, when you shoot poorly that happens.

All in all, I agree with sw. It will be an exciting team. This is certainly the most exciting array of new talent Sherri has ever brought in for one year. And I agree (wistfully) with schooner: how would the national championship game been different last year with Theresa. Oh, my. I know this; Uconn would have to have played better to beat us. SW, do you know if we had an opportunity to sign her before she went to S. Nazerene? If she had come here first, she would have played for us last year. Oh, well, I'll take her this year.

[swok34]

vickie....I've heard the comment that Coale recruited her out of hs, but she chose Arizona State. I believe she met her husband in Arizona and he got transferred to Tinker from there, I don't know if she approached OU at that time; but at that time, we would have had Cunningham, who looked to have a very, very promising year before tearing her ACL right at the start of conference play. Sheri made the comment at the dinner that she thought a lot of Schuknecht, otherwise, she would never have used 2 years of scholarship for a player who could only play one year.

I also heard last year at the beginning of the year: if the coach at Southern Nazarene had signed her release, she could have played last year.....and he wouldn't. I was told that even the university president apologized to her, but the head coach is the one that has to sign the release. Don't know if that is the rule for players transferring from the NAIA level or not.
And the interesting thing, both teams come in 2nd nationwide.

[swok34]

Interesting that 2 former PAC 10 freshmen of the year may be competing for NOY in the Big 12 this year, Shuknecht at OU and Jamie Carey at Texas

That's a great catch, carolann, I didn't even realize that.

I agree about Welch, one of her abilities is to draw the foul without fouling while driving to the basket....and that's typically not a component of one's game as a freshmen. Welch is a really good shooter, as she exhibited in the HS All american game back in April, the commentators were comparing her jump shot to that of Jackie Stiles. I have no doubt she will iron out this aspect of her game. So much that goes on between the ear's as a freshmen is easily amendable.

[Cardinal]

Interesting that 2 former PAC 10 freshmen of the year may be competing for NOY in the Big 12 this year, Shuknecht at OU and Jamie Carey at Texas.[/B][/QUOTE]

Shuknecht was on the all Pac 10 freshman team, she was not Freshman of the Year.

[Bob_Ballew]

It was a good Sunday afternoon, even if the Big 12 didn't fare too well. Just getting to watch a game was fun. I missed the Tech game but saw the OU game. For a young team playing in Tennessee for the first game of the season, they learned from the game. That is what this time of year is all about. If these two teams were to play again in a few months, it may be very different because you know coach Coale and the team will make adjustments. I did expect more from Dionnah Jackson; however, Schuknecht and Welch were very strong at their spots. Tennessee is very athletic, experienced, were playing at home, no way do you gauge OU's season on this one game.