Sooners defeat Cowgirls 87-71...

[YCN]

in the Bedlam battle in Norman. OSU took an early 6-0 lead in the game, but the Sooners passed the Cowgirls at 9-8, and never trailed again.

In spite of the 16-point win, for much of the game OSU was definitely threatening, trailing by only around 5 to 9 points, until OU got on a hot streak late, leading at one point by 21 points.

Theresa Schuknecht exploded off the bench for 28 points in a breakthrough performance that likely will put her back into the starting five. Chelsi Welch added 17, while Maria Villarroel and Dionnah Jackson added 11 apiece.

For the Cowgirls, Trisha Skibbe threw down 23 points, and Shelby Hutchens and Chantoya Hawkins added 12 and 11, respectively.

The Sooners out-rebounded the Cowgirls 37-33, with extraordinary balance in that category. Schuknecht had 7 rebounds and Villarroel had 6, while Lauren Shoush, Jackson and Laura Andrews added 5 apiece and Welch had 4. The Cowgirls got 8 rebounds from Hutchens, 6 from Hawkins, and 5 from Skibbe and Meghan Craig.

Jackson had a game-high 9 assists for the Sooners, while the Cowgirls were led by Hawkins with 7.

The Sooners (finally) had an excellent shooting performance 53% of their shots from the field (32-60) and 82% of their free throws (18-22). Twenty-two of the 32 Sooner baskets were assisted, which probably made Coach Coale very happy.

The Cowgirls shot 41% (25-61) from the field, and hit 78% of their free throws (18-23).

Despite the late run for the Sooners, I believe that OSU played a pretty good game, and the Sooners a better one. Hopefully this will prove to be a breakthrough game for them, as recent results have left the team at some peril of missing the NCAA tournament entirely.

The Sooners host Baylor Wednesday before a critical road game at Colorado on Saturday. Wins in those two games would likely get their postseason hopes back on track.


[This message has been edited by YCN (edited 02-09-2003).]

[schooner2]

Originally posted by YCN:
Despite the late run for the Sooners, I believe that OSU played a pretty good game, and the Sooners a better one. Hopefully this will prove to be a breakthrough game for them, as recent results have left the team at some peril of missing the NCAA tournament entirely.

The Sooners host Baylor Wednesday before a critical road game at Colorado on Saturday. Wins in those two games would likely get their postseason hopes back on track.


Possible - but not real likely OU would miss the NCAA Tourney. OU would have to lose to Baylor, Missouri, and Iowa State all at home. If OU wins those three games, OU should have 5th place just about sown up. That should be good enough, easily, to get into NCAA Tourney. Plus OU has the usual good things the committee is looking for - high RPI, played a very, very tough non-conference schedule, quality win over North Carolina.

[YCN]

Only 1-6 against RPI top 100 teams, and two losses to teams outside of the top 100, including one at home. Four home losses to top 100 teams doesn't help either.

If OU finished 8-8 in the Big 12, and 17-13 overall, there's a chance they wouldn't make it, although the fact that they were in the championship game last year might get them sympathy votes.

How would they finish 8-8 in the conference? Losses to CU, Tech and Texas, and a loss against either Baylor, Iowa State, Missouri or OSU.


[This message has been edited by YCN (edited 02-09-2003).]

[This message has been edited by YCN (edited 02-09-2003).]

[swok34]

If OU finished 8-8 in the Big 12, and 17-13 overall, there's a chance they wouldn't make it, although the fact that they were in the championship game last year might get them sympathy votes.

Actually, the committee doesn't care what you did last year.

And I think a whole lot depends on how many Big XII teams go...
take 5 and I think OU may be ok.

The committee puts a lot of their "thought" into the RPI and I believe the teams are picked from that, plus their finish in the conference, their last 10 games, how they did in the tourney (if they are a bubble team).....

I did notice this morning that OU's RPI had fallen to 24 with an SOS of 6, I think.

[Jimi]

Currently Jerry Palm has the Big Twelve teams projected seeds as:

TTU 2
KSU 2
UT 5
CU 9
OU 10

[YCN]

Palm does those projections weekly, on Mondays. Since the last projection, OU lost to A&M, a team well out of the top 100.

This week the 10 seed might be a 12-13, which is on the edge of not going to the tournament as an at-large selection.

[swok34]

http://www.wbca.org/RPI.asp

This RPI more closely resembles the one the committee uses, though the one they actually use is not published anywhere....
it's a secret http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Jimi]

Originally posted by YCN:
Palm does those projections weekly, on Mondays. Since the last projection, OU lost to A&M, a team well out of the top 100.

This week the 10 seed might be a 12-13, which is on the edge of not going to the tournament as an at-large selection.

You may be right my friend, but the projection page says it was last updated Feb. 9, 8:52am.

[Jimi]

YCN, it occurs to me that OU could be a 10 seed AND very much on the brink. There are 31 "reserved seats" in the tourney that go to conference Champs and many of those will be LOW seeds. For the 33 at large teams to make it they have to be somewhat further up in seeding. Do you or some of the other bracket projectors know how low an at large team can drop before it drops out?

[Jimi]

To maybe partly answer my own question I went back to Jerry Palm's projection and looked at the 12th and 13th seeds. It looks like the 12s were at large and the 13s were conference spots. I'm not sure I'm right but I am sure thats a little bit of a moving target anyway. Thanks, you got me thinking.

[Jennifer]

I forgot that today would also match Coach Coale vs. Phylesha Whaley. Phylesha gets a lot of credit for where the program is today, and deservedly. I'm sure it was strange seeing her on the OSU bench!

I'm assuming that's her in this pic.

http://graphics.fansonly.com/photos/schools/okla/galleries/w-baskbl-020903/DSC_1702-lg.jpg

[YCN]

Jimi, I checked CollegeRPI.com for the current leaders in each of the 31 conferences with automatic qualifiers, and list them below. If teams were tied at the top of the conference, I took the team with the best RPI ranking.

Here are those teams:

1 Connecticut
2 Tennessee
3 Duke
4 Texas Tech
9 Penn State
10 Stanford
18 Louisiana Tech
21 Utah
31 George Washington
40 Old Dominion
41 Wisconsin-Green Bay
44 Chattanooga
48 Pepperdine
51 Harvard
59 Montana State
60 Indiana State
64 Charlotte
65 Liberty
68 Western Illinois
70 UC Santa Barbara
72 Austin Peay
74 Ball State
75 Holy Cross
83 Western Kentucky
107 Maine
111 St. Francis-PA
119 Alabama State
121 Hampton
126 Manhattan
164 Florida Atlantic
194 UT-San Antonio

As of right now, and this changes all the time, if you presume that the conference regular season leader will be the qualifier, there are 14 teams that displace teams from the top 64 (using RPI as the sole basis for ranking). This leaves 50 available spots for at-large teams. The 14 teams that aren't currently in the top 64 would probably occupy all of the #14-#16 seeds, and maybe - but not necessarily - two of the #13 seeds.

Of course that leaves out all of the considerations of the selection committee. It also assumes that those schools listed will be the automatic qualifiers. It is very likely that in more than one instance, a team not in the top 64 will win a conference tournament where teams in the top 64 are favored to win those berths. It is also possible that there might be a team in one or two conferences that isn't leading their conference and is ranked in the top 64 that earns the automatic bid in a conference where a team not currently in the top 64 leads, which would free up another spot.

One way or another, it's my guess that there may not be any teams selected for at-large berths with RPI rankings in the 50's. When I list the first 33 available RPI's other than current conference leaders, to represent the 33 at-large selections, the cutoff right now is 45. Right now the team with the 45 ranking is 16-7 DePaul.

Here are the top 33 available RPI's, excluding current conference leaders with RPI's better than 45:

5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 42, 43, 45.

If the committee was selecting today, I would say that the Big 12 would get 5 bids as follows:

#2 Texas Tech (5 overall)
#2 Kansas State (6 overall)
#4 Texas (14 overall)
#7 Oklahoma (27 overall)
#8 Colorado (29 overall)

[swok34]

That's her, Jennifer.......

On Sherri's radio show, she mentioned that she talks to Phylesha on occasion and they do NOT discuss Basketball at this time of the season http://hoopscoop.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Jimi]

Thanks YCN.