Texas A & M @ Oklahoma

[swok34]

http://www.newsok.com/article/3004698

Article is more about TAMU's Oklahoma girl Danielle Gant. Interesting, I had not ever heard the story of our recruitment or even how she had qualified academically to be able to go the DI route.

[YCN]

I'm FIRED UP FOR THIS GAME! It promises to be a very, very good one. :)

:ou:

[YCN]

Sooners look like a broken wheel on offense, and they are turning over the ball left and right. Thank goodness for smothering defense though... :eek:

OU 21 A&M 13 3:00 left 1st half

[YCN]

26-20 at halftime, Sooners lead. OU had ONE field goal in the second 10 minutes of the half.

Somebody has to heat up in the second half, or maybe both teams will.

[YCN]

I don't know when Erin Higgins got that hitch in her shot, but I hope she loses it ASAP!

Leah Rush scores five on a three and a two, and OU leads 33-26 at 15:30 second half.

[YCN]

Timeout with 11:33 left, OU leading 40-33. OU led 35-33 after seven point run by the Aggies, but then Morenike Atunrase got her 4th foul and had to sit down and Kendra Moore hit two free throws. After an A&M miss, Chelsi Welch extended the lead with her first three of the game.

[walkaway]

Is this monster defense, cold shooting or both?

[YCN]

A&M takes the lead at 41-40 on a three by Franklin. That was after OU turned the ball over on consecutive posessions. :(

Patrice Reado, and now Leah Rush join Morenike Atunrase on the bench with four fouls. Very difficult game both ways. Now Starks hits a three to give A&M a four point lead.

Technical foul on Sherri Coale, apparently for verbal abuse.

OU can't hang onto the ball, all they've done all game long is pick up the dribble and make poor passing decisions.

45-40 A&M, OU finally has the ball, at least momentarily. :eek:

[YCN]

The defense had been ferocious at both ends, and I think it's affected the shooting of both teams. A&M is at 33%, OU at 32%.

[YCN]

A&M has scored 13 straight since Atunrase went to the bench, leading at 46-40 now. Kendra Moore is fouled on the dribble, misses the front end of the 1-1, OU rebounds, Moore called for double dribble.

I'm just about ill with our performance today. At least I won't be any more "ill" than my team has been...

[YCN]

Sooners get a basket and one from Courtney Paris, then Danielle Gant gets the short banker at the other end. Rush hits a jumper, Atunrase hits a jumper, now 50-45 A&M at timeout. Under 4 minutes remaining

[YCN]

Sooners with the ball after the timeout, Gant is called for the reach-in and fouls out. Moore misses a second consecutive front end FT shot.

A&M misses a long jumper, Rush misses from the corner, Micheaux rebounds, now has 11 boards. Franklin airs a three, shot clock violation on the loose ball scramble. Atunrase is hurt on the court, got her ankle rolled under a Sooner falling body.

[Bball Girl]

Atunrase is down...looks like an ankle? Ouch!

[walkaway]

Carried off, touching neither foot -- was the tangle bad enough to reinjure the foot too?

-- EDIT -- NO QUESTION, Gary Blair can coach.

[YCN]

3:31 left A&M up 50-45, Sooners with the ball. Higgins drills a long three at the corner of the key. Takia Starks answers with her own three! 53-48 A&M.

Sooners finally get the ball to Courtney Paris, who misses off the bottom of the backboard, rebounds and is blocked. A&M turnover while taking it back up the court. Short jumper by Welch rolls off the rim, tieup on the loose ball, possession arrow to Oklahoma. Under one minute to play.

Higgins hits ANOTHER THREE OFF THE INBOUNDS PASS! 53-51 A&M!

[Bball Girl]

They should FINE Antonelli every time she says "Are you kidding me?" The worst thing about basketball (beyond the officials) is listening to the annoucers blabber about Bubba Paris and other incidentals instead of talking about the GAME.

[YCN]

11,486 in attendance today.

OU has three TO's remaining, 55.1 seconds left.

Timeout for A&M with 45.3 left after the inbounds and slow ball progression to halfcourt.

OU blocked the Reado shot! LEAH RUSH IS FOULED ON THE DRIVE!

Seven seconds left. Leah hits FT's at an 83% clip.

[YCN]

Foul on Reado, who is OUT.

Rush hits the first, misses the second. A&M to the line with 3.8 left, but it's poor-shooting Micheaux. 1-1.

Timeout A&M.

[YCN]

A&M leads 53-52. Micheaux HITS the first shot, MISSES!

Possession and timeout to Oklahoma, 54-52 A&M leads with 3.5 seconds left.

[LadyBuff]

A & M wins. I missed this one. Upsets are good for the Big 12.

[YCN]

The 26 game winning streak is over. Kendra Moore's shot was blocked just before the buzzer. Great effort for the Aggies! 54-52 final.

[LadyBuff]

Looks like nobody picked the upset, so nobody goes down because of their pick.

[YCN]

Now Pick'em is best of four this week. :p

[LadyBuff]

Yes, it is the best of four this week. Will have to see how we all do with the other four games. I'll gladly miss my pick of Missouri beating CU.

[Aggieland]

Great game!! Congrats Aggies, way to play defense. Sherri Coale is a good coach, but my goodness she is a drama queen.

[YemenBear]

YCN,

Quick word of thanks to you for posting updates on this game. No way to follow progress from where I sit.

[Row6Seat10]

Congratulations to both teams for giving us a great game to watch!! Congratulations Aggies on the win!

[BearLady]

YCN,

Quick word of thanks to you for posting updates on this game. No way to follow progress from where I sit.

Yemen, it's great to hear from you! Take care!

[BearLady]

They should FINE Antonelli every time she says "Are you kidding me?" The worst thing about basketball (beyond the officials) is listening to the annoucers blabber about Bubba Paris and other incidentals instead of talking about the GAME.

I really like Antonelli as a color person. I like the passion that she brings in describing the action and the action verbs she uses (e.g., " . . . needs to stick it" and "d up"). And I don't mind her using that expression at all. I enjoy listening to the games she works, especially when she's alongside Beth Mowins.

[BearLady]

Wow! A very surprising outcome but great win for the Aggies.

I'm still trying to digest this one. Obviously it was a very physical game all the way around. I'm surprised that the refs held their whistles during several scrums. Wish we had been able to see the interchange when Sherri got T'd up.

Seems I recall that Michael Price was also the ref who tossed the Baylor trombone player during the game against Tech in Waco last year. :rolleyes:

Hope that Atunrase is ok. I literally screamed aloud when they showed the replay of the OU player falling and rolling over her ankle.

[sybarite]

I hope this gets the target out of our minds if not off our back.

[swok34]

I hope all the OU bandwagon fans go jump on someone else's bandwagon myself :D

Extremely physical game, Texas A & M can ugly up a basketball game with their pressure defense and sticking hands in the passing lanes.

I think Sherri said in the presser that OU made the mistake of not extending the lead in the first half. But, OU needed to see this kind of pressure defense, I don't recall seeing a team play it for the entire game baseline to baseline.

Atunrase was in the presser, and she said she didn't know what it (injury) was. The way they carried her off, I thought it was pretty serious, but she felt pretty confident that she would be playing in the next game.

I think Leah Rush was near tears for missing that 2nd free throw: when I said she would guard a pig playing checkers, I meant it. I'm not sure I have ever seen someone as competitive as Leah Rush. She will take it personally and typically she uses something like that as motivation.

Congrats to TAMU for the win, it wasn't pretty, but it was certainly effective.

Head Coach Sherri Coale
On the game:
“I thought we were pretty good (defensively). If you hold a team to 54 points you ought to be able to win. We just couldn’t score. We didn’t shoot the ball well and we didn’t respond well to the physical play and didn’t convert. We lost by two points, I got a technical foul. I’ll take this one.”

Senior Forward Leah Rush
On her second free throw attempt at the end of the game:
“I would rather be taking that shot than anyone else on the team. It’s a good shot for me to have and I blew it. I’ll be ready next time.”

[sybarite]

It does seem that OU suddenly has a thousand new "fans" when we lose. I guess that it is a nice thing to lose occasionally so they get a chance to post. They will be so disappointed when OU wins a couple of NCAA tournament games. A Final Four run would put worms on their computers.

[YCN]

I think the one particular thing that was frustrating to me today - as a Sooner fan - wasn't the missed shots, but the failure to sustain the dribble. It seemed that every player would dribble the ball at most for a short distance, and then freeze it. Whenever you do that, you make it very easy for the defense to take advantage. They have two of the three ingredients for disrupting your offense: they know where the ball is, and they know that it has to be delivered to someone who has to find a way to receive the ball. With that much knowledge in hand, it's pretty easy, relatively speaking, to disrupt the pass, or cause shot clock violations, or steal the ball. All the advantages shift to the defensive team.

[CyRox98]

They should FINE Antonelli every time she says "Are you kidding me?" The worst thing about basketball (beyond the officials) is listening to the annoucers blabber about Bubba Paris and other incidentals instead of talking about the GAME.

We had commented on the exact same thing while watching the game. She needs to learn a new catch-phrase. It got old fast.

[Bball Girl]

I like Debbie a lot and I appreciate her passion and committment to the game. But I only saw portions of the 2nd and everytime I turned over they were talking about Bubba??? while fouls were going on and other activities on the court with nary an explanation. Sorry to be critical but it bugs me when they don't concentrate on the kids on the court.

[sybarite]

That seems to be true no matter who is the commentator on the women's games. I was even frustrated at the McDonald's All-American game when Nancy wouldn't tell us which players were doing what because it would interfere with her story about the old days. Since Nancy is twenty years younger than I, she has never seen the olden days. She even went to college on a scholarship.

[walkaway]

Paris nearly didn't get her double-double, today.
Credit A&M's defense with a lot of effort.

I hope Atunrase is okay.

[BearLady]

"Are you kidding me?"

I couldn't help but laugh as Brenda said these very same words toward the end of the Texas/Tech game broadcast. :)

I'm just noting here, based on the earlier comments shared. Would seem to be too far out of context if I were to post on the Texas/Tech thread.

We all have our favorites, likes and dislikes.

[Bball Girl]

"Are you kidding me?"

I couldn't help but laugh as Brenda said these very same words toward the end of the Texas/Tech game broadcast. :)

I'm just noting here, based on the earlier comments shared. Would seem to be too far out of context if I were to post on the Texas/Tech thread.

We all have our favorites, likes and dislikes.

I heard it too and had to laugh!!!

[HoopScoop]

I guess maybe I came away from today's game feeling much more negative than others for a couple different reasons.

At the beginning of this season I thought maybe we will actually bring our turnover total down and let our superior talent and experience overpower our opponents. As this season progresses, OU is simply getting worse and worse in the turnover department. It's really disappointing that this is one area OU never gets better in from year to year. The numbers are downright eye-popping.


<IFRAME SRC="http://hoopscoop.net/turnovers.htm" WIDTH=220 HEIGHT=400></IFRAME>


To begin the season through the first 12 games OU averaged 16.5 turnovers a game. Since then, 21.6 a game. OU would only have more than 20 turnovers in 1 out of 4 games to start the season. OU has had more than 20 turnovers in 5 of its last 6 games.

Sure the last 9 games have been against much better opponents and thus OU should probably have more turnovers. And yet, better opponents make you pay a much higher price for turning the ball over and it really bit OU hard today against A&M.

Our guards and forwards are having more trouble this season than last it seems to me and that is really puzzling. Teams with a lot of talent, speed, and aggressiveness in the guard position now know how to effectively attack OU. And it can lead our opponents to a victory.

And it also hurts because OU has a much harder time getting the ball to Courtney which greatly diminishes her touches and chances to impact the game.

If I were OU's opponents I would look at this game and learn and forget about attacking Courtney so much and instead attack our guards aggressively.

The second reason I came away from this game with a negative attitude is I've really had it with some OU fans that sit around me during the game. Their behavior is deplorable in how they spout venom at the refs and even opposing fans game after game. I came very close to standing up and shouting at a few of them to clam up. And unfortunately it would probably suprise people to know who a few of these fans are and what their relationship is to the OU program and staff. That's as far as I'll go with that statement.

Just because we are the 6th ranked team in the nation, went undefeated in the Big 12 last year, and are currently leading the Big 12 now does not mean we should attack the refs (or opposing teams and fans) so vehemently after every call.

Sure there was some very bizarre calls in the game today, and, frankly, I don't blame Coach Coale for the technical she got today. The ref and the call she got very heated about were ridiculous.

The booing got out of control though and bled over to booing the A&M players and coach. Gary Blair is hands down one of the classiest human being you'll ever see on the court. And he was applauding our crowd at the end of the game for such a fantastic turnout in numbers. But I heard quite a few derogatory comments and boos directed at him also. And that made me rather embarrassed to be an OU fan today.

[Gator]

The booing got out of control though and bled over to booing the A&M players and coach. Gary Blair is hands down one of the classiest human being you'll ever see on the court. And he was applauding our crowd at the end of the game for such a fantastic turnout in numbers. But I heard quite a few derogatory comments and boos directed at him also. And that made me rather embarrassed to be an OU fan today.Could not agree more - and there was one fan behind us who was saying nasty stuff when Atunrase got hurt. I didn't want to turn around because I really didn't want to know who it was. The RufNeks (spelling??) got an official warning earlier. I didn't hear anything specific but the ref came over and basically told the security guy that if a specific individual didn't stop, he would be ejected. Evidently that solved the problem - but after that I did hear a several of "I LOVE you" 's coming from that section towards the refs. I assume that was not the words they wanted to use ;)

Bottom line, even if we had won, the game would have been tainted for me by the "fans".

[sybarite]

Although I am frustrated by the lack of improvement that I had anticipated, Sherri has stated that it is January, not March. I would also look at the national leaders in fewest turnovers per game. How many of these teams are in the top 25?

NCAA® Women's Basketball
Division I
Turnovers Per Game
Through Games 01/25/2007



Rank Name GM W-L TO TOPG
1 Marist 19 15-4 214 11.3
2 Villanova 19 7-12 229 12.1
3 Wis.-Green Bay 19 16-3 244 12.8
4 Wyoming 18 13-5 233 12.9
5 Long Island 20 15-5 272 13.6
6 Northern Ill. 18 12-6 246 13.7
7 Montana 19 17-2 260 13.7
8 Texas-Arlington 20 12-8 277 13.9
9 Delaware 19 16-3 265 13.9
Bowling Green 19 17-2 265 13.9
11 LSU 21 19-2 295 14.0
12 Drake 18 6-12 256 14.2
13 Indiana St. 19 11-8 272 14.3
14 UMBC 20 10-10 287 14.4
15 Middle Tenn. 21 18-3 302 14.4
16 Stanford 20 17-3 288 14.4
17 Murray St. 17 12-5 246 14.5
18 South Fla. 19 14-5 276 14.5
19 Pittsburgh 19 15-4 278 14.6
20 New Mexico 19 12-7 279 14.7
21 Temple 20 15-5 294 14.7
22 St. Joseph's 19 11-8 280 14.7
23 Me arquett20 18-2 296 14.8
24 Jacksonville St. 20 5-15 297 14.9
25 Ark.-Little Rock 21 13-8 316 15.0
26 Georgia 21 17-4 317 15.1
Kentucky 21 14-7 317 15.1
28 Missouri 19 13-6 287 15.1
29 George Washington 18 16-2 273 15.2
30 St. Peter's 17 7-10 259 15.2
31 Mississippi 21 16-5 320 15.2
32 Army 21 18-3 321 15.3
33 UNI 19 10-9 291 15.3
34 Xavier 20 14-6 307 15.4
35 Central Mich. 20 9-11 308 15.4
36 Rhode Island 19 4-15 293 15.4
Connecticut 19 17-2 293 15.4
38 UTEP 18 15-3 278 15.4
39 Boise St. 19 15-4 294 15.5
40 Butler 19 7-12 295 15.5
41 Rutgers 17 11-6 264 15.5
42 Weber St. 20 11-9 312 15.6
43 Loyola (Md.) 19 12-7 297 15.6
44 Ohio St. 19 18-1 298 15.7
45 Niagara 19 11-8 299 15.7
46 New Hampshire 18 6-12 284 15.8
47 Valparaiso 19 11-8 300 15.8
48 DePaul 20 13-7 316 15.8
49 Coastal Caro. 17 11-6 269 15.8
50 Southern Ill. 19 11-8 302 15.9

Notice that teams like the ACC teams and OU are not in the top 50. Neither are Purdue, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas, Nebraska, or Louisville.

[YCN]

I'd rather see smaller crowds than obviously unsportsmanlike conduct from the fans. Too many people, especially neophyte or casual fans, who unfortunately tend to show up for these promoted games, don't understand the rules or the decisions made by the refs, and I'm afraid that they are influenced by their crimson-tinted glasses.

Maybe OU should scrap the whiteout games. This is just my personal opinion, but the style of the PA announcer at the games is to me very annoying, all loud bluster and huckster-style promotion. This team is a classy one, and deserves better promotion in the arena than the boilerplate hoorah for the home team. Quality musical or other acts at halftime, and tasteful performances by the cheer squad and the band should cover most of it I don't have a problem with the sponsored promotion, however, as long as they are in reasonable good taste.

It's really up to the devoted fans to discourage the ref-baiting and unsportsmanlike insults directed at the other team. No one else is going to stop them, and if somebody doesn't let them know that their behavior is inappropriate, it will only encourage them to continue that kind of offensive nonsense.

[YCN]

I'd like to poke in here to say that I think that OU is so self-conscious about their turnovers that they create a climate that makes them more likely by trying to be so careful with the ball. Today I believe that the premature decisions by various players to pick up the dribble in order to "consider" their next option was the single biggest cause of the huge TO numbers today.

Teams must not break the dribble unless facing extreme duress or if they have an immediate passing option available to them. When you stop the dribble you have five seconds to get the ball to someone, and seldom is that person closer to the rim. OU needs NOT to be more careful, but to play with more confidence and abandon. We were woefully poor at finding the entry pass today, and it all led directly back to frozen dribbles.

[HoopScoop]

YCN, your comments just reminded me about something that happened in either the Tech or Iowa State game this week. The crowd was getting on the refs really hard and a timeout was called. So a guy running one of the in-house cameras that is used to show video on the overhead screens under the scoreboard decided to zoom in on the three refs and kept it on them for 30 to 60 seconds. I thought that was extremely classless. Of course this baited the crowd in to booing even louder and eventually the head of security told the guy to cut it out.

[HoopScoop]

Yeah, Sybarite, as I was commenting on the turnovers I remembered your rundown of how turnovers don't seem to have an close correlation to Top 25 or eventual Final Four and NC type teams.

Yet, I think without a doubt, you can say that turnovers is what led to OU's loss today. OU has simply got to handle the ball better than they are.

[Bball Girl]

It does seem that success brings out some of the worst fans. Tech certainly has their share...some of them sat around me. One of my seat mates was a jr high girls coach - she came up with some of the rudest things to yell at opposing players. I did talk to her about a) if she would like to be called a moose or horse or a pig or worse and b) how she woud feel about one of her girls being called those things. It toned her down sometimes.

Sherri's and Gary's comments were very good today.

http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=2534&SPID=193&DB_OEM_ID=300&ATCLID=776014

Sherri Coale

I thought we were pretty good (defensively). If you hold a team to 54 points you ought to be able to win. We just couldn’t score. We didn’t shoot the ball well and we didn’t respond well to the physical play and didn’t convert. We lost by two points, I got a technical foul. I’ll take this one.”

On committing 28 turnovers:
“We’ve been playing dangerous Russian roulette with (turning the ball over) and surviving. When we play against a team as aggressive as A&M and they capitalize on those turnovers so well, it comes back to get you.

“When you turn it over every other possession you’re not ever going to get in an (offensive) rhythm. It was a lot of pressure on the basketball and we didn’t alleviate that very well.”

Gary Blair

I am so proud of these ladies because we just beat a great team, we didn’t beat a good team, we beat a great team. I thought that we took them out of a lot things that they wanted to run. We took them deep into the shot clock. When you take a team deep into a shot clock sometimes, you don’t get your first or second options. We made stop after stop on the defensive end. We have to credit Higgins who hit the three to make it close.”

“When I see (Erin) Higgins, (Chelsi) Welch and the (Leah) Rush girl, I am so happy for them. They still have a great chance of going to the Final Four. We are just trying to find out who we are right now. The nation doesn’t know who we are right now. They don’t know these kids’ first name. Hopefully, we are known by Texas A&M. We are going to get our share if I can keep getting kids that fight hard like this.”

[tycat947]

I think the Sooners may have put too much pressure on themselves this season or they are either overrated. It's going to be a dogfight just to win the Big 12. They still have to go to Austin, Lubbock, and College Station. Everyone said that maybe tOSU loss would jump start them and then the TTU game would get them playing better. But I just don't see that they can be much better than they are now. The top seven players returned from last year with a top flight freshman class and a consensus All-American in the lineup and I see very little improvement in the team. Some individuals have improved and some have not. I just cannot put my finger on the problem other than maybe they have placed too much pressure on themselves. Courtney sure doesn't seem to be having as much fun as she did last year. I see about the same result as last year....Sweet 16. They will be looking at probably a 3 seed, could be a 2 or even a 4 so will be extremely tough to get past that along with not being able to stay in Dallas regional. I hope I'm wrong but at this point in the season that's the way I see it.

[MsProudSooner]

Great game by A&M. I don't know that I'm on the same page with Blair's philosophy, but you have to admire the effort his teams put forth.

[swok34]

Duke, Maryland, North Carolina. All have tremendous guard play. All have the athletes to pressure the ball the entire length of the court. OU has got to learn to deal with that pressure in order to be effective in the NCAA's.

Anyone remember 2 years ago when we all joked about who would have the most turnovers against TAMU? I think it was a joke last season as well. It's what Texas A & M does. I thought OU had a shot in the last 5 minutes simply due to the foul trouble that TAMU was in. But, OU didn't capitalize on it. And OU just went way too long in scoring droughts, they've played against this kind of pressure before, they know how.

Micheaux had an incredible game, when she went to the FT line with 3.8 seconds left.....I said to the people around me, she's only a 38% FT shooter...:( Well, that panned out about as well as CP at the end of the game.

I agree about the fans....not the ref booing though because I think that is part of what the fans do for the home court advantage. Who cares if we are right or not? I thought the yelling directed towards TAMU was horribly unsportsmanlike. Though I thought it was curious that TAMU stayed on the court 5 minutes after the game was over.:confused: I told the people around me that OU does the same thing......well, yes and no, OU says their little prayer and their one cheer and they go to the locker room.

Now this little comment from Gary Blair in the presser won't win him many friends in the Lloyd Noble:

"if Kendra would have hit that final shot, OU fans would have stormed the court, though more than half of them are over 50."

Oh......one more comment, the TV people only showed or talked about Bubba twice.

[Jennifer]

I think TA&M just showcased to other teams what they need to do to beat OU. Pressure, pressure, pressure. When the guards are still 4 feet from the top of the key trying to set up the offense with 15 seconds left on the shot clock, that's not good. Granted, not everyone (in the conference) has the athletes A&M has to do this, but they can sure try. If OU were to meet a UNC, Duke, Uconn, etc. in the tourney, I'll be worried. OU's guards just aren't athletic enough and don't handle the pressure well.

Courtney's shots aren't falling as much because at least today, she had 2 people ALL over her and it was much more physical than what has been typical.

Amanda is so atheltic--sometimes it's like everything clicks--like the time she drove baseline in the 1st half for 2. She never did that again though. It seems like at times her body moves faster than she thinks and that gets her in trouble!

I was sitting in LS7 and didn't notice the same about the fans as Hoopscoop noted. I agree that there were many bizarre calls. My mom had just commented that Sherri needed to get T'ed up and then sure enough...

Anyhow...there's still a tough rode to go in the Big 12 with trips to Texas, College Station, and Lubbock. I hope we see a different looking OU team when they go to College Station or else it could be uglier.

[Gator]

Haven't seen SoonerMan (not OUR soonerman - but the one with the face paint, tail and other paraphernalia) in a couple of games.

I'm not sure I miss him but was wondering if anyone knew anything.

[swok34]

Gator.....

not positive, but I think he is as big a Hornets fan as a Sooner fan.

I told the people around me that if they ever see me with a tail to just drag me out of the arena :D

[Peaceplease]

IThe second reason I came away from this game with a negative attitude is I've really had it with some OU fans that sit around me during the game. Their behavior is deplorable in how they spout venom at the refs and even opposing fans game after game. I came very close to standing up and shouting at a few of them to clam up. And unfortunately it would probably suprise people to know who a few of these fans are and what their relationship is to the OU program and staff. That's as far as I'll go with that statement.

Just because we are the 6th ranked team in the nation, went undefeated in the Big 12 last year, and are currently leading the Big 12 now does not mean we should attack the refs (or opposing teams and fans) so vehemently after every call.

Sure there was some very bizarre calls in the game today, and, frankly, I don't blame Coach Coale for the technical she got today. The ref and the call she got very heated about were ridiculous.

The booing got out of control though and bled over to booing the A&M players and coach. Gary Blair is hands down one of the classiest human being you'll ever see on the court. And he was applauding our crowd at the end of the game for such a fantastic turnout in numbers. But I heard quite a few derogatory comments and boos directed at him also. And that made me rather embarrassed to be an OU fan today.

Whole heartedly agree..........it was one reason I do not enjoy the Big 12 and NCAA softball tournaments as much as in the past......it used to be so much fun and now there is just so much booing, griping, etc........like people let everything that is bugging them in their lives bleed over into their behavior at the games.................I have gone to a few basketball games at OU in the last few years and actually left one because the crowd was so negative...........I don't care if it is a player, coach or ref......booing and yelling slurs at these people is childish and hateful........

finally, though I seriously doubt that a college player let's the "airball" chant get to them...........it bugs the heck out of me........I swear it must be a high school game when I hear that and a bunch of high school kids are yelling.........

[bigred]

A&M continued with inspired play that started in the 2nd half of the NU win, to take it to the Sooners. Poor FT shooting will eventually cost them a game.

Someone in a Sooner uniform, needs to lose weight and work on conditioning.

[tx4OU]

I really like Antonelli as a color person. I like the passion that she brings in describing the action and the action verbs she uses (e.g., " . . . needs to stick it" and "d up"). And I don't mind her using that expression at all. I enjoy listening to the games she works, especially when she's alongside Beth Mowins.

I wholeheartedly agree LadyBear!

[tx4OU]

I like Debbie a lot and I appreciate her passion and committment to the game. But I only saw portions of the 2nd and everytime I turned over they were talking about Bubba??? while fouls were going on and other activities on the court with nary an explanation. Sorry to be critical but it bugs me when they don't concentrate on the kids on the court.

Wait until Hakeem and Ben start showing up in the LNC. I'm sure it will be 2x worse.

Frankly, I didn't notice it but once. I guess that's what happens when blood isn't reaching your brain, b/c your heart is skipping beats.:D

[tx4OU]

This is just my personal opinion, but the style of the PA announcer at the games is to me very annoying, all loud bluster and huckster-style promotion. This team is a classy one, and deserves better promotion in the arena than the boilerplate hoorah for the home team.

I couldn't agree more and have made such comments about the annoying announcer on OU's board. When I hear it, I shreek in embarrassment, much like watching some of those American Idol wannabes from Minnesota and Seattle.:eek:

[tx4OU]

I'd like to poke in here to say that I think that OU is so self-conscious about their turnovers that they create a climate that makes them more likely by trying to be so careful with the ball. Today I believe that the premature decisions by various players to pick up the dribble in order to "consider" their next option was the single biggest cause of the huge TO numbers today.
I'd like to see a break down of turnovers caused by trying to be creative and pushing the ball vs. ones that were individual mind lapses.

My coach always taught us to never pick up your dribble until you knew where the ball was going. Once you pick up your dribble you allow so many more defenders than just the five players wearing the opposite colored jerseys: bad pass, five second call, tie up, walking, double dribble, shot clock violation and sometimes an offensive push-off foul. It also is one of the biggest timeout wasters.

I don't have as much of a problem with TOs if they're from trying to create offense or from pushing the ball.

[tx4OU]

I told the people around me that if they ever see me with a tail to just drag me out of the arena :D

Thanks swok! I just spewed my drink of tea out of my mouth and onto my keyboard after reading that one. You owe me a new keyboard.:D

[tx4OU]

Someone in a Sooner uniform, needs to lose weight and work on conditioning.

:confused: :eek: :rolleyes: :mad:
My thought process after reading this comment.

[MsProudSooner]

Someone in a Sooner uniform, needs to lose weight and work on conditioning.

Here are Courtney's minutes in games over the last week.

1/20/07 7:00 PM @ Colorado 36 minutes, second only to Higgins at 37
1/22/07 6:00 PM @ OU (2 OT) 39 minutes, second only to Higgins at 45
1/24/07 7:00 PM @ OU 26 minutes, most of all OU players
1/27/07 11:00 AM @ OU 36 minutes, including time away from the court for stitches, most of any OU player.

Courtney is never going to a 6'4" gazelle. You can look at the width of her shoulders and the size of her hands and tell that. But, considering that we played 4 games in 7 days, including one at altitude, and she played more total minutes than everyone but Erin Higgins, I don't think she has a conditioning problem. Can she get better? Sure, but it's not a huge problem.

[swok34]

I like Courtney Paris JUST the way she is. I like the BIG POWER Centers myself, and they don't come along very often.

Not sure how that comment was applicable for yesterday's game though:

"We couldn't get in a position to see where (Paris) was open from,'' Coale said."

OU had so much trouble in the backcourt, and Micheax did a stellar job on Courtney.

If Courtney were to lose weight and get in shape (not my words): would that mean we should expect her to score 45 points and 30 rebounds a night?
Unfortunately, OU fans already expect that from CP:
http://www.newsok.com/article/3003668/?template=sports/ou

[35TangoTango]

About Courtney - 20 rebounds indicates that some work was going on there. She did have some uncharacteristic misses, but they weren't necessarily short.

As to the crowds, I was a little embarassed also; it was a transfer from the refs to the opponents. Gary said in his postgame that they get that from opposing crowds a lot. He also said they make referees have hard decisions a lot. "They sweat when they work our games".

Got home and I watched the recording of the game (my wife made me; she said we watch all the wins, so..). Sherri's T came after they called Ashley for a foul when a player knocked the ball away from her and she kept the player behind her while going for the ball. They announcers called that "holding back". Sheri was unhappy with the call. On the very next possession, Kendra knocked the ball loose, and the opponent made exactly the same manuever without getting a call. Sherri went ballistic. I don't really think that was an intentional T.

I notice that in the UT-TT game they referred to a tie-ball after "Robertson briefly touched the ball". In the OU-A&M game, it took so long for the tie-ball to be called that the announcers referred to the intervening intervals as "scrums". Can you believe that?

On turnovers, there's taking chances pushing the ball in transition, there's mental lapses, and in this game, there was a lot of dribbling and passing the ball around the perimeter instead of attacking. Do that for very long against the Aggies, and they'll get a hand on it.

That said, essentially the same OU team last year shredded A&M's defense with ease. Whatever they had, they need to get it back before Wednesday!

[swok34]

soonerman......

that tie ball thing that took the refs so long to call also happened in the OU/Texas Tech game, IMO when both Edwards and Rush picked up their double fouls. I've been really perplexed by the refs in how they are calling jump balls this year. I've also seen the "very fast ones" as well.

I go back and watch every game as well: WIN or LOSE.

[Gator]

Someone in a Sooner uniform, needs to lose weight and work on conditioning.Ya - I bet Abi will be in much better condition next year.

(IE: you HAVE to be kidding if you mean anyone else!)

[tx4OU]

Sherri's T came after they called Ashley for a foul when a player knocked the ball away from her and she kept the player behind her while going for the ball. They announcers called that "holding back". Sheri was unhappy with the call. On the very next possession, Kendra knocked the ball loose, and the opponent made exactly the same manuever without getting a call. Sherri went ballistic.
She wasn't the only one. I think I frightened my neighbor after that one. However, I'd also point out that Franklin's no call on shielding Kendra happened twice, immediately back to back and both times it wasn't called. At that point, I just relaxed back into my sofa with the boys helplessly watching.

[Peaceplease]

Ya - I bet Abi will be in much better condition next year.

(IE: you HAVE to be kidding if you mean anyone else!)

so Abi is not in good condition? how does anyone know? just curious

[Bball Girl]

TEXAS A&M SOPHOMORE CENTER LATOYA MICHEAUX
On defending Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris:
“On defense, we front. I figured that if she doesn’t touch it, then she couldn’t score. I thought even though if I limited her touches, that she would still get her points. But she only had 12 points, so I will take that with her average being 22. It was a battle. We were both going down the court huffing. Rebounding, it was tough trying to box her out. If I didn’t get it then I tried to make sure she didn’t get it. I was trying to get my teammates to pick up the trash. It was a battle, and she is a great player.”

It was a "huffing" kind of game for everyone. Courtney & Ashley are more than fine just the way they are!!!!

[Gator]

so Abi is not in good condition? how does anyone know? just curiousWho knows for sure but from observation she looks a lot like CP looked last year - ie, she is probably in pretty good freshman condition right now but over the summer will probably get in GOOD condition and in the process loose some weight. But that wasn't really the point of the post. Bigred had said: "Someone in a Sooner uniform, needs to lose weight and work on conditioning." and as the previous posters have noted, many of us believed he was taking a dig at CP3. Seeming to choose to believe he was talking about Abi was ______ (fill in the blank - many descriptions would work.)

[swok34]

I don't think Abi is even in Courtney last year shape from the times I have seen her play.

[tycat947]

If they are fronting Courtney and denying her the ball, Ashley should have been more of a factor especially against A&M because of their lack of size. Ashley can really disappear on the offensive end sometimes and she should be more of a threat.

Btw, I thnk the crowd began booing A&M when Gary Blair turned to the crowd after the game and began clapping saying "good game" to the crowd when the crowd was still upset over the officials (I saw this from the 3rd row at midcourt). I'm sure some people saw him clapping and didn't see what he was saying and thought he might be taunting the crowd. I'm sure he wasn't but probably would have been better off on commenting about the good crowd in his post game comments.

[tx4OU]

Gary has a great history of being respectful and going out of his way of showing appreciation for other players, coaches and fans. I don't think the average Sooner knows this about him, nor were they probably in the right mind frame if someone had informed them.

[Bob_Ballew]

When you go down to College Station for a re-match. Gary Blair will be walking around in the stands prior to the game passing out candy to the kids and thanking everyone for coming out to the game. He even talks with the opponent's fans. He is a class act, unmatched!:cool:

[YCN]

When I watched the North Carolina-Maryland game yesterday, I decided to focus on how North Carolina handles the ball, and contrast their style with how the Sooners played against the Aggies on Saturday.

I was struck with how often the players didn't even dribble the basketball at all, much less dribble and stop. At least 80% and probably closer to 90% of the time when a player received the ball they held it just long enough to make a good pass to another player in order to pressure Maryland on defense.

It obviously is a strategy that works, and works well. I wonder if a team can be coached to emulate that style, or if it's something the players are unlikely to learn? Most OU errors on Saturday began with the player immediately dribbling the ball after receiving a pass. It is there that the offense broke down.

I hope that Sherri looks at a tape of the NC-MD game, and makes her players watch it as well.

[Peaceplease]

When I watched the North Carolina-Maryland game yesterday, I decided to focus on how North Carolina handles the ball, and contrast their style with how the Sooners played against the Aggies on Saturday.

I was struck with how often the players didn't even dribble the basketball at all, much less dribble and stop. At least 80% and probably closer to 90% of the time when a player received the ball they held it just long enough to make a good pass to another player in order to pressure Maryland on defense.

It obviously is a strategy that works, and works well. I wonder if a team can be coached to emulate that style, or if it's something the players are unlikely to learn? Most OU errors on Saturday began with the player immediately dribbling the ball after receiving a pass. It is there that the offense broke down.

I hope that Sherri looks at a tape of the NC-MD game, and makes her players watch it as well.

That definitley seems like a coachable skill.......

[swok34]

Gary has a great history of being respectful and going out of his way of showing appreciation for other players, coaches and fans. I don't think the average Sooner knows this about him, nor were they probably in the right mind frame if someone had informed them.

I do know it.

And I was very surprised by some of his post game comments in the media conference.

I subscribe to the Houston Roundball Review and this was his take:

I didn't take time to write about Texas A&M's win over Oklahoma (at Oklahoma, no less) yesterday; so, I'll do so now.

Texas A&M beat the Sooners 54 to 52. OU's loss ended a string of 26 consecutive wins in the Big 12; but, streaks aside, the game was very physical and OU didn't handle the physical play well one bit.

The Sooners committed 28 turnovers in the game and shot a season low 32.7% from the field. They looked frustrated by the Aggies "in your shirt" defense throughout the game.

Sooners' fans (11,486 attended the game which is spectacular!) booed at the refs for much of the game for what they perceived were non-calls; but, my simple question is this: How can a team with Courtney Paris on the squad not be used to contact by the opposition?

Like it or not, women's basketball is physical. The game is more physical now than it was in the recent past. If the Sooners want to reach the Final Four this year, they're going to have to change their mindset and get used to the physical play. Act instead of react.

Little surprised because I think there are few teams that play the "in your shirt" defense. Few teams have the personnel to get their players in foul trouble the way TAMU did. If you watched the TAMU/Baylor game a couple of weeks ago, TAMU didn't use full court pressure at all. Why? Probably because Atunrase wasn't up to speed after her injury.

I looked up last season hoping the games had been televised to see what was different because essentially, both OU and Texas A & M are the same teams personnel wise. Neither game had been televised.

Sherri has said that she wants more point production from her point guard.

Britney Brown is not playing like she was last season.

I wonder if Britney has put the added pressure on herself to score.

I liked your comment a couple of days ago, YCN, about how some of OU's players may be very self conscious about turning the ball over and it may have created the opposite effect. I also wonder if Leah Rush was trying NOT to foul for the same reason, because she didn't pick up a foul until the 2nd half.

I also think the "white out" packed house kind of games add another pressure button.

Home court advantage: I think it's over-rated anymore simply because of the crowds that kids are able to play in front of now. CASE in POINT: OSU travelling to Lubbock and Budke making the comment that a lot of his player had not been exposed to that kind of a crowd, but now that they have: they know how to adjust.

[Gator]

Somehow the following notes from Women’s Hoops Blog make me feel better - We have such great talent you want greatness every game and .... It feels like most of these statements could have been made about OU’s Saturday. Januaryitis? Sure hope so because it is curable.

Neither team looked its best, but the Heels looked decidedly better. The Terps seemed out of sorts. Lots of turnovers, lots of missed shots. ...Graham Hays says Maryland should slow down...."We've got to find a way to get our swagger back," coach Frese said. "I think sometimes this team, they want to perform and they want to play so well. And sometimes I think they put pressure on themselves that they don't need."

The Huskies turned the ball over 27 times, 15 in the first half, often on mental mistakes....Convincing, but fugly. Geno: "We were our own worst enemy there for a while. When you look at the way the game was played, there was no rhyme or reason to it. There [was] no flow, there was no rhythm to it.”