Sweetest OU Girl
New member
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2009
- Messages
- 1,834
- Reaction score
- 0
I really do understand your frustration Ollie.
My personal belief is that when a certain team in the conference cheated in recruiting enough to draw a reprimand and pretty strong penalties from the NCAA, it hurt us somewhat. That is always hard to measure exactly, but I understood at the time we were recruiting - and hoping to sign - a couple of the players that signed via cheating.
So we were forced to sign a few players who were great young women - but likely not right at the top of our list. Then that was followed up by severe injuries that sidelined several of our best players.
All of that compounded to cause us to drop a level. We are just now recovering from all that. But it is hard to recover when you are competing against a school that is willing to skate far off the rules of both recruiting and morality in their athletic department. I do hope they are changing, but only time will tell. Unfortunately, after the display by KM recently, it is impossible to not realize that a sincere willingness to change does not appear to be spread throughout their athletic department.
So, yes, I am also frustrated, but I do not place all the blame on SC. Instead I find myself seeing certain characteristics of decision making - both inside and outside the OU WBB program - and realizing those things will need to change if we are to get back closer to the top.
If you watched the Texas game today, it was obvious they won to a great extent because they got a (deserved) home berth for rounds 1 & 2. We need to start getting the benefit of the doubt on that like so many other teams do. ESPN is controlling the selection process at certain levels. That is why teams like Kentucky played at home. If you watched the Kentucky game today, you must realize they should never have been rated higher than we were - and in fact, that was just as obvious before the selections were announced. But ESPN - and the committee they influence - did that. I blame that bias more for our difficulty moving up just a bit than I blame SC. Think how much more satisfied we would all feel with a couple more wins in rounds 1 &2 - resulting in a couple more sweet 16's - over the past few years.
My personal belief is that when a certain team in the conference cheated in recruiting enough to draw a reprimand and pretty strong penalties from the NCAA, it hurt us somewhat. That is always hard to measure exactly, but I understood at the time we were recruiting - and hoping to sign - a couple of the players that signed via cheating.
So we were forced to sign a few players who were great young women - but likely not right at the top of our list. Then that was followed up by severe injuries that sidelined several of our best players.
All of that compounded to cause us to drop a level. We are just now recovering from all that. But it is hard to recover when you are competing against a school that is willing to skate far off the rules of both recruiting and morality in their athletic department. I do hope they are changing, but only time will tell. Unfortunately, after the display by KM recently, it is impossible to not realize that a sincere willingness to change does not appear to be spread throughout their athletic department.
So, yes, I am also frustrated, but I do not place all the blame on SC. Instead I find myself seeing certain characteristics of decision making - both inside and outside the OU WBB program - and realizing those things will need to change if we are to get back closer to the top.
If you watched the Texas game today, it was obvious they won to a great extent because they got a (deserved) home berth for rounds 1 & 2. We need to start getting the benefit of the doubt on that like so many other teams do. ESPN is controlling the selection process at certain levels. That is why teams like Kentucky played at home. If you watched the Kentucky game today, you must realize they should never have been rated higher than we were - and in fact, that was just as obvious before the selections were announced. But ESPN - and the committee they influence - did that. I blame that bias more for our difficulty moving up just a bit than I blame SC. Think how much more satisfied we would all feel with a couple more wins in rounds 1 &2 - resulting in a couple more sweet 16's - over the past few years.
Last edited:
