I think that what we are seeing is Sherri's concept of basketball. Although we had never heard of many of these players prior to their arrival at OU, Sherri was excited when she recruited them. Sometimes, it is frustrating to watch as her children go through their growing pains. I thought we would never see any value out of Gioya. Sherri kept saying how good she was. She just hadn't done it yet. We can say the same for Kay Kay.
Sherri has stood by proudly and watched as her projects developed. You could see the pride and feel the affection that she had for them. We didn't see results, but she stood by them.
Now that it is all coming together, what we are witnessing is Sherri's concept, her idea of what a team should be. This is what she wants a team to be like. It can shoot, run, and play vicious defense. In order for it to work, she has to have distribution. Distribution requires that something move.
Although Courtney was probably one of the five greatest players in women's basketball, it is Stacy Dale's jersey that is hanging from the rafters. She is the image on which Sherri wants to built the program. She was the distributor. Although we may recruit size for posts or guards who can kill from three, Sherri's first love is the distributors. Suddenly, we have several who can create and distribute. It puts the motion in OU's motion offense.
Gioya, Maddie, and Gabbi create a motion offense. More importantly, they create a motion defense, one that has holes in it that we can expose with our penetration. We were desperate in trying to get the ball to Courtney, leading to stolen passes. Yet, we find that we have at least fifteen wide open players per game under the basket with nobody guarding them. Kay Kay doesn't need to push anyone. She often finds herself wide open. Just catch the pass.
I don't know that I have ever seen Sherri show such pride in a team. She is elated by what is going on right now. It is what she wants in a team, and it will be here another three or four years because they are freshmen and sophomores. She has more of the same, only maybe better, on the way. This could get exciting.
If you were a recruit and had seen OU against Texas, TCU, or OSU, would you not want to be at OU where all of this is brewing?
