Defense remains an issue

bluesooner17

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Though unclear when they’ll return to court, what needs addressing isn’t

If the Oklahoma women are to be better this season than last, a campaign in which they suffered their second straight losing season, two of the issues that plagued them last season cannot continue to plague them in this one.

One, they must defend better than a year ago, when they allowed opponents to score 78.5 points per game, good for the nation’s 346th best scoring defense, better than only two other Division I programs, Mississippi Valley and Chicago State.

Two, they must find a way to get consistent scoring from more than two sources, 3-point sharpshooter Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams, who has a way of playing every position on the floor depending upon the possession.

For good or ill, OU will not be able to address those issues on any game court this weekend. The Sooners were to compete at the Crossover Classic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, beginning Saturday against No. 21 Gonzaga.

Sunday, the they were to face No. 1 South Carolina before meeting tourney host South Dakota.

However, Thursday, the program announced, via Twitter, “The team could not meet the player availability threshold for the tournament due to COVID- 19 tracing. The team will be continuously monitored over the weekend.”

Wednesday afternoon, playing their season opener against Houston inside a Lloyd Noble Center that’s been rearranged on account of the coronavirus, one of those issues might have improved, but it did not matter because one of them did not.

The Sooners suffered a 97-85 setback, more than anything, because they struggled to defend, struggled to take care of the basketball and struggled to put any real runs together, even while they scored plenty, because they struggled to defend and take care of the ball.

After the first five minutes, when the two teams traded runs to wind up tied 11-11, all the runs belonged to the Cougars, most notably a 12-2 sprint over 2 1/2 third-quarter minutes after Sooner guard Gabby Gregory scored the first basket of the second half, tying the game 46-46.

Watching, it appeared OU simply didn’t have the athletes to stick with Houston in a man defense. Coach Sherri Coale stipulated that Houston’s “physicality, their size and their speed” affected her team, but that it wasn’t rooted in OU’s physical limitations.

Instead, experiencing something the that can’t replicate in practice for the first time, her players, a little stunned, struggled to respond.

“Not being affected by the physicality or the athleticism, it’s a mindset,” Coale said. “We can talk about 15 different little strategical, technical things … our inbound execution probably gave them 12 [to] 15 points; block outs, second shot opportunities at key times, not closing the gap on dribble penetration.

“You can go through all those little things and we’re not going to be perfect on any of those, we’re not going to bat a thousand. [But] the one thing that affects all of those a little bit is our mindset, our confidence level, our competitive zeal.”

Coming up short in those areas, Coale believes, kept her team from bringing its best game from the practice court to the game court.

“While we did some really good things [Wednesday], it did not look like the team we watch in practice every day,” she said. “And that’s a reflection of being affected by all the stuff that happens when the lights are on, the referees are out there and you keep score.”

That struggle was reflected in 21 turnovers to Houston’s 12, a figure that helped allow the Cougars to attempt 18 more shots than the Sooners.

Williams, however, was unaffected. The 6-foot junior, who’s listed as both a guard and forward, and who led the Sooners on the boards a year ago, found herself bringing the ball up the court, taking on a point guard’s role for stretches, even while she scored most of her points near the basket.

Aggressive, she finished 9 of 21 from the field, made 7 of 8 foul shots and finished with a game-high 25 points.

Sophomore guard Gabby Gregory came through with 18 points, offering the Sooners a third scoring option, yet Robertson failed to free herself for enough opportunities, attempting eight 3-pointers, making three and finishing with 13 points, well short of last season’s 19.1 average.

It’s not helping OU’s cause that its entire roster counts just nine players and Wednesday, Skylar Vann, who averaged 18.9 points and 10.2 rebounds as a Deer Creek senior last season, was kept to the bench, having just returned from a knee injury that had her out of practice, said Coale, for about three weeks.

That left three reserves in freshman point guard Nevaeh Tot, sophomore post Liz Scott and Heavenly Greer, a 6-3 freshman, ranked the nation’s No. 23 forward by ESPN coming out of Ganesha (Calif.) High School.

Tot played 21 minutes and finished with four points. Scott played seven, scored seven points and grabbed four rebounds, but fouled out quickly. Greer turned eight minutes into two points and five rebounds.

Perhaps a blessing in disguise, missing the trip to South Dakota is bound to take losses off OU’s schedule. The most winnable game would have been Monday against the hosts, yet even the Coyotes are receiving votes in the AP Top 25 and would be 27th were the poll extended.

Presuming the Sooners can get back on the court after the weekend, they’re due to meet Georgia, part of the SEC/Big 12 Classic, in Athens, Dec. 6, before opening conference play four days later at Kansas.

Clay Horning
366-3526 Follow me @clayhorning cfhorning@normantranscript.com
 
Too many little Sherri's running around
 
All I read in Sherri's explanation was blah, blah, blah....smh.
 
All I read in Sherri's explanation was blah, blah, blah....smh.

Exactly. What does she expect the results will be? She recruited and signed this team. It all points back to her. It's not like they've arrived and not lived up to their lofty national accolades or suddenly lost their speed and athleticism. They are who they were when she signed them.
 
Exactly. What does she expect the results will be? She recruited and signed this team. It all points back to her. It's not like they've arrived and not lived up to their lofty national accolades or suddenly lost their speed and athleticism. They are who they were when she signed them.

I agree 100%. I'm an eternal optimist, and I always support the coaches and players, but this situation has no silver lining, no hope for the future, nothing positive left....... I can't believe how far the Program has fallen, and nothing is being done about it. I raised my daughter on women's hoops, and when she's home from college we try to take in a game. Last one we attended before Covid was so sad. We were able to purchase seats online, on the floor at mid court, just before tip off. Nothing like the games we attended for years.
 
She has to use the zone more.

1. Tot too small to play D inside

2. Simpson and Maddie undersized inside

3. Taylor too slow to cover one on one

Still has to check off on dribble penetration better. Help defense a major problem. And even though we weak on help defense we are also weak on covering the treys. Do we even have a defensive coach. Sherri doesn't seem to be it.

My other complaint is the lack of interesting in screening Taylor open on out of bounds plays. Most often she just drifts to the corner.
The face guarder doesn't even have to move quick to cover her.
 
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