You want controversy? I'll give you controversy, as well as a reality check.
Most of the problems that OU has in recruiting have nothing to do with the men's or women's basketball programs. If you look at both programs, neither has had great success at recruiting top prospects unless they came from the State of Oklahoma, and OU has lost a lot of Oklahoma prospects to other schools: Kansas, Duke, UConn, Stanford, etc. The problems associated with the recruiting don't affect football so much because most of the dominant football schools are in the southern states, and the guys have a different mindset. Gymnastics and softball succeed because they can recruit in rather wealthy urban areas.
Oklahoma is ranked pretty close to Mississippi in money spent in education, and the reputation of the state is declining as a result of that and other things. It is becoming recognized as somewhat of an anti-education state. Fortunately, some are beginning to try to change that. But, this is not attractive to recruits.
Some years ago, I brought in a student from Annapolis. He was a good student, but transferred out after one semester. The reason is still significant. He said that he had never been in such a white area. There just wasn't much for an African-American student to do once class was out. Although Norman doesn't share the attitudes of the rest of the state, there just isn't a sufficient draw in the African-American community in Oklahoma.
Basketball is somewhat dependent upon having an environment that is attractive to the urban African-American communities. They want to go where they feel comfortable. For the most part, the best prospects that we have had have not exactly had that problem. They came from money, which provided them with a somewhat different perspective. Bubba Paris and Olajuwon were successful already.
But, we are often in competition with schools that have a large African-American community in the area, like a Louisville, or even a South Carolina. If you haven't noticed, Texas has lost a lot of recruits to the west coast. In football, OU was originally one of the places that African-Americans came to get away from the all-white SEC and SWC. But, those days are basically gone. But, the girls are different from the guys. They are looking at things that the guys don't look for in a community.
You may reject this. It's not my problem. As someone who was probably the first to get a Ph.D. with an African-American major professor at OU, I watched a lot of the African-American community. Given that OU is in the midst of a state which has developed somewhat of an anti-education attitude, I think what Sherri has done is remarkable. But, this does give a slight edge to other schools that might be in competition for the same prospect. The question becomes, "how will I fit in after class." More importantly,, it may well ask "how will I fit in after graduation?"
