Well, there is certainly an attempt to belittle Mulkey.I think Mulkey has some skills, and will get better while in college... I don't think anyone here hates Mulkey that's really going over board. Mulkey has a nice mid rang game, at 6'9 she'll give other teams fits....
Cox can shoot from pretty much everwhere but 3, I think if all 3 of there post players stay they will try and play Cox at the small forward with Brown and mompremier inside.
Norm, you are spot on. Cox really is not as good as we thought since she committed to Baylor. Yeah, right! Remember, Coale says she gets the players she is supposed to get. That is a cop out for not getting many highly recruited players.
Yes it is. I give Sherri a lot of credit for the things she does well. Recruiting is not what she does best. Bottom line, we have to start beating top 5 teams for some of these kids or we will continue to fall farther behind. Some still want to talk about the 2002 team. That was a lifetime ago in terms of basketball. Basketball has changed dramatically as there are many more outstanding players today than there was then. That is why we see teams like S. Carolina, Texas, Baylor, etc making huge strides on UCONN.
OU should be competitive this year with Baylor and Texas. We have an experienced team and should do well this year. However, only an ostrich would not be concerned going forward. Baylor and Texas are loading up on elite players. If we don't do the same, they will pull away from us starting next year (if not this year). We CANNOT pass on players like Richards and expect to change that. Trying to find "diamonds in the rough" will not change that either. I like Llanusa (quick, good athlete) but she must be able to improve her outside shooting to be effective in Sherri's offense. She also needs to hit the weight room. Both are possible with a lot of hard work.
Mulkey is a project in a sense. She is a risk in a sense. The fact is that I have seen a lot of the top prospects in Texas, and nearly all are "projects." I'll discuss that after 11/11.
Mulkey brings height, but not in the DeHaan sense. She is actually very good with her hands. She is more adept with her feet than I had anticipated. She can, like Courtney, place her hands accurately on a ball and block it or steal it. She brings the ability to block shots on both sides of the lane without moving. What made Cypress Woods so tough was that the other team's offense became in disarray when Mulkey was on the court.
Quality? You know what quality means. Is someone good enough to play in the Big Twelve, or in the Big Twelve and start? How many Tulsa University players would have started at OU? You might find one a year that would start at OU. At the other four positions, OU wins.
Do you think Ogwumike would have started at OU? On what basis? What did she bring that was good enough to compete in the Big Twelve? There are a lot better shooters. You don't recruit guards as rebounders. Was she a great ball-handler?
Skilledserv made the remark that:
---CyFair was leading by 11 points
---three minutes left in the game
---due to politics, they inserted Mulkey
---CyFair lost by 14.
What? Did the Governor of Texas require CyFair to play Mulkey? What politics forced them to play Mulkey?
Now, let's look at that score again. The opposition outscored CyFair by 25 points in three minutes? Really? How many times have you seen even a pro team score twenty-five points in three minutes? They don't even do that in the pro All-Star game, and they don't play defense and can shoot.
I get it. Skilledserv doesn't like Mulkey. Sounds like he belongs with a lot of people on this board who put down OU recruits and Sherri.
You are getting a glimpse of what this board has suffered through for years. There are a couple who think they know basketball but don't. It's obvious that you and jelle do and your input is greatly appreciated!
I respect you and a couple of others on here. You all understand it's not about your love for your team.....it's about what's right and what's wrong.
Some on here are ok with just getting to the tournament but other teams in the Big 12 are trying to win national championships. So i guess it's about what you are looking for.
You're right. When some of us see us making progress toward a national championship, we're happy with that. When we see us getting further away from that goal, we're not happy with that. Some either cannot see what is happening or their goal is different from ours.
I admit we have been sort of playing with you guys. But come on....
You should be wise enough to know not to go overboard on Texas. Just because they are another team we compete with does not mean they have been "making progress toward a National Championship". For heavens sake, they lost NINE games in conference last year. We were significantly better. I cannot imagine you would be claiming we were "making progress toward a National Championship" if we had lost 5 more conference games than we did. Could they be better this year? Of course. But it remains to be seen.
It is the same some do with recruiting. Will Cox be a game changer? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I do expect she will be an excellent player at Baylor. But I will guarantee you that if Kim wants her inside that is where she will be. This idea that she could demand (one of her stated recruiting requirements) to be allowed to play a certain spot while she is just a junior in HS was silly.
Recruiting is a very inexact science. Lots of kids ranked in previous years' top 10 lists never performed at that level in college. You build toward a national championship by what you do on the court, not be talking it up when recruiting. We have a number of outstanding players - highly ranked players - on our team. What happens on the court will determine whether we are getting better. How many preseason Big-12 members did we have? Texas? Baylor? Kind of meaningless I agree, but I would rather have players who perform in college than some who are highly ranked as recruits, then slip in college.
I like Karen Ashton a lot and often pull for Texas (my family's home state) when they are not playing us. But I admit I seldom pull for Baylor. I do not agree with the values they exhibit. Players killing teammates and being covered by coaches, players assaulting women and being supported by coaches, assault on the court and on the football field, etc. Some may excuse that kind of value system but I do not. A University has an obligation to its athletes. its student body, and its community.
I too have wondered why Cox did not star on the international teams. Any thoughts on that?
I too have wondered why Cox did not star on the international teams. Any thoughts on that?
Lauren was the star of the u16 and u17 teams. I Did not expect her to star on the u19 team. If anyone did their research, she was lucky enough to make the team. The USA u19 team was by far the best young players in the college game today. Gabbi was even apart of it. Did anyone really expect Lauren to be the "Star" meanwhile you have Aja Wilson, Azura Stevens, Chatrice White, and many other great players? I sure did not! but i did expect her to learn and grow from watching the older players.
These posts were far more seasoned and ready than Lauren was. We have to remember Lauren is still a high school teen! Why all the hostility towards these young players? Even Nancy. I understand some the opinions but some of these post are just down right low blows! This site is open to the public, just imagine if some of these recruits read some of these post.
-Not attacking you SweetestOUgirl, just talking out in general.
Lauren was the star of the u16 and u17 teams. I Did not expect her to star on the u19 team. If anyone did their research, she was lucky enough to make the team. The USA u19 team was by far the best young players in the college game today. Gabbi was even apart of it. Did anyone really expect Lauren to be the "Star" meanwhile you have Aja Wilson, Azura Stevens, Chatrice White, and many other great players? I sure did not! but i did expect her to learn and grow from watching the older players.
These posts were far more seasoned and ready than Lauren was. We have to remember Lauren is still a high school teen! Why all the hostility towards these young players? Even Nancy. I understand some the opinions but some of these post are just down right low blows! This site is open to the public, just imagine if some of these recruits read some of these post.
-Not attacking you SweetestOUgirl, just talking out in general.
Yep, that team was loaded with talent. I'm just glad Gabbi had that experience and was a part of that great team.
The comments of SweetestOUgirl have been quite appropriate for this board, and every single person on this board should be supporting her. She has been defending her school (this is OU Hoops----not Baylor Hoops or Texas Hoops).
She has been defending her coach, a Hall of Fame selection, who has been the victim of constant attacks by "fans" of OU on this board for her inability to recruit. Her character has been maligned as one who fails to maintain contact with recruits and causes them to become hostile to OU. It has been hinted that Chad is OK, but that Sherri is a problem. This is on a supposed OU fan site. If a supposed recruit were to come to this board, what would he think of OU fan support regarding their Hall of Fame coach?
She has been defending OU commits against those who have maligned them and actually stated that they were the reason that a given team lost. What would a potential OU recruit think of the fan support given to her as a commit by OU fans? Would they also constantly want someone else and be a willing participant in the denigration of the OU commit?
Those who would put down the OU coach and OU commits are given credit for being impartial realists and having the credentials of experts. I have yet to see any of these impartial experts inducted into the Women's Hall of Fame or called what is "best for the game" by a coach of the quality of Geno.
If you go back through this thread as a potential OU recruit, there is reason to wonder if you want to go to a school that so actively castigates its coach and commits. I'm glad that SweetestOUgirl has the support for this program and its coach to defend it.
I understand how/why it might have happened - and what you said makes sense.
As I said earlier, I expect Cox to be an excellent player for the Bears. And I would have been happy if she had considered OU. However, it is an open question as to whether or not she will be far far better than anyone we have on our team. Only time will tell. My only disagreement with some on here is suggesting that we don't have many good players. That is not true. We finished 2nd last year. Way ahead of the third place teams. It obviously was either coaching or players or - my belief - a lot of both.
I have the highest hopes for Nancy M. I really hope she is conference player of the year a time or two. And it is possible.
I admit we have been sort of playing with you guys. But come on....
You should be wise enough to know not to go overboard on Texas. Just because they are another team we compete with does not mean they have been "making progress toward a National Championship". For heavens sake, they lost NINE games in conference last year. We were significantly better. I cannot imagine you would be claiming we were "making progress toward a National Championship" if we had lost 5 more conference games than we did. Could they be better this year? Of course. But it remains to be seen.
It is the same some do with recruiting. Will Cox be a game changer? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. I do expect she will be an excellent player at Baylor. But I will guarantee you that if Kim wants her inside that is where she will be. This idea that she could demand (one of her stated recruiting requirements) to be allowed to play a certain spot while she is just a junior in HS was silly.
Recruiting is a very inexact science. Lots of kids ranked in previous years' top 10 lists never performed at that level in college. You build toward a national championship by what you do on the court, not be talking it up when recruiting. We have a number of outstanding players - highly ranked players - on our team. What happens on the court will determine whether we are getting better. How many preseason Big-12 members did we have? Texas? Baylor? Kind of meaningless I agree, but I would rather have players who perform in college than some who are highly ranked as recruits, then slip in college.
I like Karen Ashton a lot and often pull for Texas (my family's home state) when they are not playing us. But I admit I seldom pull for Baylor. I do not agree with the values they exhibit. Players killing teammates and being covered by coaches, players assaulting women and being supported by coaches, assault on the court and on the football field, etc. Some may excuse that kind of value system but I do not. A University has an obligation to its athletes. its student body, and its community.
I too have wondered why Cox did not star on the international teams. Any thoughts on that?
I know you really wanted us to sign her Norm, but it is not possible to sign every recruit in the country. There is a scholarship limit and kids make decisions for lots of reasons. Given a choice I would take Nancy Mulkey over Cox every time.
There are two obvious reasons for that:
1. Cox has not been able to produce a true winning team (up to this point) at the high school level. Nancy did. And it is MUCH easier for a great player to dominate in high school than it is in college. Cox's team didn't just get beat in the state playoffs last year. Her team got destroyed. By the same team Nancy's team beat rather easily. Who knows? This year may turn out different, but that is just speculation. Better to recruit a known rather than an unknown.
2. Cox wants to be the main star on her team. Nancy does everything possible to make her teammates better.
Now I wish we could have gotten both. But we have known for months that when we got Nancy's commitment, Cox did not want to have to compete with her, so she took us off her list. I can understand that.
I'm excited about our future. And I have not given up on us ever beating Baylor again. I don't exactly understand that kind of thinking. Perhaps it is just your disappointment coming out. But we have known for months Cox was not signing a scholarship with us. At some point everyone needs to get past that.
If Baylor could not win 3 or 4 National Championships with Griner, you have to question lots about their program and their likelihood of winning 6 or 7 over the next several years. It is not going to happen. Could they win 1 or 2? Sure. So could lots of other teams.
