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Good, bad and a lot of ‘life’ mark Sooners basketball season
By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
Good and bad.
Also, difficult in ways nobody could have imagined. That appeared to be the way the Oklahoma women would eventually look back at the 2016-17 season.
Since the 2008-09 Final Four season, when the Sooners went 15-1 in the Big 12 Conference race, OU’s best conference mark is 13-5. The Sooners did it in 201314 and again this season. Also, they went to their 18th straight NCAA tournament and got through the first round for the 15th time in those 18 seasons.
On the downside, OU gave back a chance to host the first weekend of the tournament and failed to reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season, a first in the coach Sherri Coale era.
“You can look back, and at the end of the season, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot; we had a chance to host,” guard Maddie Manning said. “But I’m just thinking about all the good times I had with these seniors. The blood, the sweat, the tears, everything we’ve been through.”
Manning is one of those seniors, but she is also due back next season. Having lost most of two full seasons to injury, she’s expecting to spend a sixth year in the program.
In the aftermath of OU’s season-ending NCAA tournament loss at Washington Monday, Coale addressed the season.
“Just a whole bunch of life all at once. As a result of that, these kids have grown exponentially,” she said. “I am so proud of them for the way they just continued to put one foot in front of the other. At the end of the day, that is really what this experience is supposed to do. It is supposed to prepare people for dealing with life.
“You just don’t expect quite some much of it to be thrown at you in the middle of one season. But these seniors are remarkable kids, great character kids. They are going to go to do extraordinary things.”
Over the course of the season, senior forward Shaya Kellogg was accepted into law school and senior guard Derica Wyatt into nursing school.
The most difficult part of “life” thrown at the Sooners, and to one Sooner in particular, was tragedy.
On Jan. 8, before OU played West Virginia in Morgantown, senior guard T’Ona Edwards’ mother died suddenly. Coale coached the game knowing she’d be informing Edwards afterword.
There was also a moment it appeared Manning might lose the rest of a third season to injury, when she injured her knee at Oklahoma State on Feb. 4. However, just a sprain, missed only three games.
The irony was, despite Manning having become the Sooners’ on-court leader during the conference season to that point, they went 3-0 in her absence — quite possibly playing their best basketball of the season after the half against West Virginia to claim a doubleovertime triumph, and six days later to end Texas’ 19game losing streak — only to go 2-4 after she returned.
Though there were times it didn’t all come together on the court, internal chemistry was never an issue.
“It’s been an honor to put on this Oklahoma jersey,” senior guard Peyton Little said after scoring 14 points Monday. “And I never take it for granted playing for the best coach in the country.”
Among their finishing starting five, the Sooners should return Manning, point guard Gabbi Ortiz, guard Chelsea Dungee and center Vionise Pierre-Louis, the last of whom might have played the two best games of the Sooner season. Against West Virginia at Lloyd Noble Center, Pierre-Louis finished with 33 points and 13 rebounds. Then, in OU’s first-round NCAA tourney game, she lit Gonzaga up with 17 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots.
The aftermath of Monday, however, was Coale taking one more moment to salute her seniors.
“Our theme at Oklahoma is leave the story better than you found it,” she said. “To some people, I think that means win one more game than you did last year. that’s not what that means at Oklahoma.
“It’s all about the fiber of who we are as a program. I am proud to say that our seniors have left their story better than they found it.”
Clay Horning
366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com Follow me @clayhorning
By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
Good and bad.
Also, difficult in ways nobody could have imagined. That appeared to be the way the Oklahoma women would eventually look back at the 2016-17 season.
Since the 2008-09 Final Four season, when the Sooners went 15-1 in the Big 12 Conference race, OU’s best conference mark is 13-5. The Sooners did it in 201314 and again this season. Also, they went to their 18th straight NCAA tournament and got through the first round for the 15th time in those 18 seasons.
On the downside, OU gave back a chance to host the first weekend of the tournament and failed to reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight season, a first in the coach Sherri Coale era.
“You can look back, and at the end of the season, we kind of shot ourselves in the foot; we had a chance to host,” guard Maddie Manning said. “But I’m just thinking about all the good times I had with these seniors. The blood, the sweat, the tears, everything we’ve been through.”
Manning is one of those seniors, but she is also due back next season. Having lost most of two full seasons to injury, she’s expecting to spend a sixth year in the program.
In the aftermath of OU’s season-ending NCAA tournament loss at Washington Monday, Coale addressed the season.
“Just a whole bunch of life all at once. As a result of that, these kids have grown exponentially,” she said. “I am so proud of them for the way they just continued to put one foot in front of the other. At the end of the day, that is really what this experience is supposed to do. It is supposed to prepare people for dealing with life.
“You just don’t expect quite some much of it to be thrown at you in the middle of one season. But these seniors are remarkable kids, great character kids. They are going to go to do extraordinary things.”
Over the course of the season, senior forward Shaya Kellogg was accepted into law school and senior guard Derica Wyatt into nursing school.
The most difficult part of “life” thrown at the Sooners, and to one Sooner in particular, was tragedy.
On Jan. 8, before OU played West Virginia in Morgantown, senior guard T’Ona Edwards’ mother died suddenly. Coale coached the game knowing she’d be informing Edwards afterword.
There was also a moment it appeared Manning might lose the rest of a third season to injury, when she injured her knee at Oklahoma State on Feb. 4. However, just a sprain, missed only three games.
The irony was, despite Manning having become the Sooners’ on-court leader during the conference season to that point, they went 3-0 in her absence — quite possibly playing their best basketball of the season after the half against West Virginia to claim a doubleovertime triumph, and six days later to end Texas’ 19game losing streak — only to go 2-4 after she returned.
Though there were times it didn’t all come together on the court, internal chemistry was never an issue.
“It’s been an honor to put on this Oklahoma jersey,” senior guard Peyton Little said after scoring 14 points Monday. “And I never take it for granted playing for the best coach in the country.”
Among their finishing starting five, the Sooners should return Manning, point guard Gabbi Ortiz, guard Chelsea Dungee and center Vionise Pierre-Louis, the last of whom might have played the two best games of the Sooner season. Against West Virginia at Lloyd Noble Center, Pierre-Louis finished with 33 points and 13 rebounds. Then, in OU’s first-round NCAA tourney game, she lit Gonzaga up with 17 points, nine rebounds and nine blocked shots.
The aftermath of Monday, however, was Coale taking one more moment to salute her seniors.
“Our theme at Oklahoma is leave the story better than you found it,” she said. “To some people, I think that means win one more game than you did last year. that’s not what that means at Oklahoma.
“It’s all about the fiber of who we are as a program. I am proud to say that our seniors have left their story better than they found it.”
Clay Horning
366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com Follow me @clayhorning
