NMSooner'80
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My holiday visit to New Mexico with my mom conjured up some OU-UNM memories in women's basketball the last 20-plus years. The local TV stations have had lots of coverage of their current team. And visiting the Pit for a men's game last Friday night reminded me of a somewhat long-ago game involving the "Lady Lobos" and the last pre-Coale OU team.
That game saw a hideous, undisciplined showing by the OU women, who had superior athleticism but low basketball IQ. The UNM women won by about 11, and I was appalled. It was the first year for local high school coaching legend Don Flanagan at the UNM helm.
That OU team failed to even have a winning season, but it sure got the locals cranked up about their team that season. Albuquerque is also kind of fickle about its coaches, and having a "local" like Flanagan really got them jacked. It got to the point of ridiculous between that point in time and the next time they'd see the OU women's team on the court at the Pit. People thought it acceptable to "hype" the women's team by not only badmouthing the UNM men's team (which was on a good roll at the time) but also the men's game in general.
It got so absurd among the "women's only" faction of the Lobo fan base that some of them started claiming the "Lady Lobos (their unofficial name - it's actually officially just the Lobos) could whip the Lobo men's team. If you ever saw a Lobo power forward named Kenny Thomas ('96-99) play, you'd know better. But I digress.
Fast forward to the fall of 2005. UNM's fan base was jacked when it got to see OU - with the Paris twins and the excellent group of upper classmen like Leah Rush and Erin Higgins, on the schedule. They actually got two shots at OU, both at the Pit. The first was in the WNIT in mid-November. The locals even brought out local broadcasting legend Mike Roberts (ABQ's version of Bob Barry Sr.) to handle the play-by-play. OU jumped on them something like 18-3 and pretty much cruised to an 11-point win. It was a 17-point game when Sherri cleared the bench, and they only got within 11 because of that.
Inexplicably, the locals thought it was a fluke, and even some of their players talked a big game going into the Dec. 30 rematch. I had to miss it due to illness, but my folks actually came out to see it with tickets bought through OU. I was too ill to even stay awake for the radio broadcast, but I woke up in time to hear them come out of the final media timeout. OU was up 83-58, and I almost fell off the couch laughing like a bronchitis-afflicted loon. UNM once again benefitted from Sherri's refusal to run it up, and they got back to within 13 at the end. But once again, our ladies popped their "we're big-time" bubble.
The hat trick occurred the next year. Even without Albuquerque native Beky Preston back to help with the inside game, Courtney Paris put on a show for the ages in another OU rout of UNM. That was her 43-point game at the Myriad, and once again OU won big. As I recall, it was a 24-point win, but I'm just going from memory.
We did have two lackluster wins over them a few years later, by three in Norman (a total shocker to me) and by two in the Pit in November of 2011 (I did make that one). The blowout win this year moved Sherri's record against UNM to 6-0.
A lot has changed with their program (on their third coach), and I think with expectations. I just couldn't help but remember those "early days" when they started getting into the women's game - but inexplicably at the expense of their own men's team. I'm SO glad that OU doesn't have that kind of fractured fan base.
That game saw a hideous, undisciplined showing by the OU women, who had superior athleticism but low basketball IQ. The UNM women won by about 11, and I was appalled. It was the first year for local high school coaching legend Don Flanagan at the UNM helm.
That OU team failed to even have a winning season, but it sure got the locals cranked up about their team that season. Albuquerque is also kind of fickle about its coaches, and having a "local" like Flanagan really got them jacked. It got to the point of ridiculous between that point in time and the next time they'd see the OU women's team on the court at the Pit. People thought it acceptable to "hype" the women's team by not only badmouthing the UNM men's team (which was on a good roll at the time) but also the men's game in general.
It got so absurd among the "women's only" faction of the Lobo fan base that some of them started claiming the "Lady Lobos (their unofficial name - it's actually officially just the Lobos) could whip the Lobo men's team. If you ever saw a Lobo power forward named Kenny Thomas ('96-99) play, you'd know better. But I digress.
Fast forward to the fall of 2005. UNM's fan base was jacked when it got to see OU - with the Paris twins and the excellent group of upper classmen like Leah Rush and Erin Higgins, on the schedule. They actually got two shots at OU, both at the Pit. The first was in the WNIT in mid-November. The locals even brought out local broadcasting legend Mike Roberts (ABQ's version of Bob Barry Sr.) to handle the play-by-play. OU jumped on them something like 18-3 and pretty much cruised to an 11-point win. It was a 17-point game when Sherri cleared the bench, and they only got within 11 because of that.
Inexplicably, the locals thought it was a fluke, and even some of their players talked a big game going into the Dec. 30 rematch. I had to miss it due to illness, but my folks actually came out to see it with tickets bought through OU. I was too ill to even stay awake for the radio broadcast, but I woke up in time to hear them come out of the final media timeout. OU was up 83-58, and I almost fell off the couch laughing like a bronchitis-afflicted loon. UNM once again benefitted from Sherri's refusal to run it up, and they got back to within 13 at the end. But once again, our ladies popped their "we're big-time" bubble.
The hat trick occurred the next year. Even without Albuquerque native Beky Preston back to help with the inside game, Courtney Paris put on a show for the ages in another OU rout of UNM. That was her 43-point game at the Myriad, and once again OU won big. As I recall, it was a 24-point win, but I'm just going from memory.
We did have two lackluster wins over them a few years later, by three in Norman (a total shocker to me) and by two in the Pit in November of 2011 (I did make that one). The blowout win this year moved Sherri's record against UNM to 6-0.
A lot has changed with their program (on their third coach), and I think with expectations. I just couldn't help but remember those "early days" when they started getting into the women's game - but inexplicably at the expense of their own men's team. I'm SO glad that OU doesn't have that kind of fractured fan base.
