Non Conference Gauntlet

cowboysooner

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One of the things I like about Sherri is that she forces OU into the national discussion and consciousness in Women's Basketball.

Her non-conference schedule includes Wichita State, Gonzaga, Louisville, UCLA, Creighton and Duke. Are you kidding me. If you are going to play this nonconf, you better have a long term contract. But, Sherri has always done this. She is going to make the "talking heads" discuss OU whether they want to or not. If you won't play her home and home, won't play her without your own refs, doesn't matter, she will play you anywhere you will agree to play.

Once more on Sunday, Sherri ordered the ladies into the breech. This time they were knocked down. I don't think this will discourage the girls. Sherri knows that hard lessons make for hard players. Sherri will just dust them off and send them back in again. One thing is for sure, if your afraid of competition, you don't want to play for OU.

Sherri has her faults, but there is a lot to like about her as a coach.
 
One of the things I like about Sherri is that she forces OU into the national discussion and consciousness in Women's Basketball.

Her non-conference schedule includes Wichita State, Gonzaga, Louisville, UCLA, Creighton and Duke. Are you kidding me. If you are going to play this nonconf, you better have a long term contract. But, Sherri has always done this. She is going to make the "talking heads" discuss OU whether they want to or not. If you won't play her home and home, won't play her without your own refs, doesn't matter, she will play you anywhere you will agree to play.

Once more on Sunday, Sherri ordered the ladies into the breech. This time they were knocked down. I don't think this will discourage the girls. Sherri knows that hard lessons make for hard players. Sherri will just dust them off and send them back in again. One thing is for sure, if your afraid of competition, you don't want to play for OU.

Sherri has her faults, but there is a lot to like about her as a coach.

Yep, no doubt!
 
It seems like most of the top coaches (nationally) prefer to challenge their teams with a tough non-conference schedule. It certainly helps to illustrate your team's weaknesses and prepares the players for conference and post-season play. However, if the team doesn't perform well it can really cause some problems. With the Duke game still on our schedule, the rest of our non-conference games are definite "must wins". And if we don't play well against Duke, it can create some issues for us. The Big 12 is going to be tough this year, and it's certainly possible for even the top teams to have at least 2,3,4 losses. And this can affect seeding for the NCAA tournament. Was really hoping we could get at least a 3 seed, but that could become really difficult if we don't finish out our non-conference games well.

Injuries are obviously another big concern when you play a tough non-conference schedule. Unfortunately, we seem to be getting pretty banged up already this year. Kornet would be another big loss for us. Really hoping that it wasn't season ending.
 
Our next opponent is Creighton. They aren't a great team, having lost to Drake and Kansas. Thankfully, they are not a great rebounding team.
 
I watched the Duke game Sunday while listening to the OU play by play and Duke does just what every team back east does. They get almost all the foul calls when they have the ball and can hack the crap out of arms and shoulders and not get called. They are tall and talented, but they are blessed by the refs.
 
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