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Coale believes Sooners are better shooters than what numbers show
By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
Stop if you’ve heard this one before.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Oklahoma women’s coach Sherri Coale said.
She’s talking about her team’s ability to shoot the basketball.
In fact, as practice came to a close Tuesday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center, she offered something more than faith and hope.
Insistence.
“Yes,” she said, when asked directly, are her Sooners a good shooting team?
They play host to Iowa State at 7 tonight inside Lloyd Noble Center, and being a good shooting team may not be required to beat the Cyclones.
The last time the two teams played, at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 11, OU prevailed 67-57 on a night it shot 43.6 percent. What really helped that night was Iowa State shooting a woeful 33.9 percent.
In fact, while the Sooners as shooters may remain a question mark, the 20thranked Sooners (15-5, 6-2) as defenders may not. To date, OU’s holding opponents to 39.3 percent field accuracy and 38.6 percent over the entire season.
Not bad at all.
However, the Sooners’ ability to shoot the ball may be more important because, all things being equal, it’s there where they can still get much better.
OU’s shooting 41.5 percent for the season and 41.9 percent since conference play began.
Tonight they’ll be coming off two consecutive games in which they made 21 of 60 shots — 35 percent — from the field, the first an 86-68 loss to Texas and the second a 6862 victory over Oklahoma State.
Five other times the Sooners have failed to shoot even 40 percent. Only twice this season have they shot at least 50 percent, against Texas-Rio Grande Valley and conference doormat Kansas.
Despite evidence to the contrary, the Sooners continue to have no doubt high shooting percentages await them.
“I watch us in practice every day. I see how many times they go down,” said senior guard Maddie Manning, who averages 12.4 points per game. “When you look at the opposing team’s plan, they’re guarding us on the 3-point line … “I guess the numbers don’t back it up, but I know it will come. The law of averages has to even out sometime.”
Coale didn’t offer stats to back up her claim, but her anecdotal evidence was strong.
“You can tell what a good shooting team we are because we’re sure making shots when we need to make them,” she said. “You wouldn’t be able to do that if you weren’t a good shooting team.”
Senior guard Peyton Little is OU’s leading scorer at 13.4 points per game and 14.4 since conference play began.
“We’re a bunch of shooters,” she said. “If you come watch us in practice, you’ll say, ‘Oh, sheesh, these guys can shoot’ … We’re a good shooting team.”
If Manning is right, and the law of averages catches up, OU could be in for some very good things.
Because to catch up to where the Sooners believe they are, they won’t drain shots for a couple of games, but for many.
Maybe Coale is right, it’s just a matter of time.
Maybe tonight.
Maybe later.
If it ever arrives, it could be great
By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
Stop if you’ve heard this one before.
“It’s just a matter of time,” Oklahoma women’s coach Sherri Coale said.
She’s talking about her team’s ability to shoot the basketball.
In fact, as practice came to a close Tuesday afternoon at Lloyd Noble Center, she offered something more than faith and hope.
Insistence.
“Yes,” she said, when asked directly, are her Sooners a good shooting team?
They play host to Iowa State at 7 tonight inside Lloyd Noble Center, and being a good shooting team may not be required to beat the Cyclones.
The last time the two teams played, at Hilton Coliseum on Jan. 11, OU prevailed 67-57 on a night it shot 43.6 percent. What really helped that night was Iowa State shooting a woeful 33.9 percent.
In fact, while the Sooners as shooters may remain a question mark, the 20thranked Sooners (15-5, 6-2) as defenders may not. To date, OU’s holding opponents to 39.3 percent field accuracy and 38.6 percent over the entire season.
Not bad at all.
However, the Sooners’ ability to shoot the ball may be more important because, all things being equal, it’s there where they can still get much better.
OU’s shooting 41.5 percent for the season and 41.9 percent since conference play began.
Tonight they’ll be coming off two consecutive games in which they made 21 of 60 shots — 35 percent — from the field, the first an 86-68 loss to Texas and the second a 6862 victory over Oklahoma State.
Five other times the Sooners have failed to shoot even 40 percent. Only twice this season have they shot at least 50 percent, against Texas-Rio Grande Valley and conference doormat Kansas.
Despite evidence to the contrary, the Sooners continue to have no doubt high shooting percentages await them.
“I watch us in practice every day. I see how many times they go down,” said senior guard Maddie Manning, who averages 12.4 points per game. “When you look at the opposing team’s plan, they’re guarding us on the 3-point line … “I guess the numbers don’t back it up, but I know it will come. The law of averages has to even out sometime.”
Coale didn’t offer stats to back up her claim, but her anecdotal evidence was strong.
“You can tell what a good shooting team we are because we’re sure making shots when we need to make them,” she said. “You wouldn’t be able to do that if you weren’t a good shooting team.”
Senior guard Peyton Little is OU’s leading scorer at 13.4 points per game and 14.4 since conference play began.
“We’re a bunch of shooters,” she said. “If you come watch us in practice, you’ll say, ‘Oh, sheesh, these guys can shoot’ … We’re a good shooting team.”
If Manning is right, and the law of averages catches up, OU could be in for some very good things.
Because to catch up to where the Sooners believe they are, they won’t drain shots for a couple of games, but for many.
Maybe Coale is right, it’s just a matter of time.
Maybe tonight.
Maybe later.
If it ever arrives, it could be great
