Quick Hale Interview with Coale

[SoonerNorm]

In basketball a single player can have a major impact on the team. They can make everybody a better player or also a poorer player.

As a former high school coach I experienced both extremes.

I had a very talented player who was always on the edge but was detrimental to his teammates. we went something like 8-17. The next year he was gone and with virtually the same team we went 18-6 and was ranked 4th in the state and won games with #2 and #3. The guy was so disruptive that it was a constant struggle to keep things working.

You keep trying to get the player to be better and when you were on the verge of kicking him out he gets better until he senses the pressure is off. With hindsight I would have gotten rid of him at least by midseason.

Sherri expressed frustration with her team and the lack of leadership many times during the year even with apparently good kids. The year before with Jo she had the player who would make the big play when needed. Last year when we really needed a bucket she usually went with Morgan who really tried but usually was forced into a wild shot. Kudos to Morgan who played out of position most of her career at OU.

I think she is a very honest person and I would have been disappointed if she had not pointed out the lack of leadership on the team. Coaches can only do so much.

As a coach I doubt that Sherri is much different than when she had final four teams. It is possible that the game has passed her by a bit but she seems to stay in contact with people like Gino who seem eager to help her.

If anything she may be trying to win with finesse when the game has gone toward more athletic players. And then there is my usual complaint about her not using the available depth which is important in the style she likes to play. Unless she changes that she is going to have a lot of unhappy players in 14-15. How do you utilize 15 scholarship players. Talented freshmen come on board these days expecting to play. Sherri likes to go with experience.

Who will be the leader we need in 14-15 if anyone? It may have to be one of the new players.

As usual, you make some outstanding points! I would not really have a problem with Sherri saying she believed the team was lacking in leadership but, I think a team wins and loses as a team. The losses did not occur just because of what the seniors did or did not do. If leadership was the issue (I'm not at all convinced it was), then what did the coaches do to improve it? Some players are never going to show leadership skills because it isn't in their DNA to do so. I don't think Aaryn and Nicole were capable of taking a leadership role. Can you blame them for not having those abilities? I think Morgan did her best as did Aaryn and Nicole. But, if that wasn't good enough, did Sherri go to Sharane or Kornet and try to get them to assume more of a leadership role? Does Sherri not accept some responsibility for the failure to have leaders on the team? Just as you pointed out, you would have been better off without the problem player who caused you problems. Sherri could have benched the seniors at any point in the season. She could also have booted them. That never happened so it tells me she was willing to accept them, warts and all. It seems inconceivable to me that she would specifically blame the seniors and let the rest of the players and all of the coaches off the hook. As I said, you win as a team and you lose as a team. The "team" involves all of the coaches and every player down to just those who practice but seldom see the court. If you win, you all get the credit. If you have a bad game or bad year, EVERYONE is to blame. You never should point to just 3 players and say they are the reason everything went to hell in a hand basket.

 

[sybarite]

Let me preface this by stating that I most definitely may be wrong. I have no inside information, and I base this on watching the way players perform at various times.

Sherri is accustomed to having at least one or two seniors who "grow up" at the end of their senior years. They finally get that they must make it happen. If they wait for things to come to them, it will be too late. They have to force the issue. How well a team overachieves or underachieves is defined by how insistent they are that they want to make it happen.

It's nice if your senior leader (s) can put the ball in the basket. Jo did it more by dominating the boards, which she had done earlier when we beat Miami to make the Sweet Sixteen. She knew that she had to take charge, and she did.

I don't know that Griffin had that type of personality. I think she tried, but it wasn't her. You would think that a scorer, especially one who is up for the Wooden Award, would have that mentality. But, I don't remember Vegas as having a determination to make it happen when the chips were down. At times, she disappeared or took bad shots. I think Vegas was more of a spot shooter who was best if someone else took charge and passed it to her when she was open on her spot. She could kill if she was left open outside, especially on the run in the secondary break. But, she wasn't a creator. She was just as likely to lose the ball while trying to get where she was going as to work for an open shot. She needed the active point.

I think Morgan tried. Morgan seemed to have her worst time of her career in the last fifteen games. She turned it over at key times, and she was ineffective at driving for layups, often throwing up wild shots. She wasn't a great ball-handler. She was a very good player who was doing something that wasn't in her repertoire. At the end of the year, I was actually hoping T'Ona would handle the ball at key times. I hoped that Carter or Kornet would try to make something happen. At least, they made the effort.

Always before, a senior had stepped up. Last year, that simply wasn't the case. I think Sherri kept giving them chance after chance, thinking that surely they would see the need. Her secondary choices really weren't ready. Kornet, Carter, and Maddie weren't ready to be definitive. She pretty much was stuck with trying to get the seniors to step up. It was interesting that at the end of the year, one did---Portia. She suddenly became valuable. She got it, but she wasn't the one who needed to get it.

I think this year's team will be different. I think Maddie, Gabi, Gioya, Peyton, and maybe LaNeisha and Gileysa have that type of personality. I saw it in Maddie. Gabi seems to have it. At times, I've seen indications in Kornet. I look for this year's team to develop more rapidly than anticipated because they are the type of want to make it happen. We really need for someone in the interior to want to make it happen.

 

[badger]

I really have no idea where OU goes from here... Up hopefully? Even if we do, we're going to have to rely on some other lofty programs to hop off their heavenly cloud and join the rest of us in rebuilding hell before we can hope to get back in the championship race.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I want to add a bit more about leadership. There are a lot of issues we could all point to about last year and why last year was different than the year before. The year before we could grab some rebounds as Jo was tough enough to go after the ball. We didn't have the toughness last year and some would not go after a rebound if their life depended on it. Was that a lack of leadership? I don't think so. Were the turnovers a lack of leadership? Not to me, they weren't. When Aaryn had a cold shooting night, was that poor leadership? Nope. I cannot recall one poor defensive play that I could point to and say that was the result of a lack of leadership. But, I can darn sure point to many games in which I believe defense would have been a lot more effective had Sherri gone to a 1/2 court trapping/pressure defense. I can recall a lot of times I was begging for someone to get tough and go after rebounds. I can also think of some games in which I was so frustrated watching Kaylon committing silly fouls yet staying in games. Some girls committed way more than 5 turnovers and continued to play. Was leadership the reason or was coaching a big part of that?

The next time I see a missed shot, no effort to rebound a basketball, turning the ball over, or being lazy on defense being related to a lack of leadership...I might agree with some of you that leadership is the problem. Until then, I much prefer to look at the objective things than can and should be improved through coaching, hard work, and execution on the court.

 

[j2d2]

i have gotten my frustration at turnovers under(mostly)control. They have been and will continue to be an integral part of Sherri's teams. Many times Morgan was a warrior but clearly not an inspirational leader. Vegas needed someone to keep her fire burning. Nicole was a cipher mostly and not the leader type at all. Sharane tried hard but also wasnt the inspirational type, either. Looking at the personalities, I cant find anyone who rose to the challenge. That is a highly personal matter and quite beyond the control of a coach who can encourage it but not create it. Bless them all and on to next year. Sherri has been so successful in the past I dont believe her talent as a coach deserted her last year.

 

[BanjoCharley]

i have gotten my frustration at turnovers under(mostly)control. They have been and will continue to be an integral part of Sherri's teams. Many times Morgan was a warrior but clearly not an inspirational leader. Vegas needed someone to keep her fire burning. Nicole was a cipher mostly and not the leader type at all. Sharane tried hard but also wasnt the inspirational type, either. Looking at the personalities, I cant find anyone who rose to the challenge. That is a highly personal matter and quite beyond the control of a coach who can encourage it but not create it. Bless them all and on to next year. Sherri has been so successful in the past I dont believe her talent as a coach deserted her last year.

Fine post.

 

[sybarite]

Yes, it was.

 

[SoonerinNC]

I think Sherri's teams will always have turnovers because she encourages them to take high risks. But I do agree that there are too many just because someone does something stupid. Totally unforced. Possibly she should back off that approach. Players are more athletic on defense today than when she started at OU. They turn even pretty good passes into turnovers.

But as a coach, what do you do. At times the turnover machines were Campbell and Aaron. Your top scorers. Tough decision. Do you punish them and reduce an already offensive challenged team. Easy for us to say to put them on the pines but believe me it is a little different when you are hired to win games and the game is on the line. It is a little hard to damage the overall team just to prove that you are a tough coach. Maybe come down hard during the non-conference season even if you lose a few games you shouldn't. And who do you put in? Carter had her moments but was erratic. Wyatt is a shooter who couldn't hit the trey after her big breakout game. Kornet was Jeckyl/Hyde all season and from minute to minute. I did think Kellogg should have been used more when KayKay and Nicole went AOL while on the court. Portia was useless until the last 5 or 6 games.

Also Morgan had absolutely too many turnovers for a point guard. Again what do you do. Her turnovers were from trying to do too much rather than carelessness. Also her limited point guard skills made it hard for her to get the offense going and the clock loomed large as she was dribbling around trying to get things going. And the alternative was one who had a little more point guard ability but far less offensive ability.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I agree that turnovers don't bother Sherri as much as they should. The OU men score more points than the women while turning the ball over less per game than the women. I also agree that those kind of problems need to be dealt with harshly during the early season by limiting playing time combined with lots of running.