Secrecy

[SoonerinNC]

How much does anyone hear about what is going on with the OU womens team? This with a coach that seemingly has excellent communication skills.

We rarely know who is going to commit until they do. I never see anything posted about who if anyone is working hard to improve their game. I never see a practice report. Any video has very little to see about the quality of players we have. I'm not sure I can believe anything that is posted about the team outside of game action. For instance the story was that Rich was the best shooter on the team. Yet she barely saw the floor on a team that seriously needed shooting.

And I am still bummed about cancelling the summer camps.

All this leaves a lot open to rumor and conjecture.

Kruger may get a pass quicker than Sherri because he communicates with the fans and others. I would hope we have women players working hard for the season. Maybe someone knows.

 

[soonerstar]

Kruger welcomes fans to his practices and I think all of them are open to the public.

 

[sybarite]

I'm not sure that this is a tendency to secrecy, or just the process of being ignored. Soonersports.com releases little blurbs on nearly every sport. Sometimes, it is enough to generate a series of posts, or at least to stir up enough to cause someone to research something. But, most of the information that arises direct from the team arises from news sources. This means that some news source must want to do the story.

One OU site does have a lot of press information from members of the press that do have access to the various OU programs. If you look, there are probably ten stories a day about football. Every other day, there is a story about baseball or men's basketball. But, almost every post or thread about softball or women's basketball is initiated by a poster, not by the site itself.

Typically, the stories emerge because some "reporter" interviews a player or a coach. You see this on message boards or in the newspapers. But, how often do they interview anyone associated with women's sports? Even when we get a commitment, it is a poster that releases the information, not the reporters who run the site. We see requests to research a story about women's sports, but we don't often see a response.

You can kind of understand. A lot more people are watching to see what the new coaching staff is doing with the football team that begins in a month than are paying attention to who is practicing on the women's team. Usually, the fall coverage of softball is non-existent, even on soonersports.com.

Unless a coach approaches the media with a story, it just isn't covered unless it is football. They aren't out there competing against each other for stories on Morgan Rich. They would rather have a story on Baker Mayfield's girlfriend, if he has one.

 

[rocjunkie]

soonerstar is correct, Kruger encourages fans to come and watch practice, for the women, you have to contact the WBB office and find out if fans can come to practice and watch. I have called a few times over the past few years, and every time I have called, practice is closed to the public. I don't know what's so special about the women's practice, they haven't changed much to their offense or defense in the past 5 or 6 years, so I have no idea why the coaching staff doesn't want the public to watch the kids practice.

 

[inoref]

soonerstar is correct, Kruger encourages fans to come and watch practice, for the women, you have to contact the WBB office and find out if fans can come to practice and watch. I have called a few times over the past few years, and every time I have called, practice is closed to the public. I don't know what's so special about the women's practice, they haven't changed much to their offense or defense in the past 5 or 6 years, so I have no idea why the coaching staff doesn't want the public to watch the kids practice.

You would think with so many empty seats at LNC during the season Sherri C and the gang would want more fan interest. I bet the players would enjoy fans being there during practice. IMO Coale is just old school and will never change

 

[AdaSooner]

Lon Kruger took over a program that had suffered through two straight losing seasons. He was willing to do anything within reason to create interest in the program and fill as many seats as possible in the LNC. He also understands the importance of marketing the program on every level.

Sherri Coale already had a successful program when Lon came to town. Her teams have taken a few hits since then. But, make no mistake, SC is a master marketer. I can't think of anyone better with a mic in her hand and the camera rolling. So, no one can convince me any reporter in this state worth their salt would not respond to her call if she asked them to do a story about the team or her players.

Marketing the program is a head coach's responsibility. Sherri knows that. She just doesn't do it anymore. Is that because she is satisfied with the status quo? I'll let you answer that question.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

You know my answer. Sherri needs a swift kick in the gorgeous ass from high above.

 

[BanjoCharley]

Oh man, jiggle the tone arm, the record is stuck again.

 

[tycat947]

Oh man, jiggle the tone arm, the record is stuck again.

:ez-roll::ez-roll:

 

[sybarite]

Oh man, jiggle the tone arm, the record is stuck again.

Examples from the era of vinyl about vinyl. Appropriately dealing with attitudes from the era of vinyl.

 

[Soonerguy06]

I tend to agree that it is not necessarily secrecy. And the OU WBB is not the only sport that leaves us in the dark as far as commitments go. For example, I follow the track & field team very closely because thats the team I was on when I attended OU, and they RARELY provide any information on signings and if they do, it is only the early signings. Every single season I'm completely floored by some of the new faces because I had no idea these athletes were even interested in OU or vice versa.

 

[atlantasooner]

I think a lot of OU programs could be boosted by a few simple "guerilla" marketing techniques.
Social media has made these techniques more effective than ever.

OU's womens hoops is definitely one of those programs. I think opening up practices would be a nice addition. Anything to promote fan ownership.
Coaches tend to get paranoid over time. You saw Bob close down the program to absurd degrees that I think hurt fan ownership. Hopefully LR rolls back some of those things.

Sherri needs to get on Twitter. Alot. There's zero excuse at this point. Sherri needs to start leaking recruits names to the Twitter guy that makes graphics for the kids on Twitter.
All completely legit NCAA wise.
He does it football and basketball. He did it for Llanusa post signing.

OU football just had an amazing preseason event - 2018/2019/2020 kids. I think Lon/Sherri would be smart to try and copy it. The basketball calendar probably means that it would need to be more about the next class than current class. But if you could get your verbals to attend then that might be just as effective.

I just think for Women's hoops there's significant room for innovation and change.

 

[okiezoni]

Don't know about secrecy, but clearly something is wrong inside the women's basketball program and seems to have been. I have all the admiration in the world for Sherri and what she has meant to the university. Lord knows she resurrected the program.

I know she runs a "warm and fuzzy" program, but that is getting old especially with the off season departures. Something is wrong and I am not sure Sherrie is the one that can fix it. I am not clamoring for her to go, but the clock should be ticking. Just my opinion.

 

[inoref]

You never hear much from the OU Curling team,

 

[SoonerSpock]

You would think with so many empty seats at LNC during the season Sherri C and the gang would want more fan interest. I bet the players would enjoy fans being there during practice. IMO Coale is just old school and will never change

I fequently get to see a smidgen of the WBB practices when while attending the MBB practices when they practice at the same time. I sneak over to the WBB side and watch for a few moments. I never watch for more than about 5-7 minutes for fear of being observed and asked to leave but one might be able to linger for much longer if they made the effort. But you for certain cannot go sit down on the practice side court like you can at Lon's practices.

Not a lot of manpower is expended keeping practice closed to the public.

 

[Larry72]

She and Lon are complete opposites

She does not have enough players to really scrimmage.
Lon has recruited some quality walkons that improve all aspects of practice

She needs to have tryouts and find a couple of students that could help.

 

[bob the nailer]

You will never hear anything from any OU or other college sports team about a "commitment. By rule they cannot talk about recruits by name, until they have signed a LOI.

 

[Oliver Hardy]

It's not just news about commitments and it isn't really secrecy.

It's a lack of communication and information. It's really everything.

We don't need to know every time someone is in town visiting etc., but a little real basketball news on occasion to spike interest would be nice.

There is a steady stream of news coming out of the football, men's basketball, baseball and the women's softball team. Hell, there's even more coming out of the women's soccer team.

Now some might say it's not any of our business. However, fan support is a major part of recruiting and a program's identity.

Getting anything out of Sherri and the WBB program is liking trying to sneak into Ft. Knox. You are going to get nothing out of the effort.

For someone who is so engaging with the power to write and speak so wonderfully, you'd think Sherri would be doing a much better job opening up to the fans and including them other than at the OU Caravan.

We've all talked about her lack of any real Twitter use. She's running her kingdom the way she wants. That's her choice. But she isn't running it very effectively in my opinion.

Here's the deal -- she's set for life monetarily. She can coach here as long as she wants. Bored and Joe C. are just letting her and the program coast along, falling,once again, into obscurity with a dwindling fan basis.

It just is what it is. In a few years she'll get pushed out when the attendance sinks and kids stop coming and staying here and the record falls to around .500 or worse.

In the meantime, we just hope for some bright rays of sunshine and fewer eclipses and wait for the inevitable.

Worse that can happen is we get a new coach and the drive and effort improves, or in the next 10 years the powers-that-be end up trying to close the program down again.

I know all you pumpers will criticize what I say and you will dispute this fact --- I really like Sherri Coale and believe she's done a great, great job. But she hasn't done a great, great job over the last 5 years.

Winning 20 games a year and getting to the first round of the tournament should be a given at OU after what Sherri built. So she's really not doing an outstanding job. She's just doing the job.

 

[inoref]

It's not just news about commitments and it isn't really secrecy.

It's a lack of communication and information. It's really everything.

We don't need to know every time someone is in town visiting etc., but a little real basketball news on occasion to spike interest would be nice.

There is a steady stream of news coming out of the football, men's basketball, baseball and the women's softball team. Hell, there's even more coming out of the women's soccer team.

Now some might say it's not any of our business. However, fan support is a major part of recruiting and a program's identity.

Getting anything out of Sherri and the WBB program is liking trying to sneak into Ft. Knox. You are going to get nothing out of the effort.

For someone who is so engaging with the power to write and speak so wonderfully, you'd think Sherri would be doing a much better job opening up to the fans and including them other than at the OU Caravan.

We've all talked about her lack of any real Twitter use. She's running her kingdom the way she wants. That's her choice. But she isn't running it very effectively in my opinion.

Here's the deal -- she's set for life monetarily. She can coach here as long as she wants. Bored and Joe C. are just letting her and the program coast along, falling,once again, into obscurity with a dwindling fan basis.

It just is what it is. In a few years she'll get pushed out when the attendance sinks and kids stop coming and staying here and the record falls to around .500 or worse.

In the meantime, we just hope for some bright rays of sunshine and fewer eclipses and wait for the inevitable.

Worse that can happen is we get a new coach and the drive and effort improves, or in the next 10 years the powers-that-be end up trying to close the program down again.

I know all you pumpers will criticize what I say and you will dispute this fact --- I really like Sherri Coale and believe she's done a great, great job. But she hasn't done a great, great job over the last 5 years.

Winning 20 games a year and getting to the first round of the tournament should be a given at OU after what Sherri built. So she's really not doing an outstanding job. She's just doing the job.

Sadly I'm starting to believe the powers up don't care one bit about how many wins WBB gets..All they care is how much money Coale can get from donors and such. Once that dries up and it will, Coale will be gone

 

[soonerstar]

Sadly I'm starting to believe the powers up don't care one bit about how many wins WBB gets..All they care is how much money Coale can get from donors and such. Once that dries up and it will, Coale will be gone

Have been thinking the same thing for a while now.