Sherri

It appears Tatum saw the documentary. She tweeted, "I believe we can win and do it the right way." SC
 
I would show it to everyone. It does provide a greater appreciation of Sherri Coale. But, it also provides a greater appreciation of Boren, Castiglione, DeCosta, and Jan Ross.
 
One thing that got my attention was when it was made clear, it is not just about winning for this program. When UCONN, ND, S. Car, Baylor, and probably Texas are all about winning, I believe unless we decide that we are all about winning championships too, it's not likely to happen. When we recruit we have to go after the players who give us the best chance of winning. I just don't see it any other way.
 
One thing that got my attention was when it was made clear, it is not just about winning for this program. When UCONN, ND, S. Car, Baylor, and probably Texas are all about winning, I believe unless we decide that we are all about winning championships too, it's not likely to happen. When we recruit we have to go after the players who give us the best chance of winning. I just don't see it any other way.

You may be right Norm. But I hope not. I suspect all of us want to win championships. But not necessarily be "all about" winning championships.

Certainly one approach is "winning at all costs". It allows a coach to mislead recruits, lie to recruits about other teams & coaches, cheat at recruiting, and even pay summer league coaches to lie and mislead players into playing for you. It also allows you to buy clothes, cars, and just flat give them cash, etc, etc, etc.

Another approach is more balanced and involves recruiting ethically, and also building a program that develops the entire person - both athletically and with lifelong success as a goal. As we know this method even allows you to win and make the final four several times (yes even back to back occasionally) over the years.

I hope our goal is some balance between recruiting the best players we can, while keeping focused on the goals in the previous paragraph. My guess is you hope for the same.
 
You may be right Norm. But I hope not. I suspect all of us want to win championships. But not necessarily be "all about" winning championships.

Certainly one approach is "winning at all costs". It allows a coach to mislead recruits, lie to recruits about other teams & coaches, cheat at recruiting, and even pay summer league coaches to lie and mislead players into playing for you. It also allows you to buy clothes, cars, and just flat give them cash, etc, etc, etc.

Another approach is more balanced and involves recruiting ethically, and also building a program that develops the entire person - both athletically and with lifelong success as a goal. As we know this method even allows you to win and make the final four several times (yes even back to back occasionally) over the years.

I hope our goal is some balance between recruiting the best players we can, while keeping focused on the goals in the previous paragraph. My guess is you hope for the same.

I'm talking about recruiting the best players, certainly not cheating.
 
I can honestly say that if given the choice for my kid to play for any living coach, there's no other coach I would choose than Sherri Coale. This special was a lot of fun to watch and brought back a lot of great memories over the last twenty years.

She truly is an uncommon coach, and I have loved watching her teams for two decades. The Final Fours and championships are just icing on top.
 
If you watched "Neath a Western Sky," the strength of Sherri Coale is the quest for excellence. She is revered for what she produces off the court as much as for what she produces on the court. They are proud of what the young women become, how they represent the university.

If during the pursuit of the excellence as a human being they develop the opportunity to advance to the Final Four or contend for a national title, they are pleased. But, it is the quest for individual excellence that is the goal of the program and the university rather than the ephemeral quest for basketball records. They are proud of what has been done, and would be pleased to see more of the same. A title would simply be the icing on a cake that is already an epicurean delight.
 
Give me a f**king break.
Gasso wins national titles. Going to win more titles if her recruited talent turns into on the field talent. Her teams are not filled with lawless illiterate hooligans.
Same for women's gymnastics. Is that a team that's somehow not worthy of our respect due to some
conduct?
Men's tennis won an indoor national title. I guess I missed the stories about team being a motorcycle gang burning down libraries.
As great as Buddy is on the court, he might be even better off the court with kids after games after practices etc..

I'll be honest, when I hear "Sherri does a good enough job and gosh darn it her girls try hard and are good students and great citizens. It's okay we are not a top 5 team."
It screams sexism and paternalism. It's the worst kind of patronizing.

I judge Sherri by the same benchmarks I judge Bob and Lon. There's no grading on a curve because she's coaches women's sports.
Sherri's a great coach. She's done awesome things for OU. Don't insult her achievements and profession by somehow suggesting she's not "worthy" of the same expectations and criticisms of her male colleagues.

And I'm sick and tired of hearing about how the program back in 1995 was nearly shut down. It's ancient history, move on from that tired storyline. It's generationally irrelevant. Like John Blake's football tenure. Or Charles Thompson's drug bust. The shutdown story has nothing to do with OU women hoops 2016.
 
It's best to not use profanity on a board read by kids, Atlanta.

I do understand your view, but you are comparing apples and oranges with most of that. There are very few schools competing in most of those sports. That makes it hard to compare results. If no school in Texas played WBB, we would likely get almost every girl we wanted from down there - but reality is there is lots of competition for them in WBB. Much different than several of the examples you brought up.
 
One thing that got my attention was when it was made clear, it is not just about winning for this program. When UCONN, ND, S. Car, Baylor, and probably Texas are all about winning, I believe unless we decide that we are all about winning championships too, it's not likely to happen. When we recruit we have to go after the players who give us the best chance of winning. I just don't see it any other way.

You're blowing out air about things you can't possibly know. UConn is just as much about the pursuit of excellence in all areas as OU. I'm pretty sure that Notre Dame is also. Baylor is, as you say, win at all costs, but that's not the majority philosophy in elite programs.

Poor Norm, a Green and Gold philosopher in a Crimson and Cream town.
 
You're blowing out air about things you can't possibly know. UConn is just as much about the pursuit of excellence in all areas as OU. I'm pretty sure that Notre Dame is also. Baylor is, as you say, win at all costs, but that's not the majority philosophy in elite programs.

Poor Norm, a Green and Gold philosopher in a Crimson and Cream town.

I can see who those teams are recruiting, who we are recruiting, and the results. They are winning at a high level and we have dropped from where we used to be. It isn't rocket science, we need to recruit better players. I would think just about anyone could see that.
 
I can see who those teams are recruiting, who we are recruiting, and the results. They are winning at a high level and we have dropped from where we used to be. It isn't rocket science, we need to recruit better players. I would think just about anyone could see that.

But that has nothing to do with your original ridiculous assertion that all elite programs have a win-at-all-costs philosophy. I can assure you that Geno rejects prospects that don't fit his team philosophy.

Are you trying to say that OU deliberately recruits lesser qualified players because they are better community workers? That's totally preposterous!
 
But that has nothing to do with your original ridiculous assertion that all elite programs have a win-at-all-costs philosophy. I can assure you that Geno rejects prospects that don't fit his team philosophy.

Are you trying to say that OU deliberately recruits lesser qualified players because they are better community workers? That's totally preposterous!

I didn't say other teams practice win at all costs. I don't even believe Baylor does. As Atlantasooner alluded to, other teams are not out recruiting outlaw type players who end up getting into trouble and kicked out of school. They are certainly vetting their recruits to weed out the troublemakers just like we do. No one knows what process Sherri utilizes when she decides who she wants to recruit and who she doesn't. The process doesn't concern me as long as we sign players who can get us back to final fours like we did when we had great players like Stacey, Drob, and Courtney.
 
I didn't say other teams practice win at all costs. I don't even believe Baylor does. As Atlantasooner alluded to, other teams are not out recruiting outlaw type players who end up getting into trouble and kicked out of school. They are certainly vetting their recruits to weed out the troublemakers just like we do. No one knows what process Sherri utilizes when she decides who she wants to recruit and who she doesn't. The process doesn't concern me as long as we sign players who can get us back to final fours like we did when we had great players like Stacey, Drob, and Courtney.

Norm, are you sure that your benchmark for great posting should come from a post that begins with "Give me a "blanking" break?
 
Between post #5 and post #17, you changed 180 degrees. I think you are trying to win at all costs here.

I have never suggested we should cheat if that is what you are inferring. We have recruited great players in the past without cheating. I want us to do so again.
 
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