What Was the Deal with C. Walker

[SoonerNorm]

The player needs to be 100 per cent sure that they are making the right choice. If not, they will be miserable and second guess themselves and if they transfer, they sit out a year. On the contrary, a coach can break their contracy and jump to another school without missing a beat.

Absolutely!!!

 

[AustinTXSooner]

The player needs to be 100 per cent sure that they are making the right choice. If not, they will be miserable and second guess themselves and if they transfer, they sit out a year. On the contrary, a coach can break their contracy and jump to another school without missing a beat.

Coaching is a profession.

The student-athlete is still on scholarship.

 

[SoonerNorm]

Who should be more committed, a high school kid who wants to make sure they didn't make a mistake when they committed to a school or a coach who is under contract to a university?

 

[gwydion]

A&M was the school CW told Sherri she wanted to visit for the experience. I don't know if she went to others. It would seem to me if you have a good relationship with the recruit then you can't be afraid of what they see. Just keep that relationship going until signing day.

 

[Mac]

Who should be more committed, a high school kid who wants to make sure they didn't make a mistake when they committed to a school or a coach who is under contract to a university?

Hands down the coach...

 

[SoonerNorm]

I wonder how Sooner fans would react if Sherri interviewed for the A&M job when Gary Blair retires while she is still under contract to OU.

 

[AustinTXSooner]

How is that any different than how your employer would feel if you interviewed for another job?

 

[Mac]

I wonder how Sooner fans would react if Sherri interviewed for the A&M job when Gary Blair retires while she is still under contract to OU.

The same way they did when people started saying she was leaving for Texas.

 

[sybarite]

Of course all we ever hear is the players' side of these situations. And most often they are after the fact justifications for players' actions. I remember the short career of Stephanie McGhee. After her departure, her father made some public statements that were very uncomplimentary about Coach Coale (and were far removed from the truth). Coach Coale and the staff showed a great deal of class by not replying to these statements with the truth, which would have hurt the player. That seems to be the way these things are done.

This

 

[SoonerNorm]

How is that any different than how your employer would feel if you interviewed for another job?

Much different situation. Sherri recruited all of the players on the team and led them to believe she would be there to coach them, she has thousands of fans who have contributed to the program, and she signed a contract saying she would stay until the contract expired.

 

[sybarite]

If Sherri had any intention of leaving, wouldn't it have been after the 2002 season? She had just taken a rather unknown team to the finals against the best team in history, and it wasn't a rout. She was the brightest star on the horizon. She might have been offered a job at Duke or one of the better-known schools. But, would that fit what we know about Sherri?

 

[SoonerNorm]

If Sherri had any intention of leaving, wouldn't it have been after the 2002 season? She had just taken a rather unknown team to the finals against the best team in history, and it wasn't a rout. She was the brightest star on the horizon. She might have been offered a job at Duke or one of the better-known schools. But, would that fit what we know about Sherri?

These posts are hypothetical. No one is suggesting Sherri will ever leave for another coaching job.

 

[badger]

But, we really don't seem to mind being someone's second choice as long as they end up at OU...Peyton Little and Chelsea Dungee.

I don't mean literally, I meant that's our recruiting mindset. We can say that we are a championship program, even though we haven't won a national championship ever and haven't won the Big 12 in years. The pieces are in place for a championship, we just haven't gotten there yet, or on a conference level, in awhile.

We want the best, but we want to be wanted in return and based on Sherri's record as a coach, we deserve to be wanted (which I admit I am saying with an incredible amount of Sooner fan bias).

If Sherri had any intention of leaving, wouldn't it have been after the 2002 season?

I love what Sherri has done and want her here, but I have every confidence that we'd get someone good to replace her if she left. I feel the same way about Bob Stoops.

Then again, we thought we could easily replace Kelvin Sampson... dare I imagine what a women's basketball version of Jeff Capel would be like?

 

[sybarite]

I think it would be infinitely easier to replace Stoops. The difference is that OU does have a football program, with the emphasis on program. The university put a lot of money and prestige into building the Monster, and it has an extensive fan and booster base. It is more likely to attract the top coaches and the top players. I don't see Stoops as much as an individual, but as a cog in the program.

Basketball at OU is a bit different. We have never been a basketball school. Kentucky changes coaches and still ends up getting five of the top ten recruits. That is a program, and the coach is more the Kentucky coach than he is an individual with a name.

We have had some excellent coaches who have carried us a long way. Drake had some good years. Tubbs and Sampson had several good years. But, I think that was Drake, Tubbs, and Sampson more than it was a program. We still didn't attract the top recruits from across the country, rarely even getting a glance from a top ten recruit. We even have difficulty keeping the top people in the state at OU. We just haven't built the structure of a program. In this vein, I regard the women's basketball program as Sherri Coale rather than as a program. I don't know what happens without her.

 

[SoonerNorm]

I think there are several head coaches in this country who could take over this program and we wouldn't miss a beat. There are also many assistant coaches who could be top coaches but they haven't as yet been given the opportunity. For that matter, there are other high school coaches who would do great jobs. The key to all of the above is, finding the right one to hire and I admit that is not easy.

 

[badger]

As most of our recruiting is out of state, I'd almost think it would be more important to have a complete coaching staff to replace Sherri et al than just worry about replacing Sherri.

But, I guess it's a moot point, as Sherri shows no signs of leaving or slowing down, nor are we Mack Brown/Texas fan-level angry enough at what we're seeing on-court, etc etc.

Don't we have a game tomorrow? BEAT WHOEVER WE PLAY!!!!!!

 

[SoonerNorm]

As most of our recruiting is out of state, I'd almost think it would be more important to have a complete coaching staff to replace Sherri et al than just worry about replacing Sherri.

But, I guess it's a moot point, as Sherri shows no signs of leaving or slowing down, nor are we Mack Brown/Texas fan-level angry enough at what we're seeing on-court, etc etc.

Don't we have a game tomorrow? BEAT WHOEVER WE PLAY!!!!!!

Yep, West Virginia and we need to find some way to squeeze out a win.

 

[AustinTXSooner]

Much different situation. Sherri recruited all of the players on the team and led them to believe she would be there to coach them, she has thousands of fans who have contributed to the program, and she signed a contract saying she would stay until the contract expired.

Seriously? When has a coaching contract ever expired? Did Capel's contract expire? How about Sampson? Tubbs? Bliss? Blake? Schnellenberger? Gibbs? Switzer? Fairbanks? McKenzie? Gomer Jones?

Recruiting isn't that much different than sales and salesmen flip jobs all the time.

 

[Soonerbay]

I don't believe SC will ever leave OU. Why? She makes well over $1M annually with coaching at OU, endorsements and speaking engagements. She is from OKLAHOMA. Why would she go somewhere that does not have that bond of taking over the program when it was in the dumps? It will be strictly business anywhere else.

 

[35TangoTango]

I'm really ashamed of a lot you guys. I'm ashamed of the negative atmosphere that permeates this non-fan site. I said this once before, and I'll repeat it. We all came to this site to get away from another site that was controlled by the negative nellies. Now this site has become that site.

I'm outa here - going to go enjoy some basketball and root for my team win or lose for the rest of the season.