Cowgirls to face Cyclones
Oklahoma State will look to avenge an upset loss to Iowa State when it faces the Cyclones in Ames on Saturday.
Sometimes Mandy Coleman’s stat line is robust. Sometimes it isn’t.
But the 6-foot-3 Oklahoma State forward’s performance is rarely measured by the numbers on a box score.
“She does the little things that nobody really sees,” OSU point guard Loryn Goodwin said. “She rebounds a lot. In transition, she sets screens and gets me a lot of open looks. She’s a leader.
“The things she does can’t be replaced.”
Coleman is the Cowgirls’ dirty-work star. Rebounds, defense, setting screens.
And in the latter parts of February and March, dirty work can be the most important work. That’s sure to be the case when the Cowgirls travel to Ames, Iowa, to take on Iowa State at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
It’s not that Coleman’s offensive production is underwhelming.
She’s averaging 8.1 points per game, shooting 44.7 percent from the floor, 33.3 percent from 3-point range and 87.2 percent at the free throw line. She’s made five 3s in her last four games, helping to open up defenses for players like Goodwin to drive, or to keep an extra defender from crashing on star center Kaylee Jensen.
A senior from Stockton, California, Coleman has been a staple in the Cowgirl lineup since her sophomore year, missing only one start and averaging at least 25 minutes per game since then.
“She’s a quiet leader,” OSU coach Jim Littell said. “She passes the ball well. She knows what we’re doing. She probably has the highest basketball IQ of anybody we have on the team.
“When she plays well — and it doesn’t have to be 18 or 20 points, but when she plays well, and she’s solid, our team is at a different level.”
Away from game day, Coleman plays a strong mentor role.
“The biggest thing is that she’s a leader,” Jensen said. “She’s great about helping the younger players on our team find their role and helping everyone fit into the program.”
During Big 12 play, Coleman’s scoring has gone down slightly, but her rebounding has increased, particularly on the offensive end. She has 40 offensive boards for the season, and 27 of them have come in the Cowgirls’ 12 Big 12 games.
With the size and strength to handle her business in the paint, and the skill to venture out to the perimeter, Coleman can impact the game in a variety of ways.
“She understands the system and the program,” Littell said. “She’s played a lot for four years, been a three-year starter. She’s very unselfish — probably too unselfish. But she does a lot of little intangibles that don’t show up in the scorebook.”