Sooners’ schedule boosts them to 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament bid
NORMAN — For the last 2 ½ weeks, Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale touted her team’s strength of schedule, ranked as the secondtoughest in the country, as she campaigned for the Sooners to get a bid in the NCAA Tournament.
Monday night, the NCAA Tournament selection committee rewarded Coale’s team for the tough scheduling when the Sooners were given a No. 12 seed in the Spokane Regional.
OU will face No. 5 seed DePaul on Friday (11 a.m., ESPN2).
“This one was definitely the most nerve racking of them all,” guard Maddie Manning said. “But I think that just makes it more special. Every other year you just take it for granted knowing that your name is going to be called. It is a big deal to make the NCAA Tournament and we definitely have goals to make it there. We could feel that today and that was pretty special.”
Despite 14 losses, Oklahoma was not only buoyed by its strength of schedule, but by a No. 34 ranking in the RPI and a top-four finish in the Big 12.
“We thought their strength of schedule at No. 2 in the country was one of the factors that caused them to get into the bracket,” committee chair Rhonda Lundin Bennett said. “We also thought their 6-4 record down the stretch as well as their finish inside the conference were some of the things that differentiated them from some of those other teams that didn’t get into the field.
Bennett pointed to OU’s wins against then-No.16 South Florida and Belmont as some of the Sooners’ marquee victories.
Seven of OU’s 11 nonconference opponents wound up with tournament bids, including both South Florida and Belmont.
“We as a committee definitely value strength of schedule,” Bennett said. “We do want to reward teams that schedule up.”
Now, Sooners, making their 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, have to prepare for DePaul. Again.
The Sooners lost to DePaul in overtime 111108 in the second game of the year. In 2014, OU lost to DePaul in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, falling 104-100.
DePaul (26-7) finished atop the Big East, winning its final six games of the season.
If OU wins, it will face No. 4 seed Texas Tech or No. 13 seed Drake on Monday.
“When you lose as many games as we did you can’t be picky on who your matched up against in the NCAA Tournament,” Coale said. “(DePaul is) a difficult team to play against because they are an anomaly. Every time we play it is a triple-digit scoring on both sides. But that is the way that it is, if you are going to do any damage in the NCAA Tournament you are going to have to beat good teams where ever it is.”
A day before the Sooners jumped and hollered when they saw their name unveiled in the Spokane Regional, the team learned it was one of eight final teams under consideration for a bid. Either they would be one of the last four teams in, or they would be one of the first four out.
But in the end, OU’s schedule and performance at the end of the year boosted it off the bubble and into the Big Dance.
“Having these last 24 hours, the way everything kind of shook out with the committee and being in this predicament has reminded us of what a difficult thing it is to get into the NCAA Tournament and what a special thing it is to be in that field,” Coale said. “There is a lot of gratitude. There is also a lot of fight in that room tonight because we feel like we earned a position in the NCAA Tournament. Now it is up to us to play that way.”