OU hits a slump
When Chelsea Dungee and Nancy Mulkey announced in recent days that they are transferring from the OU’s women’s basketball program, Sooner fans were alarmed.
What’s wrong with our
program?, they asked. Some of the concern centered on why the two freshmen, each of whom made 18 starts last season, would leave. But that is easily answered. Women’s basketball is tracking men’s basketball. Transfers have been rampant in the men’s game, and the same restlessness is coming to the women’s game.
In fact, the Sooners have little reason to squawk. They’ve been more blessed than harmed with transfers. Peyton Little, who led OU in scoring last season? A transfer from Texas A&M. Morgan Rich was a ballyhooed high school prospect who 18 months ago transferred from Kentucky to
OU. Transfer Road is a two-way street.
But some of the concern also centered on what the defections mean for the 2017-18 season. The Sooners could be a little shy of talent and depth. A program that could use a special season will be hard-pressed to manufacture anything beyond what Sherri Coale’s teams have been producing:
•No Big 12 title since 2009, after OU won six in the first decade of this century.
•No top-20 finish since 2010, after the Sooners had 10 top-20 finishes from 2000-11.
•No Sweet 16 appearance since 2013, after OU had nine Sweet 16 appearances from 200013.
•Home attendance decline for five straight years, down to 4,200 last season, a precipitous drop from a high of 10,253 in 2007-08.
Coale clearly is a victim of her own high standards, built from virtual nothingness. But it remains a solid question. What’s wrong with the program? It would be a good question even if Coale wasn’t making at least $1.1 million per year. Paying that kind of money for these kinds of results is problematic, but fans don’t really care about that. Fans want to know when and if OU’s women will win big again.
“Within every tradition, it’s not a linear progression,” Coale said. “It sort of goes up and down, up and down. And what you want is that projector to end up at the pinnacle.
“Where we are, I think it’s a pivotal time for us. This recruiting cycle for 2018 has already begun for us. The three (signees) coming this summer, they’re Oklahoma kids through and through. Kids who are about something greater than themselves. Players who committed without needing fanfare. They knew what they wanted. They recognized it when they saw it. They poured themselves into it. That’s usually a pretty great recipe for success. That’s what we’ve built our program on.”
Coale is inspiring. You’ve got to give her that. You can’t listen to her long without picking up a flag and joining the march. That’s why she’s such a fabulous representative for the university and making $1.1 million a year.
Yes, rampant transferring has come to women’s basketball. And yes, parity has taken over the game. But then you remember that since OU beat UCLA to reach the 2013 Sweet 16, 34 schools have made the regional semifinals of the NCAA Tournament.
The simple truth is, the Sooners have slumped.
Coale says she’s undeterred. She paraphrases Red Auerbach, saying, “If you can’t win with eight, you can’t win with 88. It’s not about the quality of guys you don’t have, it’s about the quality of guys you do have.
“The bottom line is this, the players that are successful in any program are players that are wholly committed to the principles and values of the program. Partial commitments or kinda sorta don’t make any situation successful. So what you need is players who are all in. Now we have guys who are all in.”
All-in is great. But talent helps, too. The Sooners used to have a corner on elite talent.
They never were Connecticut or Stanford or Notre Dame. But they were on the shelf just below. Now they’re somewhere beneath that. And some players who could help them get back are gone.