Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma Basketball: Sooners Can Only Blame Themselves for NCAA Ticket West

By Chip Rouse

Mar 6, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Baylor Bears forward/center Kristina Higgins (44) shoots the ball in front of Oklahoma Sooners center McKenna Treece (30) in the first quarter during the women's Big 12 conference tournament at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 6, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Baylor Bears forward/center Kristina Higgins (44) shoots the ball in front of Oklahoma Sooners center McKenna Treece (30) in the first quarter during the women's Big 12 conference tournament at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports /
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Sherri Coale’s Oklahoma basketball team has been a regular fixture in the NCAA Women’s Tournament for all but  three of the Sooner head coach’s 21 seasons in Norman.

It took four seasons before Coale led her first Sooner squad to the Big Dance, but the OU women have not missed one since. The Sooners’ 18 consecutive appearance in the Women’s Tournament represents the fifth longest active streak among Division I women’s teams.

Before making their first NCAA appearance under Coale in 1999-2000, the Sooner women had been to the NCAA Basketball Championship on just two previous occasions in 24 years of women’s varsity basketball.

Jan 29, 2017; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Sherri Cole reacts on the sidelines against the Baylor Bears at the Ferrell Center. Baylor won 92-58. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 29, 2017; Waco, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners head coach Sherri Cole reacts on the sidelines against the Baylor Bears at the Ferrell Center. Baylor won 92-58. Mandatory Credit: Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports /

During Coale’s time at Oklahoma, the Sooners have been to three Final Fours, including finishing as runner-up in the 2001-02 tournament. Oklahoma also has advanced to the Sweet Sixteen round six different times.

The Lady Sooners begin their 2017 March Madness journey in the Far Northwest, where they will face a stern road test against potentially two schools that are virtually playing at home. Oklahoma will first have to get by West Coast Conference champion Gonzaga (26-6). The Lady Zags and their fans will have to travel just four hours to Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle.

“Gonzaga is a very good team,” Coale told Oklahoma City Oklahoman staff writer Brooke Pryor. “They’re seasoned, (and) they’re playing basically right in their home. Huge challenge ahead.”

The Lady Zags are 4-1 in their last five games; Coale’s Sooners are 2-3 over the same span.

And if the OU women are able to get by Gonzaga in their opening-round game on Saturday, which will be broadcast at 5:30 CT on ESPN2, the likely opponent will be the Washington Huskies (27-5), who would be playing in their hometown.

You could easily argue that the Sooners have perhaps the most difficult path to the Sweet Sixteen. But if the Lady Sooners were able to make it through the first two rounds, the home-court advantage would swing back in their favor, with the Oklahoma City Regional being contested just a half-hour up the road at Chesapeake Arena in OKC.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however. For the Sooners to get out of the opening weekend of games, they are going to have to play much better than the way they ended the regular season.

“Gonzaga is a very good team. They’re seasoned, (and) they’re playing right in their own backyard.” –OU women’s coach Sherri Coale

In fact, were it not for two blowout losses Oklahoma suffered against Big 12 champion Baylor in the regular season finale and then to West Virginia in the Big 12 Championship Tournament, there was a good possibility that the Sooners might have been awarded a four seed instead of the six seed they are now.

As a four seed, OU probably would have been assigned to play the opening two rounds in Norman on its home floor at Lloyd Noble Center. The odds of making it through to the second week of the tournament would have been much higher there than they are going against one and possibly two very good opponents nearly 2,000 miles away from the Norman campus.

The Baylor Lady Bears, one of the elite programs in Division I women’s basketball, ran over the Sooners twice during the regular season. Baylor won by 34 points in Waco earlier in the Big 12 schedule, and closed out the regular season with a dominating 39-point beatdown in Waco.

Then, as the three seed in the Big 12 Tournament, the Sooners absorbed a 24-point thrashing to No. 6 seed West Virginia in the quarterfinal round.

Baylor, coincidentally, is the top seed in the Oklahoma City Region and a potential opponent of the Sooners should they manage to win three games in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

Needless to say, while many of the teams heading to the NCAA Tournament are doing so riding the winds of momentum and playing some of their best basketball at the best time of the season, the Lady Sooners are stumbling their way into March Madness.

The OU men eliminated themselves from postseason consideration much earlier in the season. The Sooner women experienced another strong season on the hardwood, but now they are having to pay the price for performing so poorly in their last two games.

It is going to be extremely tough for Oklahoma to make it out of the first two rounds of this year’s NCAA Tournament, but if they somehow redeem themselves and make it back home with two big wins under their belt, it becomes a whole new ball game in which anything is possible – even a national championship.