03-17-2021, 08:52 AM
A coaching legend at Oklahoma has retired as Sherri Coale goes off into the sunset. She was the architect of a wonderful program at Oklahoma after they nearly nixed Women’s Basketball at the University.
Sherri’s Sooners had varying degrees of success in the tournament, making it to the Sweet 16 or better 9 times, including a visit to the 2002 Title Game where they fell to UConn behind Stacey Dales and Rosalind Ross. Oklahoma also beat Stanford in the Second Round in 2001, when Stanford was a 10 seed. We repaid the favour in 2004, knocking out Oklahoma as a 6 seed. We continued to establish dominance over Oklahoma by beating them in the Sweet 16 in 2006 despite the arrival of the Paris twins before falling to LSU in the Regional Final. In 2010, Oklahoma returned to the Final Four for the second season in a row, and narrowly lost to a Stanford with Jayne Appel playing on one foot. Nneka Ogwumike went off for 38 points in a game where Stanford shot 1-15 from three. Danielle Robinson tried to lead Oklahoma back from a 34-21 half time deficit, and a layup from Danielle Robinson got it to a 3 point deficit, but no magic happened for the Sooners that year.
That all being said, I probably am not highlighting enough what Sherri Coale meant for that program. She built them up into a national title contender, and had several great players from the Paris Twins to Danielle Robinson, to many others who went through Oklahoma. The program certainly had fallen on lean times of late, and it will be interesting to see if someone can make them national contenders again.
I posted this on my phone, please excuse any errors.
Sherri’s Sooners had varying degrees of success in the tournament, making it to the Sweet 16 or better 9 times, including a visit to the 2002 Title Game where they fell to UConn behind Stacey Dales and Rosalind Ross. Oklahoma also beat Stanford in the Second Round in 2001, when Stanford was a 10 seed. We repaid the favour in 2004, knocking out Oklahoma as a 6 seed. We continued to establish dominance over Oklahoma by beating them in the Sweet 16 in 2006 despite the arrival of the Paris twins before falling to LSU in the Regional Final. In 2010, Oklahoma returned to the Final Four for the second season in a row, and narrowly lost to a Stanford with Jayne Appel playing on one foot. Nneka Ogwumike went off for 38 points in a game where Stanford shot 1-15 from three. Danielle Robinson tried to lead Oklahoma back from a 34-21 half time deficit, and a layup from Danielle Robinson got it to a 3 point deficit, but no magic happened for the Sooners that year.
That all being said, I probably am not highlighting enough what Sherri Coale meant for that program. She built them up into a national title contender, and had several great players from the Paris Twins to Danielle Robinson, to many others who went through Oklahoma. The program certainly had fallen on lean times of late, and it will be interesting to see if someone can make them national contenders again.
I posted this on my phone, please excuse any errors.
