March 24, 2007

Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

Opening Statement
"We're excited to be here obviously. It's always an understatement. We're glad to still be playing and to be in Dayton. I hear ticket sales are great and we're excited about that and prepared to play a great team in Ole Miss."

On Courtney Paris' career:
"She still seems so young and new in what she can accomplish. She'll continue to get better as well. I can't say I've looked at it through that lens."

On how well Oklahoma played with Courtney Paris on the bench recently:
"We were good. We were very good. It seems we've moved beyond playing to Courtney to playing through Courtney. That's significant. I thought we played extremely well in the second game against Marquette, even though we didn't make baskets early on in terms of our quality of shots and execution of our offense. We defended and did a good job on the glass, probably as well as we could have. A great stretch of that performance was when Courtney was on the bench in foul trouble. It would be crazy to write a story that says it doesn't matter if Courtney plays or not because it does. The fact of the matter is we are more than Courtney Paris. Having those guys coming off the bench separates us and differentiates us."

Commenting on Courtney and Ashley Paris:
"I'm certainly glad I don't have to put together a game plan to defend them. They are special young ladies. When we were recruiting them, we knew they were special with extraordinary grace, for lack of a better term, outside of the lines of a basketball court. We really have treasured every moment that we've had with them and are excited because there is so much more they can still learn. They came to us high profile high school players. They were ranked one through five ranked as the best players in America. Courtney was first and Ashley was around five depending on what service you looked at. But they all have a tremendous upside, and that's not to take away from their high school coach who did a terrific job preparing them. They were just so athletic and had such potential that they were so many more things that they could do and progress on a daily basis. I think it helps them too that they are from a professional football household on a big stage. I don't think they are as intimidated as they might be by the bright lights, grand stage and all the media attention, particularly Courtney. What she has handled on a public relations standpoint as an 18, 19 year old kid is unbelievable. She's handled every bit of it like she's done it the last 10 years consecutively. A lot of that comes from having that background of the bright lights of a professional football father."

Different playing styles with Ole Miss and Oklahoma:
"When you look at potential match ups, you can spin anything the way you want to spin it. You can look at it going in position by position. Maryland didn't look like a bad match for us because they have big guys; we have big guys and good guards. Ole Miss might not be such a good match, but that can be to your favor, obviously. It depends on which team plays to their forte the best. Ole Miss is terrific in applying pressure and forcing you to make a mistake. They live and die by their opponents making mistakes. They push the envelope, no doubt about that. I think we play in a league like the Big 12 seeing Texas A&M twice, Texas three times and Baylor three times, all of those guys are very athletic and apply a great deal of pressure. To be quite frank, we've had to learn to deal with it. The first time A&M hit us with it this year, we weren't good at it at all. The second time, we were much better. By the team we faced Texas the second time, we were a whole lot better. It forced us in the middle of February to say what's it going to take to win a national championship and we told our guys unequivocally we have to beat pressure. We're going to have to learn to execute through that if we want to win a national championship. We've been working on that a long time ago."

On Dayton, Ohio:
"It's great. We just got in last night. It quit raining, the sun came out and I had a chocolate shake. There's a PF Chang's around the corner and life is good."

Jenna Plumley's recent play:
" Jenna's savvy. She has a sense about her, an instinct. She's a difficult one to corral because she plays so close to the ground. You think you got her trapped and she finds a way out of it. An a typical approach to fighting the trap or to getting through the first wave of people is through her nonetheless. She's proven she is a very poised 18-year-old on the basketball court. So much of breaking pressure is her demeanor. Her demeanor is such that it trickles down to the guys on the floor. Everybody thinks `yeah we can do this, we can get through this.'"

On Ole Miss guard Armintie Price:
"She's an unbelievable athlete. I was watching film and some of the alley oop passes she catches besides the rim. It's amazing. We watched a couple of clips where she got the rebound and there were six players ahead of her. Some of them were her own teammates and some were the opposition and were sprinting as fast as they could. She had the basketball and she beat them all down the court. You can't really categorize the type of athlete she is and I don't think our guys will really appreciate that until they get on the floor with her. It will take a bit to adjust to like Courtney's strength and presence on the block. You can watch it on film, but until you are on the floor with her, it's a completely different animal. I feel the same way about Armintie. She's a special player, playing like a senior leading those guys and she does everything for them. She steals it, she scores it, she rebounds it, you name it, she does it."

"I think like in most things we're a ways behind the men, but I think the trend continues. I think you are seeing that more and more. I think you can look at Duke. I saw on the TV the other night that Gail (Goestenkors) has been to 10 straight Sweet Sixteens and yet what so many in the media portray is she can't win the big one. It's like she's carrying that monkey. Remember when Roy (Williams) brought the monkey to the press conference and kicked the monkey off his shoulder, it's that kind of thing. And that's unfortunate because 10 consecutive Sweet Sixteens is impressive. Of course, we haven't talked about the fact that Tennessee has been to every one since there's been one. That's an amazing thing. I think we're moving in that direction. I think it's a natural evolution of our sport."

Culture of Oklahoma Basketball:
"The first part of that question, did I believe that I could, absolutely. I wouldn't have taken the job. I don't think there's a great deal of reward, not to minimize the fact that it is the team that is doing it, but there's such an extrapolation of reward when you are doing it for people than the guys who are in the jersey. When you play for your school. When you play for your community who are knocking down the doors to see you play. When you are playing for your state and it's on the front page of every major newspaper in season and out of season. Those kind of things add to the joy of performing. Of course I was born and raised in Oklahoma, so I know a little bit about the culture there. People in Oklahoma appreciate great effort, class and grace, so we felt like we could put together a team that could reflect those characteristics and as a result, follow up with them. I don't think it's a stretch to say that's what happened."

Roster of fathers who were professional and collegiate stars:
"I think it does have benefits. Maybe the most direct one is they are people who have experienced winning. You try to recruit that when you are going after student-athletes. You try to recruit guys who have been in a culture of success. Whether it's personal success, academic success, success in a basketball program, you try to surround yourself with winners. It's a reflection by in large of people you spoke of. It's also a barometer of achievement. They have high expectations and we expect big things from there. It's pretty easy as a collegiate coach to take that sort of fertile soil and make something really neat grow from it. It's an expectation that's in their bones."

Impact of Jenna Plumley on the OU offense:
"I think probably if I had to encapsulate what Jenna Plumley has done for our program, is she has given us a chance to breathe. We feel so controlled when she has the ball going 90 miles an hour or walking it up the floor that the guys on the floor feel she is in control. That gives them a chance to take a breath and do what they do best. It's a sense of organization with her demeanor. The fact that she can knock down an open shot continually puts pressure on the defense. The fact her range is so deep continues to put pressure on the defense. More than anything, it's a stance that we're in good hands here."

On the lineup shakeup
"We were giving the ball up to the other team way too often. We couldn't really decide when were together. There were a lot of pieces that were out of sync and not working together. Never anything that was intentional. We had guys trying too hard getting in their own way. I'm going to be the one that fixes this, not because it's about me, but because we need to fix it. If you get three or four guys trying too hard, everything comes to a big halt. We sort of grounded ourselves to a halt, even when we were winning some games I felt like we were running in place. We have a lot of young talent on this team. They deserved an opportunity and a couple of them snatched that opportunity and made the most of it and remained in the starting lineup. Meanwhile, we have seniors who just made fantastic decisions. They matured and made high road decisions. Most of us as adults know I hope I those decisions in my own life. As a result, all of those seniors who made those decisions started playing great too. It's amazing how those things are linked."

On writing a blog for ESPN.com
"It started several years ago. I think my first one was during the 2001-2002 season when we went to San Antonio and played Connecticut in the national championship. It was just one of those things we sort of did and it caught on. Chris Freet, our sports information director, does an amazing job with our website and Courtney likes to write as well. We decided to go with a new age term, a blog, which is like a journal and Courtney and I do one as well. I must be remised, and Chris has been angry at me for not writing one in several weeks because we've been so busy traveling. But it's been a wonderful outlet. I enjoy doing it. I hope to continue to do it. It's a neat way to remember, more than anything, what goes on. I've gone back to read my journal entries from 2001-2002 season and there's so much that I would have forgotten or would have been lost. The minutia is the good stuff and I hope to continue doing that."

Oklahoma Player Quotes

Courtney Paris on growing up in an NFL family - I think my mom was the head of the house hold. I was really young when he played and still young when he retired. But it helped with being around the media and all the attention.

Courtney Paris on what Jenna Plumley has meant to the offense - Her confidence makes us stay calm. She is sure of herself and she has learned a lot from our two other senior point guards. She is a great shooter and she can pass the ball better than anyone I have ever played with. She is just one of those players you look at in a game and say you can count on her.

Courtney Paris on how to deal with small but quicker teams - We lost two games, Texas A&M and Texas, where their big thing is ball pressure, quick hits, and running with the point guards. I think that is the cool thing about the Big 12 is that you see a little bit of everything and it's one of the most challenging leagues to play in. I think playing those types of games has really prepared us for Ole Miss because they are scrappy and going to be running all around, so you really got to protect the ball and be smart.

Jenna Plumley on countering Ole Miss aggressiveness - We just have to make sure we come out with a sense of urgency and really be prepared for what they throw at you. It's really about staying poised and being able to read the floor in order to break them down for easy scores. One thing we worked on was being able to read where the trap is coming from and make that extra pass to the open player. That's the best thing about Oklahoma is that we are very intelligent.

Leah Rush on countering Ole Miss aggressiveness - I think both teams cause different problems for each other with our inside game being a big factor. We are going to clog the lane and not give them easy lay-ups. I think its going to be fun to match up against their speed.

Leah Rush on losing to Stanford in the tournament last year - Last year we were on such a high, making a long run in the Big 12 and winning 19 or 20 games in a row that none of us saw the loss to Stanford coming. So coming around this time we have faced a little adversity and we are a completely different team this year because we are older and more experienced. I think we are better prepared going into this game tomorrow because we were able to sit down after last year and figure out what things will make us a better team.

Courtney Paris on her mind set when she gets the ball on the block - It just depends, if I get single coverage it is to score, even if I have two people on me if I have the angle I'm going to try and score. If there is nothing I can do I just kick it out to one our guards for an open three and that's always nice.

Courtney Paris on what she got out of the Texas A&M loss - The pressure caught us off guard a little bit. We made a lot of mistakes by turning the ball over and giving them a little too much credit. We were a little worried about the pressure and it caused us to make to many unforced errors. I think now we are ready for it and even welcome it because we are prepared to stay poised and make smart decisions.