By Clay Horning
Oklahoma women’s basketball coach Sherri Coale brought up the old thing about marriage and travel. Every couple, before tying the knot, should go on a road trip together.
Well, Coale’s Sooners are in a slightly different boat. Unlike the engaged couple, they’re already stuck with each other. So if a trip like the one that begins tonight in Marriott Beach Waikiki Classic in Honolulu, causes in rifts or divisions, at least OU won’t be caught unaware.
“It exposes a lot of things,” Coale said of the close quarters here players will share through a pair of games in Honolulu and a trip back to the mainland that includes a Tuesday night game at UCLA before finally returning to Norman. “We’re going to find out a lot.”
Indeed, they may already have.
The Sooners left for Hawaii early Wednesday morning.
In that last practice before taking flight, Coale closed the drills by explaining to her players that one of their expectations is to have fun, but that it can’t come at the expense of the concentration and focus required to prepare and to play solid basketball.
Today’s opponent is Eastern Kentucky, which will enter the 9 p.m. tip 1-0 on the season after a 97-39 pasting of Division II Ohio Valley. The 58-point victory may not be much of a barometer, though. The Colonels went 7-21 last season and placed ninth in the Ohio Valley Conference.
The Sooners, a near-certain winner, likely meet the winner of the tourney’s other first-round game between Georgetown and Hawaii at 7 p.m.
Of the three games the Sooners will play before returning home, UCLA should easily be the toughest. The 20th-ranked Bruins pushed OU in an 83-78 loss at Lloyd Noble Center last season and have to like their chances at Pauley Pavilion more.
On the other hand, the value of the Sooners’ swing may still reside more in the experience than in any of the three victories OU may claim along the way.
“It forces you to focus and concentrate,” said fifth-year senior Erin Higgins, who has gone on previous early-season trips to the San Francisco Bay Area, the Junkanoo Jam at Grand Bahama Island, the Pepperdine Invitational in Malibu, Calif., and the Rainbow Wahine Classic, also in Honolulu. “It’s really good for a team, especially when you have young and old at the same time.”
The Sooners are a veteran group, with six seniors, all of whom play, the sophomore Paris twins, Courtney and Ashley, and five newcomer freshman, none of which figure to redshirt.
“It allows you to build chemistry,” Higgins said.
That’s hardly ever been a problem for the Sooners since Coale left Norman High for Lloyd Noble Center. Of course, part of the reason why may be trips like this one every season.
Clay Horning366-3526cfhorning@normantranscript.com
