The Norman Transcript

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November 21, 2009

Implementing a new skill

By Clay Horning

Rationally, the Oklahoma women get it. But practicing what they've come to rationally accept is a different matter.

Because they know they're going to run the floor, typically shoot quickly and try playing the kind of defense that creates turnovers and more opportunities to get up and down the floor and shoot quickly.

They're going to score in a hurry ...

Unless they don't.

That's what it's like when two teams engage in a battle of wills. Neither side will win the battle completely. Sometimes it's a stalemate for 40 minutes. And sometimes, it's like it was the other day in Georgia, where OU fell 62-51 to the Bulldogs, two days after opening the season with a 108-66 victory over Mercer.

The Bulldogs could run with OU, so patience was a virtue. But the Sooners blinked first. They came back and tied it, but fell back again.

Not able to run, nor did OU do much shooting. Eventually, it affected what was going on in between the shots.

"When our shots aren't going in and we can't get it to fall, we kind of get a little scared and I think (the issue is) getting over that, moving past that," Sooner sophomore shooter Whitney Hand said, "and knowing that we're a team that's going to score in bunches."

And if there's a letup in intensity, effort or focus, that bunch of points may not come; or not come often enough.

That's the lesson the Sooners (1-1) say they've learned and that's the lesson they'll try taking into today's 2 p.m. contest against a solid TCU(2-0) team at Lloyd Noble Center.

For the last four years, Courtney Paris made it very hard to catch the Sooners in a long scoring drought. Without her, those droughts may come. On the other hand, the way the Sooners want to play, they can make up for those droughts in less time.

What they can't afford to do is take a step back or lose focus.

"Our mindset was, eventually (the shots) are going to fall," point guard Danielle Robinson said. "So we let up our defensive intensity. Against TCU, we can't let that happen. We've got to focus on the defensive gameplan regardless of whether we're hitting shots or not."

It's always coach Sherri Coale's prerogative to use the opening weeks of the season to prepare for conference play and that could be a rollercoaster for the Sooners, who have yet to play the likes of Notre Dame, Arkansas, Marist and Tennessee, among others, before the Big 12 slate begins Jan. 9 against Texas Tech.

"It's all about us," Robinson said.

Today that means fixing what wasn't working at Georgia: taking care of the ball, knocking down shots and said Robinson, "We've got to win the first four minutes of the second half."

That would be good, but why start there?

Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com

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