By Clay Horning
Transcript Sports Editor
The 16th-ranked Oklahoma women, three games into the season with three games to play over the next three days, are about to get an education.
Already, they've learned plenty via a blowout victory over Mercer, a haphazard loss at Georgia and a hardly-sparkling home-court victory over TCU.
But as competition gets better and more frequent, more questions will be answered and more lessons will be learned. Sooner fans might want to know if any of it will come with victories, too.
"Three teams that have a lot of experience and they are good basketball teams," Sooner coach Sherri Coale said of what her squad is about to face. "They are well coached, strong and powerful teams that are capable of scoring. And we won't get anything easy."
The Sooners begin play at the U.S. Virgin Islands Paradise Jam. The basketball festival takes place at the University of the Virgin Islands on St. Thomas.
They meet South Carolina (2-1) at noon today, No. 23 San Diego State (3-0) at 2:15 p.m. Friday and No. 5 Notre Dame (3-0) at 2:15 p.m. Saturday.
Today's opponent, the Gamecocks may not be ranked, but we're still picked sixth in the SEC behind Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Georgia, all of which are ranked. South Carolina's only loss was in double overtime, to Clemson.
Coale called her team's last performance "ugly," and made the point well enough to her players to have them repeating it.
"We didn't do much right ...There was no fight, there was intensity," shooting guard Whitney Hand said after the Sooners' 74-70 victory over TCU. "When shots aren't falling, we can't just quit playing."
OU had similar issues at Georgia. And the Sooners addressing them correctly will mean having to overcome them against some very good competition.
That, however, has been Coale's scheduling philosophy for several seasons. A year ago, by way of the preseason WNIT, the Sooners met No. 18 Arizona State and No. 4 North Carolina for their third and fourth games of the season in the space of three days.
Still to play after this weekend and before Big 12 Conference play begins are Arkansas, Marist and No. 6 Tennessee.
OU Sports
OU women busy in Hawaii
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