By Clay Horning
Danielle Robinson says it needs to happen tonight. Whitney Hand herself says it might take a couple of games, but it will come.
Coach Sherri Coale knows how it will come.
"Every one of us," she said, "has to be a little bit better version of ourselves."
That's the assignment given the Oklahoma women at 7 tonight when they meet Texas-Arlington (3-3) at Lloyd Noble Center, Saturday when they face Arkansas and on down the line.
Their super sophomore is lost for the season after tearing the ACL in her right knee last week against San Diego State. The Sooner roster has been cut from 10 players to nine and it's about to get difficult.
After Arkansas, OU's at Marist, a fringe-top 25 program. Then it's at Army, at Creighton, Cal-Fullerton at home and at Tennessee. Then it's the conference slate.
Losing Hand is a big blow, but the time for acceptance, adjusting to her absence and moving on is short.
"Everybody knows they have to step up in their own kind of way," point guard Danielle Robinson said. "It's just winning games, really, and beating people by what we're supposed to be beating them by ... We don't have time."
Hand was replaced in the starting lineup by Carlee Roethlisberger the one game since the injury, the day after it happened, against No. 5 Notre Dame, at the Paradise Jam in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.
OU lost that game 81-71.
"For four minutes it looked like we could play with anybody in the country," Coale said, "and then for four minutes we would look stunned and shocked and confused."
Part of that, Coale said, was adjusting to the inevitably new rotations on the court. Yet part of it had to be the profound adjustment of playing without Hand, who was averaging almost 14 points a game when she went down.
Hand believes in her teammates, but acknowledges it could take a little time for the Sooners to figure their adjustments.
"I know that Danielle has a really good perspective, and Ny(eshia Stevenson) and Carlee, they all have great opportunities," she said. "I think it's going to take a couple of games to get into it, but I think it's going to be good."
The most important trick may be believing it will in fact be good, or that it can still be great.
"They just need to understand that it's totally possible (to be great)," Hand said. "Just to believe that the whole world's not going to respect us, but as long as we believe, it doesn't really matter."
Focusing on the task at hand (no pun intended), should help, too. Tonight, that's the Mavericks.
"We can't sit around and wait," Robinson said. "She's out for the season and we know that. We have to move forward."
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
