By Clay Horning
Last Saturday afternoon the Oklahoma women established a new high-water mark to their season.
Previously, it had been their 74-56 homecourt victory over Texas A--M. As of four days ago, it became their 77-66 Gallagher-Iba Arena victory over then-10th ranked Oklahoma State.
The low point of the season is the game that preceded Bedlam, an 18-point homecourt loss to Texas. But the second entry on the list has to be OU's 57-47 Jan. 13 loss at Baylor.
Tonight, all those forces converge when the Sooners play host to the 15th-ranked Lady Bears.
Inspired by the aftermath of their worst game, the 12th-ranked Sooners are coming off their best game, ready to take on the South Division rival they could not even post 50 points against four weeks ago.
Another force running through all of that is point guard Danielle Robinson. Indeed, it is her 36-point, six-assist, one-turnover Bedlam performance that has all things seeming possible again for coach Sherri Coale's squad.
On the way out of Stillwater, Coale made clear just how well she thought Robinson had played against the Cowgirls.
"I don't know that I've seen a finer individual performance from a point guard than what you saw from Danielle (Saturday)," she said. "I know that the numbers are gaudy and speak for themselves, but it was her leadership, it was the way she ran our team, the decisions that she made throughout the game ...
"That's what great point guards do. So when you want to talk about who's the best in the country, I think you've got to include her because today she was just phenomenal."
At Baylor, Robinson was one of the Sooners' bright spots, scoring a team-high 15 points and making 7 of 15 shots on a night the rest of the team made 25 percent (12 of 48). Yet it still wasn't a game befitting one of the nation's best point guards, coming with more turnovers (5) than assists (4).
But what she did at OSU may be a sign of more good things to come. Her own worst critic, she found a new way to deal with adversity in Stillwater.
"I think it's all about not getting frustrated," she said. "Being my own critic, that's the worst part, because I get in my own way and I knew (against OSU) it couldn't happen.
"It was such a big game that I had to respond differently. I had to change. And if relaxing is what works ... I felt a whole lot (more) stress free than I did in any other game."
Apparently, sometimes, the best way to raise your game is to quit trying so hard.
There was another thing Robinson changed where Bedlam was concerned. Rather than taking a pregame nap and revving back up with "rap, up tempo music" in her headphones, she ditched the nap, thought about the game and changed her music selection to "like R -- B type of stuff."
Will she stick with the new ritual?
"I think so," she said. "It worked."
Clay Horning 366-3526 cfhorning@normantranscript.com
