By Clay Horning
The 13th-ranked Oklahoma women begin the 2009-10 season tonight at Lloyd Noble Center.
Sort of.
The opponent is Rogers State, out of Claremore, and it's the first of two exhibitions the Sooners will play, the last one coming Tuesday night against Oklahoma Christian.
The Hillcats are in just their third year as an NAIA program and have been picked to finish sixth in the Sooner Athletic Conference, which tends to be as strong or stronger in the NAIA ranks as the Big 12 does in the NCAA.
On the other hand, there's no comparison between the two. OU may well double up Rogers State this evening.
The drama of the night, instead, lies not in the final score, but in the aesthetics. In the heat of conference competition coaches may celebrate ugly victories. But not so in a game like this.
The Courtney Paris era over, the Sooners are returning to the up and down game that took them to their first Final Four, in 2002, and tonight marks its first public showcase.
"We should be able to attack the rim with more regularity because there is more space. That is going to be the biggest difference: the way the floor looks," Sooner coach Sherri Coale said. "Because there's going to be more room in the middle and we'll be able to get up and down the floor, hopefully, more than we have in the past.
"Playing faster means you have to play sure as well. We have to take care of the basketball. We have to make good decisions."
The Sooners return All-Big 12 point guard Danielle Robinson, who's plenty able to push the ball up the floor, conference freshman of the year Whitney Hand and Amanda Thompson to the starting lineup. Nyeshia Stevenson, sixth man of the year in the conference last season, also figures to be among OU's first five. The last spot could belong to Carlee Roethlisberger, Abi Olajuwon or freshman Joanna McFarland.
OU had not announced its starting lineup as of Tuesday night. Whoever it is, every returning player will have more opportunities to make a difference than last season.
"We're going to play so much faster that more shots are going to be created," Hand said. "I just think it's going to be so wide open that you just never know from game to game."
