University of Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

March 23, 2001

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Q: There is a lot of similarities to where Oklahoma was five years ago and where Oklahoma is today and the same with Washington.

Coale: "The thing that I really see when I watch Washington is that they understand how to play. They are an extremely well coached basketball team and offensively they understand how to play and I would hope that people would come away saying the same about our team because that is certainly something we strive for. They get up and down the floor and shoot the ball well and are fundamental. They do not have many Parade All-Americans as with ours, not the most highly recruited players, so I think there are quite a few similarities."

Q: Did you have any sort of timetable to where you wanted to be at a certain year?

Coale: "No. I never had any sort of timetable. You are dealing with 17, 18, 19 year old kids and you never know what they are thinking and planning. I've learned that this year from watching Coach (Bob) Stoops (Oklahoma's football coach). I think its best to give the vision and go about making it happen as fast as you can, and maybe it will happen sooner than you thought."

Q: Was part of your process, in changing the beliefs of players, university and community, changing the mind set of the perception of the program?

Coale: "Absolutely that's part of the process. Changing the perception from within the program and within the university and then across the country there is perception that needs to be changed. That takes time. You can't do that overnight."

Q: Do you think you scare teams by beating them without having big inside players?

Coale: "I don't see us as being scary. It may be a testament to how important speed and quickness is to the game of basketball. We were asked this after beating Stanford, and I think the perfect recipe is having a little bit of good guard play and good post play."

Q: How much of the way your team plays reflects your personality and style?

Coale: "I don't think you consciously set out to do that, but it happens. You end up recruiting players you would tend to hang out with if you were that same age and not coaching basketball. It would be awkward to coach players who don't play the game the way you want it to be played or think it should be played. I have an idea of how basketball should be played, because I can see it in my head and feel it when I step on the floor. My goal with every team is to get those 14 or 15 players and get them as close to that as possible and we have recruited players who can do that, who can get up and down the floor."

Q: What do you think of Washington and what do you think will decide the game?

Coale: "As I mentioned at the beginning, they have great guards who can really shoot it. They understand how to play and they play well together. They attack immediately and don't back down from anybody. It looks like a better match-up for us, because it is being compared with our Stanford game. They are a very well coached basketball team. The game will come down to guard play and who makes fewer mistakes."

Q: Explain the meaning of utopia for this basketball team?

Coale: "There is a rightness that exists. In ball movement, the basket cut is the foundation of everything we do. Every movement has a purpose, like Pete Carrill's offense at Princeton with back cuts, moving without the ball. Having a sense of where you are."

Q: How do you achieve success, especially rebounding, when you are smaller than the other teams?

Coale: "Rebounding is about position and that ball is more important to you than anything else. We start every practice with the rebounding drill. It's not what you teach kids, but what you emphasize. We make a big deal about rebounding because I feel it wins championships."

University of Oklahoma Athletics

University of Oklahoma Head Coach Sherri Coale

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