Coale at NCAA for Selection Exercise

July 15, 2009

NORMAN, Okla. -- Sherri Coale joins 15 current Division I women's basketball coaches in a mock selection exercise at the NCAA national office in Indianapolis Thursday and Friday.

The goal of the exercise is to continue educating coaches in the selection, seeding and bracketing of the NCAA women's basketball championship.

"When the championship bracket comes out and it has some twists or turns, sometimes coaches don't understand the process and come to conclusions that have no basis," Coale, who guided Oklahoma to the 2009 Women's Final Four, said. "For most of us, we're involved with the development of our team and controlling those factors that enable us to control our own destiny. We don't take the time to understand what the committee's charge is. In order to fully understand it, you have to go through it."

Coale was one of four coaches who participated in a similar exercise in February.

The NCAA began conducting mock selection exercises with national print and electronic media members in 2007 in an attempt to demystify the process that the men's and women's basketball committees undergo each March when championship brackets are constructed.

This is the first time the mock committee will consist entirely of coaches and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) administrators.

The mock committee will have access to the same tools and will follow the same principles and procedures as the actual committee.

All of the coaches will go to Indianapolis after being on the road for most of the last 10 days on the recruiting trail.

Coale said all of the coaches making the effort to be in Indianapolis rather than going back to their respective campuses shows how committed this group is to growing women's basketball.

"We can't go into this thinking that this mock bracket exercise will immediately change anything in our careers," Coale said. "But hopefully it paves the way for the future of our sport and helps those who come behind us. Coming to do this mock exercise is a gesture of how valuable the game is for us, and how important it is for us to continue to be caretakers of the game."

Joining Coale on the mock selection committee are head coaches Geno Auriemma, Connecticut; Melanie Balcomb, Vanderbilt; Joanne Boyle, California; Doug Bruno, DePaul; Brian Giorgis, Marist; Gail Goestenkors, Texas; Shann Hart, IUPUI; Sylvia Hatchell, North Carolina; Rick Insell, Middle Tennessee State; Wendy Larry, Old Dominion; Felisha Leggett-Jack, Indiana; Curt Miller, Bowling Green; Jeff Mittie, TCU; Jennifer Rizzotti, Hartford; Audra Smith, Alabama-Birmingham; and WBCA CEO Beth Bass and WBCA consultant Betty Jaynes.

The NCAA will publish a live blog from the exercise at its website, www.doubleazone.com.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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