Basketball is Back as Sooners Open Practice

NORMAN – Oklahoma women's basketball held its first official practice of the 2018-19 season Tuesday with a two-hour session inside Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners are taking advantage of an early start to their practice schedule as OU welcomes seven newcomers to their roster for the upcoming season.

Head coach Sherri Coale, who begins her 23rd season at OU, returns two starters from last year's squad that made the program's 19th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance. With a roster that features 10 underclassmen, Coale emphasized how a good first day of practice starts off a new season on the right note.

“I thought it was a really good day to start,” Coale said. “This group is a bunch of learners. You tell them something once and they change it. We're able to do a lot of things because of that. This group wants to be coached and that's good to see early on.”

Sophomore guard Shaina Pellington described how OU is using this early start to practice to build off the team's individual workouts that were held throughout the summer.

“It was a good of practice,” Pellington said. “I thought we did a really good job taking what we've done over the summer and implementing them today. The key for us was making an impact today when we were on the court and helping communicate with each other when we weren't on the court. I thought we did a good job of that today.”

Pellington also noted how the skill set of OU's roster will allow the Sooners to play with pace and tempo.

“We're a young team, but everyone has a leadership role on this team. We're super athletic and we can all run. That's something we need to take advantage of during this season.”

Coale echoed similar thoughts and described how each player can be a leader for this team moving forward.

“Leading is doing the right thing at any given moment in time. We'll have a bunch of different leaders during the day or during the season and we've got a lot of candidates. That's not exclusive. Anyone can step up and take that role.

“Today was about being a good teammate, communicating all the time and doing everything with a sense of urgency. That's the ground floor. If we can do that, then we've got a chance to do a lot of other things.”

Oklahoma begins the season with an exhibition contest on Nov. 5 against Northeastern State at Lloyd Noble Center. Season tickets are available by calling the OU Athletics Ticket Office at (800) 456-4668 or by clicking here.

For more information on Oklahoma women's basketball, follow the Sooners on Twitter (@OU_WBBall) or like Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball on Facebook.