Published: March 26, 2008 02:55 am            

Oklahoma falls short of lofty expectations

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Despite the way it ended there was a moment clearheaded Sooners fans might have allowed themselves to believe this was going to be the Oklahoma women’s night.

It arrived with 17:13 remaining in Tuesday night's NCAA tournament battle with Notre Dame and only after OU had done everything it could to commit its 14th turnover of the game.

Danielle Robinson fumbled the ball in transition and could not corral it, but laying out in a full dive she flicked it away from Irish hands and the Sooners maintained possession. Then Amanda Thompson threw a pass into heavy traffic, but somehow it was only deflected into the soft and sure hands of Courtney Paris.

Paris went up, got fouled and made the shot.

She hit the free throw and OU led by a point.

It was the rare refreshing moment the Sooners’ carelessness failed to overcome their skill and determination.

It was fool’s gold.

Even though OU pushed the lead to 6 points and had several chances to make it 8; even though there were moments the Sooners played some of their best basketball in much longer than a month; even though Jenna Plumley chose Tuesday night to bring her 3-point shot out of hibernation; and even on a night the Sooners scored the first 5 points in overtime, they could not overcome themselves.

Perhaps OU’s 79-75 loss to the Irish will serve to save about 15,000 members of the Sooner Nation from watching their favorite women’s team get pounded by Tennessee. Playing on Purdue’s home court in the warm-up to the Sooner-Irish tilt, the Lady Vols let up late and still crushed the Boilermakers, 78-52.

But it would have been nice to see OU get the chance to execute on the wish granted selection Monday, when it got the nod over its Bedlam rival to get the chance to come home and play.

Yet the Sooners had to earn their way there.

They played well enough, but also poorly enough.

The biggest stat of the night?

Twenty-four turnovers.

There’s plenty more on the sheet.

Plumley hit 6 of 10 3-pointers and made the pass that forced overtime. The Sooners hit 9 of 16 from long range, or one more than they’d canned their last three games. Courtney Paris finished with 24 points, 16 rebounds and five blocked shots. Amanda Thompson dished out eight assists and Plumley five.

But it was all about the turnovers: four straight with a 56-49 lead, the Sooners’ biggest of the night, three straight in the first half, when the Irish pushed their edge to 9 points and one in overtime, committed by Nyeshia Stevenson, that all but sealed defeat.

Stevenson was only in the game because Thompson fouled out. But she committed six turnovers, too, so call it karma.

But the program’s final fallacy was nothing it did Tuesday night on the same floor it had all the answers on way back in 2000 when it advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time. It was the entire concept it invented the moment 20-loss Missouri ended the Sooners’ trip to the Big 12 tournament.

The whole “third season” slash “starting over” dynamic embraced by Sherri Coale and the players was doomed to fail.

Not because it wasn’t a good idea. You can make a case the quality of play was well beyond what anybody might have guessed after the way the regular season and Big 12 tourney went down.

Yet it was all OU had left after 29 games.

It was a fresh start only because there was nothing to build on. Which is kind of the fix the program will find itself in again next fall.

Fifth best in the conference, a quick bounce out of Kansas City, a round-of-32 exit from March Madness. Nothing but underachievement and crushed expectations.



Clay Horning writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript.