Tuesday, November 7, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Big 12 Basketball Guards bolster Sooners
By Chris Wristen sports@kansan.com Kansan sportwriter
Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson blended perfectly with the other Big 12 Conference basketball coaches at Media Dav.
He had the look: tan suit, blue-collared shirt and a tie. A few player representatives were at his side.
He had the presence; shaking hands, being polite and making sure not to make any enemies prior to the season.
But most noticeably, he had the talk. Sampson sounded like every coach prior to the season as he spoke of question marks in the post and optimism about his team's season potential.
"We have pretty good potential." Sampson said. "The good news this year is that we have a very good group of guards back, but our front line is brand new. The last few years I didn't worry about our front line because of Eduardo (Najera). He was
a tremendous security blanket."
Although Najera is gone, Sampson has a new blanket to snuggle with—his guards.
Sophomore Hollis Price returns and is expected to start at point guard, Sampson said. Junior J.R. Raymond has the starting nod at shooting guard and senior Nolan Johnson and senior three-point specialist Tim Heskett are competing for major minutes.
Heskett said the number of experienced guards returning would only benefit the Sooners.
"It's good to have all the guards back this season," Heskett said. "It really helps with our depth and team confidence. Experience at that position will be a big key for us. We are going to miss the guys from last year because they had great leadership and on-court presence for us, but we will need to step up this year."
While Sampson said he was comfortable with his guards, post play was of prime concern. Oklahoma
lost its leader in Najera and its tallest players on this year's team stand just 6-foot-9. He can rest easy, though, knowing the potential 6-foot-8 junior college transfer Aaron McGhee brings to the Sooners. McGhee averaged 26.5 points and nine rebounds per game last year in junior college ball and was the MVP of the national junior college tournament.
The most experienced returning post player is 6-foot-6 senior Jameel Heywood. He backed up Najera, a third-team All-American, last year and will compete for the starting job at small forward.
Sampson, said his post players were tough but would have to compete even harder in order to overcome their size disadvantage.
"On our front line we don't have a lot of size and strength, but we have a lot of pretty good players," Sampson said. "If we can keep them healthy, we'll have a pretty good year."
Women hope to stay at top
Edited by Casey Franklin
By Zac Hunter
spoite@kanson.com
Kansas sootwriter
Oklahoma women's basketball is not glowing with tradition.
The Sooners have been to a postseason tournament six times, and half of those were to the WNIT.
But last year Oklahoma found itself in a tie for the Big 12 Conference title and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the third time in school history. The Sooners eventually advanced to the Sweet 16 before being knocked out by Connecticut.
Now Oklahoma is trying to prove that last year's 25-win season — the most victories in school history — was not a fluke.
That all starts with a tough preseason schedule that will get the
Sooners primed for conference play.
"I think within that schedule are a lot of challenges that will prove to be tremendous opportunities for our basketball program," said Oklahoma coach Sherrie Coale.
After trading a fifth-place finish in 1990 for a share of the Big 12 crown in 2000, Coale has seen her players return with a renewed work ethic that she hasn't seen before.
"Kids exploded in the weight room, showed terrific work ethic in conditioning, and there was an amazing amount of understanding going on through our individual workouts." Coale said.
The reason for the resurgence in the gym was simple. When the Sooners came across Connecticut, a perennial women's basketball juggernaut, they were trounced by 22 points.
"It was a wake-up call that maybe I wasn't practicing and playing as hard as I can," said junior guard LaNoisea Caufield.
All the conditioning in the world, however, won't replace Phylesha Whale. Whaley was the top scorer on last year's team, averaging 20.8 points a game.
The good news is that Whaley is the only starter from last season not returning, and the Sooners have their entire backcourt coming back.
Those 20 points will most likely be trickled down to the top two returning scorers, Caufield and fellow junior guard Stacey Dales. The two combined for 28 points per game and will have to carry more of the offensive load if Oklahoma is to remain at the top of the Big 12.
— Edited by Shawn Hutchinson
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