NCAA WOMEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 30, 2002

Sherri Coale

COACH SHERRI COALE: We're obviously thrilled to be competing in the National Championship Game. It's been an amazing season for us. An amazing four years for these kids who are spending their last season with us. And great effort against Duke. A better defensive effort, after I watched the film than I thought it was at the time. I thought at the time it was pretty good, but I went back and watched the film in it's entirety last night. And I thought we really forced themselves into some things they didn't want to do offensively, affected the quality of their shots. Defense and rebounding is what allows you to compete in this game Sunday night. Everyone talks about our offense, and which was pretty good for a stretch in the second half, and in particular last night. You don't get to this point unless you can guard people and rebound. I'm pleased with our team's performance in both of those categories.

COACH SHERRI COALE: I think it will be fun for both involved, both Connecticut and ourselves playing an up tempo brand of basketball, Bird and Taurasi pose some difficult problems for us, as they do for everybody else in the country, that's like an under statement of the century, isn't it? I think Caufield and Dales and Rosalind Ross and Dionnah Jackson, you take our entire back court and put them together, might pose some problems, as well. Swin or Tamika or Asjha is going to have to run around the perimeter all night. I've got to think that that's to our advantage. You flip that around and one of my guards has to try to guard them at the post, too. So it might be who does whatever they're most uncomfortable with best that wins this battle. But it ought to be a very exciting game. I know everybody was so anticipating our matchup in Hartford back in December, but it wasn't a game that reflected the way either one of us likes to play, there were a lot of free throws, a lot of fouls, and I think if this game is allowed to have some flow and tempo, it could be a great, great women's basketball game.

COACH SHERRI COALE: We decided to.

COACH SHERRI COALE: We always, if we have played someone previously, we always go back to that game tape as our greatest tool of measurement, because we like to see how they defended certain things that we did, and what we did that seemed to effect them on the offensive end. We'll watch, obviously, their most recent games, their games in the tournament, and that will play into our preparation, as well. But that game back in December is very much a preparatory tool. And the thing about Connecticut is, you know, Geno doesn't have any vets, it's not like there's -- if you can unlock the code, then you can stop him. He'll tell you what he's going to do, we're going to throw a right and set a screen and she's going to come off of it and guard it. We know what he's going to do, so what. Can we do something about it when they decide to do it? I'm very familiar with the way they play. Our players are familiar with the way they play. Of course my having worked with Geno this summer and having a relationship with him, Stacey having played there, all those things increase the familiarity. The most important thing about our meeting in December, however, is the fact that we've been on the floor with them and we've been in the game with them. Not just on the floor, but in the game. And I think that's significant. And you have to take the floor on Sunday night and make sure the mystique doesn't beat you, make the players beat you.

COACH SHERRI COALE: Yeah, they're pretty special, thanks for asking. Stacey is the grandma of the bunch, she's been with us five years, because of her red shirt season her freshman year. Neish obviously finishing her four-year career, and it has been amazing. Shannon Selman finishing her four-year career is a very important role player, and the a decision of Jamie Talbert and Rosalind Ross coming in from junior college, and then of course Jen Cunningham has been with us four years, and hasn't had a healthy year yet, bless her heart. And the fact that we made it to this game and have a shot, with Jen Cunningham, our 6' 3" center, not having competed a single game, is a pretty great testment of the will of the seniors, the collective will. Jen could have said I'm hurt, I don't have a role here anymore, I'm going to go to the tanning bed or whatever, and she didn't. She's involved in practice, and she keeps stats on the bench, and she's in the middle of every drill making a difference. Although she can't physically, she's making a difference intangibly. And Shannon Selman could have said I've been here four years, and sometimes I play two minutes, ask sometimes I don't play at all, and sometimes I play ten minutes, and this is too hard, I'm not going to do this, but she didn't. She chose to say I'm an integral part of this thing, and if I'm not here, it's not what it's supposed to do, so I'm going to embrace my role, and without those things happening from those other kids, we don't have the kind of year that we're having. So that senior class, from the wow stuff that Stacey Dales does, and the constant every night I'm showing up and bringing my lunch pail and Talbert being the sleeper in the paint. And Shannon and Jen playing as significant a role as the guys on the front page of the paper.

COACH SHERRI COALE: You know, when you're in the middle of it, I don't think that I see it the same way that any of you guys do, because I've been in the middle of it. And you wake up and do what you need to do that day. I have a crazy life. I've got a lot of responsibilities, a crazy good life, a lot of responsibilities. And when I finally get home from the gym, I don't have time to sit on the back porch and think about the progress we made today, I've got to get one kid to soccer and the other baseball practice, and get a five-year old in the bath. You know what it's like. There hasn't been a lot of time for reflection, but I tell you, this Final Four weekend I've been trying to soak in every second of it. I don't want to go to sleep. Why would I sleep on this weekend when I can soak in a little more of what's going on? I went for a run yesterday afternoon, I ran about 8 miles, because I ran by the Alomodome about ten times. And I kept thinking we are playing in there, are you kidding me? I'm trying to enjoy every bit of it, but I don't know that it's all really real to me yet. Hopefully it hits sometime soon, and I have a great vacation.

COACH SHERRI COALE: Well, we actually used two, Shannon Selman played in both halves and we cleared our bench in the second. But, Dionnah is very much -- I kid her all the time. She's a freshman and I don't ever treat her like a freshman, I don't think of her as a freshman, and I tell her you better be ready to go when I put you in, because I never take you out. She's too good. I probably took her out more last night than I ordinarily do because she makes so many good things happen. She's a great defender. She has an uncanny ability to get to the rim. She's one of the fastest learning kids I've ever had in my program. She is absolutely a sponge. You tell her something one time and it's done, you won't have to correct that anymore. Early in the year she was trying to feed the post from above the free throw line extended, which is a no-no for us. She turned it over about three times in a game, and next day at practice I showed her the film clips, we went out to practice, I showed her exactly what we wanted to do, and we've not spoken about it since. And she's not turned it over one time by failing to do that since. That's unbelievable for anybody, much less than a college freshman. She's special. Somebody asked me who is the heir apparent to Stacey Dales, she might be wearing

No. 35.

COACH SHERRI COALE: I think we have overcome a lot of things. Sometimes when you're successful those things get swept under the carpet and people don't talk to them. That's okay. I don't think you have to come in and carrying a shield and say we have three torn ACLs. Stacey being able to come back from her injury was a big deal for her at the time. None of these other guys were here yet. But that was a big deal for her, improving her toughness. And I think as much as anything instilling an even deeper appreciation for the fact that you get to play. And if there is a key to any of that, of our overcoming obstacles and difficulties and being resilient it is the fact that our guys daily remind each over, you've got Antoinette Wadsworth sitting in street clothes, and Jen Cunningham who has had four torn ACLs, they remind everybody how blessed they are to have two good legs or one in Ros's case, and to be able to go out and function and play this game. I know Stacey has a picture of Jen in her locker, and they're great friends, they came from Canada together and played club ball. She put a picture of Jen up in her locker, so I think that's sort of a secret to that resilience.

COACH SHERRI COALE: I don't know if it helped me (laughter), but I did learn some things. No, the thing that I discovered about Geno that -- I knew going in, and we've spent enough time together that I know about his ability to manipulate the game, and I know about his knowledge of the game and his ability to push buttons of players. And you know, I don't know that you watch anybody and you go, okay, that's the way to motivate a kid, that's the way to get the best out of a kid, that is very much a nuance that comes from your personality and their personality and having people skills and knowing how to deal with certain situations. But the thing I picked up from Geno is that he has a phenomenal feel for the game. Now, I'm not going to learn how to have that same kind of feel by watching him have it. But what I mean by that is he has a feel for when somebody is in a flow and has a great ability to disrupt that and to never let the opponent feel comfortable. It's really uncanny. He just has a great -- I don't know any other way to explain it than by saying he has a great feel for the game. He feels his own team and he feels his opponent. And he is able to fuel his own team and thwart the opponent. I think it's an instinct and I think it's a gift.

COACH SHERRI COALE: If he is not nice to me, because I've been so nice talking about him all morning. I've been so nice, so you guys have to promise me that when he comes in here, if he is not nice, then you don't print my nice stuff. Then I get do-overs, you can call me at the hotel. Geno, I met him when he was recruiting Stacey. I went to a AAU game in Dallas, which is kind of bizarre, but I went down and watched her play, and I was sitting up on the top level watching her warm up, get ready and there's strong people that went to the doorway, and it's Geno. He's coming off his perfect season, and TV cameras, and there's Geno Auriemma, and he won a National Championship, Stacey please catch the ball, please. When school began he called me and his first phone call was very impressive. He just was extremely professional and very genuine, and didn't blow a lot of smoke, and didn't tell me she was the greatest player in the history of the world. But he was genuine, and wanted to come out and watch us practice. And flew to Oklahoma. And anybody who knows weather in Oklahoma, you know, it might be 70 one day, and 25 the next, you never know. And then the next day it's back to 60. He flies into Oklahoma, and why in the world you'd fly in the early fall and wear loafers and no socks. He has on loafers and no socks. It is a blizzard, it's sleeting sideways, and he comes in he's got the lapels of his suit coat up around his ears. I said where's your socks, you don't wear socks, you're kidding, you're from Connecticut, it's snowing. He comes to watch us. It's Norman High School, we've got one gym and our men are in the gym -- this story is going to take such a long time. Our men are in the gym and it's our week to go to north base, which is an airplane hangar that has a tile floor, and that's where we're going to practice. We've got 50 or 60 kids, because it's sophomore through seniors, it's a 6A high school. We've got a bunch of guys that are pretty good, and a bunch of guys who decided playing on the basketball team would be fun. So I've got 60 kids running these full court drills. And it's a zoo. And I'm out there running this fast break drill and thinking Geno Auriemma is sitting over here, and I've got this girl that can't bounce the ball. And we worked them and it's time for school to be over. We keep the upperclassmen, and we do some other conditioning stuff, and when it was all over he came over and said this is unbelievable. I'm thinking, oh, no, he's going to rip me a -- and what in the world -- And he's says I've never seen anything like this. Do your players realize how good you are? Do they have any idea how lucky they are to be playing for you? I can't speak. You guys are having trouble realizing that there are moments when I can't speak, but that was one of them. He said can I talk to your team? And I said yeah. Chris Dailey goes no, you can't talk to their team, it's a violation. So we went to Stacey's house, and had the home visit and the funniest thing was, he's going along doing his little shtick or whatever. He stops and says how am I doing? Excuse me? How am I doing here? I don't know, you do this for a living, I don't. How many of these have you sat in on? I said 7. He said, so how am I doing? I went (indicating). He was really good. That's why Stacey went to Connecticut. He was real, and he and I developed a fast friendship. It's like Carl if you came to Oklahoma, you and Barry Trammel would be friends. Barry writes for the Daily Oklahoman. I don't know if you have any similarities or backgrounds, but you would be friends because you see the world the same way. You guys would go to dinner and you would be fast friends because you see things the same way. Geno and I were that way. We had a connection, and we developed a friendship and we laugh a lot and poke fun at each other, and I think we both respect one another. And to be competing in this game and in this situation against him is surreal.

COACH SHERRI COALE: That's a great question, and I do think there are definitely some. First of all, was that I got recruiting mail on a daily basis for my team. And you know what? I figured out what works and what doesn't, what kids read and what kids don't read. I sat through I think nine, maybe ten home visits with Stacey alone. I got to see what makes kids minds wander, what impresses them, what doesn't impress them. I kind of got a backside view of the whole recruiting process, what it feels like to be on the other side. And I think if you've never been a high school coach, you don't know. You hope you're doing the right thing, but you don't know what works or what doesn't, what is effective and what isn't. I found out real quickly, and I was also able to make relationships with people like Geno, who sort of prepared me for what it's like. And to have Geno say, you know what, what you do is what is supposed to be done, whether you're coaching high school or college or the Lakers. What you do in practice is what's supposed to be done. You have to figure out how to manage all the other stuff, which is like this.

COACH SHERRI COALE: She's a medical marvel, I'm not sure it can get much worse. It's gone. People in our fan base would gasp when she went down. She's gone down on a number of occasions, because of lock up. And people gasp, and I never gasp, what's there going left to tear. She's a kid that figured out how to compensate, and not everyone is physically capable of doing that. I have to remind all those other kids who have torn ACLs, we had a couple of recruits, kids we signed in the fall and tore their ACLs, how does Ros play, I want to figure it out. Some people can't. Some people tear it and can't walk around. That's because our bodies are all put together differently. She's a medical marvel. For whatever reason she is able to function without it. And our doctors are amazed by her. They're amazed by her pain tolerance. They're amazed by her body's ability to compensate. And when this is said and done, she'll have a six-hour surgery to repair everything that's wrong.

COACH SHERRI COALE: That is so funny, I can't believe you just asked that. First of all, he's getting kind of old, don't you think? (Laughter.) You know what? I think that when women can go out and compete at the level that both of our teams compete at, diving on the floor, making athletic plays, just the level of athleticism that exists within both of our squads, and then they can leave the court and present themselves as they did at the salute dinner the other night and look like the beautiful women that they are, I think, yeah, that's definitely good for the game. I don't know that there's any sex appeal going on here, but I think it's terrific when women can compete and be athletes and still be women.

COACH SHERRI COALE: We just had a brief team meeting, sent our players to their rooms and told them they can celebrate as long as they want, as long as they're off their feet. They stayed up talking late, I'm sure. Our philosophy all year has been enjoy the moment. When you wake up and the sun comes up, then we'll prepare for the next opponent. I lost too many games early in my career to ever not appreciate or celebrate a win. That's a hard and fast rule. Until the sun comes up the next day we will live in the moment. I certainly didn't want to rob them of the moment they had in earning the right to play in the National Championship Game. So they celebrated. We sat up and watched film, even snuck in our Duke game, which I hardly ever do. I don't know that I've watched any of our NCAA Tournament games, just because the quick turnaround to prepare them for another opponent. But we had a couple of computer glitches, and Coach Ross was working feverishly on the computer. We stuck in a Duke tape. And then you're fired up and can't go to bed. It was late, but I'll work on these bags before tomorrow.

COACH SHERRI COALE: We called Coach Sampson's cell phone. I know they are very strict about their night before the gym, and I'm sure they were in a team meeting. They're very, very strict and organized in that regard. So we just left a message on the cell phone. When it beeped in I held it up in the locker room and said, "It's your turn, go Sooners", and then they went nuts for about two or three minutes. We probably used up all of his time on his voicemail because they were screaming and going crazy. And I know that he had the team together watching our game, and we have a spot this afternoon where we'll be together watching their game at 5.

COACH SHERRI COALE: We have all the components to become the next UConn except ESPN isn't right down the street. So somebody has to come and cover us. Can you guys get a surrogate office in Oklahoma City or something? I don't know that Geno might be becoming the premier program. I don't know that I see it that way. And my perspective may be a bit tainted, because I followed their program so closely. I had a kid go there and play, and my relationship with Geno, but my first Final Four was in Minneapolis when Connecticut won for the first time and I believe that started the era of dominance for Connecticut. And I know Tennessee has won championships since then, but I don't know that any team has been more dominant throughout an entire season after season after season as of late than Connecticut. Obviously Tennessee has the deeper tradition, the greater background. But in the new era of women's basketball I think it's been UConn.

COACH SHERRI COALE: My first meeting with Stacey, not the first time that I saw her play, but the first time that I sat and visited with her you're immediately taken back at her maturity level. Even when she was 17. And she's matured dramatically over her five years here. She was the most mature 17-year old that I've ever been around. She was smart, she was witty. And I think the thing that grabbed me immediately was she got it. This is a kid who gets it. And everything that I said when I told her about how hard it was going to be and how lousy we were, and how far we had to go, she just moved closer and closer to the edge of her seat. And there was this bounce in her eyes and I just knew, this is a kid who was made for this situation. This is a kid that was made for me to coach. We had an instant rapport, and I wanted desperately to coach her. You meet some kids and you think, if I could just -- you don't really think this kid is going to come in and make us win, you think, wow, what a neat deal it would be to be able to coach that kid. She was one of them. And the first year on campus was incredibly difficult for her. She's a million miles away from home. She's crying every night, before we even get to season, because there's never been a kid closer to her parents than Stacey Dales. Instead of going out with friends she stays home and watches movies with her parents. She had a great rapport with them, and they're a very tight family. Here she comes all the way -- from another country, for heaven's sake, and she's homesick every night and just living for basketball season. When basketball starts that's her love. And then her first game she tears her ACL. And it was -- I remember thinking I just hope she doesn't go home. We've got to figure out a way to keep her here. And we very much involved her in what we were doing. The team that year was great. You know that -- I used to know the exact number of days this was, and I've forgotten, in excess of 30 days every single day from her surgery on her ACL she got a personal written sentiment from every player on our team, every single day in excess of 30 days. Some days they would make a poster, some days it would be individual cards. Some days it would be everybody signs a note that we put in her locker. That kept her afloat and kept her at Oklahoma. And so those people who -- I've said this -- I said this in Boise, those people that came before in our program who aren't getting to play in front of 30,000 people right now because they've graduated and moved on, they deserve a big chunk of the credit, because they made our place a neat place to come for kids like Stacey Dales.

COACH SHERRI COALE: My assistant coach went to Canada to watch a point guard play that wasn't good enough. And went by a gym on her way back, waiting for her airplane and saw Stacey and called me and said I've found the savior. And I said what's her name and she said I don't know. And I said where is she going, and she said I don't know. And I said I think you should find out. She said I'll miss my plane if I do, I said that's fine, we'll get you another ride home. She stayed and found out that she was leaning towards Syracuse, but she was open and she was willing to listen. And so that first phone call I made to her had to be really good. And we hit it off immediately. I can remember us talking about what was going on in her English class, I was a high school English teacher, we talked with short stories they were reading, and had an instant rapport. And she was just the kind of kid that was looking for a niche, looking for a place to go and be extraordinary. She didn't want to be another "one of", she wanted to turn something around. And it just so happened that not enough people knew about her, at that time Canada wasn't heavily recruited at all. And she had been injured during key recruiting periods in the previous seasons. So she sort of slipped through the cracks. And it was a situation that fit her and she was a fit for the situation. Pam DeCostas was the assistant; she's now at the University of Kansas.