Sent packing from the Final Four for a second straight year, Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale knows how tough it will be to get this far again, much less winning her first national championship.
Yet she also realizes how much these back-to-back trips have helped her program.
``It removes a ceiling,'' Coale said after a 73-66 loss to Stanford on Sunday night. ``It's kind of like the first guy that runs a mile in four minutes and then all of a sudden everybody's doing it. And for the kids within our program, these guys that will return next year, this is what we do.
``I mean, (sophomores) Whitney Hand and Jasmine Hartman, this is all they know: You work and you go to the Final Four. There's something that's contagious about that. And they will quickly teach those five incoming freshmen what it means to work and commit at Oklahoma, and we'll do our best to get back here on a regular basis.''
The way the Sooners persevered to reach the final weekend of the NCAA tournament also bodes well.
This is a team that many expected to tumble after losing Courtney Paris and her twin sister Ashley to graduation. Hand was supposed to help pick up the slack after being selected Big 12 freshman of the year last season, but she tore up a knee the day after Thanksgiving.
An 18-point home loss against rival Texas in early February certainly seemed to expose Oklahoma as not having what it took. Even when the Sooners made the tournament, they had 10 losses. Only the 1997 Tennessee Lady Vols made the Final Four with that many losses.
Now, two teams have done it.
``I'm unbelievably proud of these kids,'' Coale said about a team that rallied from an 18-point deficit with 6:47 left to get within three with 16 seconds remaining against Stanford. ``I cannot express what a joy it has been to coach them, how refreshing it has been and their willingness to learn, their drive, their belief, their faith, how they are with one another.
``It's been everything that's good about college basketball, and I feel blessed to have been their coach.''
Graduation will claim Oklahoma's entire starting frontcourt: forwards Amanda Thompson and Nyeshia Stevenson and center Abi Olajuwon.
That trio scored 33 points in the national semifinal, exactly half of OU's total. But that only hints at their impact.
Thompson has been the team's captain the last three years, and Stevenson has keyed their transition game and 3-point shooting. Olajuwon, the daughter of the former Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon, blossomed this season and became a regular starter.
Perhaps their greatest claim is making the Sooners just the sixth program to make consecutive Final Fours. Oklahoma joins women's basketball royalty such as Connecticut, Stanford and Tennessee, and previous powers Louisiana Tech and Southern California.
``They will forever be the class that took us to back-to-back Final Fours, and it's such a hard thing to do,'' Coale said. ``But I think even more than that these seniors have restored everything that is Oklahoma basketball. I don't know if restore is the right word, but they have grown and they've figured out over the course of their four years what it means to play hard all the time ... be a great teammate, what it means to commit to the process of getting better.''
Dazzling point guard Danielle Robinson will return and likely step up her leadership role. Hand should be back healthy, and Hartman returns more experienced. Freshman Joanna McFarland could take over Thompson's frontcourt role, and Carlee Roethlisberger, the sister of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, is likely to be asked to do more, too.
Then there are the recruits: Aaryn Ellenberg, a McDonald's All-American point guard; 6-foot-6 Nicole Griffin, and Jacqueline Jeffcoat, the daughter of former Dallas Cowboys defensive end Jim Jeffcoat.
``Things are going to turn,'' Hartman said. ``I have two more years and we'll be back in the Final Four.''
