Editor's note: Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale will share a diary with ESPN.com throughout the 2002-03 season.

Nov. 6, 2002

	Coale

It seems like only an hour or two ago we were standing on the floor at the Alamodome congratulating Connecticut and saying goodbye to the greatest season in the history of Oklahoma women's basketball. I feel a little bit like I did when I was 12 and about to go in for surgery when the nurse shot one hip and I begged for her to just let me catch my breath before she did the other. She didn't wait and I survived, but I still would have appreciated a small reprieve.

Regardless, we play Tennessee in five short days and the season that will define us is here. I don't know that it's either right or fair, but the season that follows the first trip to the Final Four is the season that puts you on the map as a program. That's the perception anyway. And right now a lot of people think we might be K.C. and the Sunshine Band. I want to be the Eagles. The passage of time and a long string of wins separate the two, but Don Henley and the crew had to start somewhere.

We have a gym full of new faces. Three first-round WNBA draft picks are missing and they've been replaced by a bunch of wide-eyed 18-year-olds who get goose bumps when they put on their crimson jerseys with Oklahoma across the front and fall down more than they should. They have scarcely a clue yet of how hard they need to play, of how fearlessly they must compete, of how brutally demanding a season of Big 12 basketball is. But they love to play. They don't rotate very well defensively and they still throw the ball all around the gym, but I like them. I like them a lot. I like how much they care and how willing they are to learn. And I think we have a chance to be really good.

		Right now a lot of people think we might be K.C. and the Sunshine Band. I want to be the Eagles. The passage of time and a long string of wins separate the two, but Don Henley and the crew had to start somewhere.

We had our first exhibition game last night and it reminded me of a Tale of Two Cities. We were fabulous and then lousy. We were relentless and then lethargic. We were fundamental and then wild. The whole thing made me nauseous. I never have liked roller coasters.

Theresa Schuknecht had a great coming out party, though. After waiting an entire year to compete, following her transfer from an NAIA school, she looked like a senior whose time had come. Our veterans were good. Caton Hill was everywhere and Dionnah Jackson was so fast with the ball. Steph Simon gave us valuable, efficient minutes off the bench and Steph Luce did some solid things offensively in the back-up point guard spot. Maria Villarroel, our junior-college transfer and the preseason Big 12 selection for newcomer of the year, lapped everyone a couple of times and outran the ball on more than one occasion. And our freshmen traveled and wedged wide open lay-ups and generally looked a lot like the deer in my neighborhood when I round the curve at dawn.

So, we board the plane to Knoxville, Tenn., on Friday armed with a less than stellar exhibition performance and yet, a quiet confidence earned through the blood, sweat and tears of the journey to San Antonio last spring. I know the team that played there is gone, but the residue remains. Experiences linger if you let them. The polls say we have no shot on Sunday. But I'm willing to bet that some record company rejected "Peaceful Easy Feeling" once, too. People keep telling me it will be a great experience for our team. And they're right. We'll know where we are and what we have to get better at and we'll expose our players to one of the greatest environments in all of women's college basketball. And who knows? We might just shock the world.

For more on coach Coale and the Sooners, visit Oklahoma's official athletic site.