Women’s hoops: Leftover notes from Oklahoma’s 96-35 win over Northwestern St.
The big news of the day for the Sooners, though, was the announcement that freshman guard Maddie Manning had torn the ACL in her right knee and will miss the rest of the season.
Reserves Jacqueline Jeffcoat and Katherine Zander transferred last March; veteran Lyndsey Cloman chose to end her career because of a lingering back injury in early November; and sophomore Kaylon Williams, who averaged 4.8 points and 5.2 rebounds a year ago, ruptured her Achilles tendon and will miss this entire season.
Manning’s injury, then, leaves OU with just nine healthy players and will make the 2012-13 season even more difficult for Sherri Coale’s already thin squad.
Here are some leftover notes from the game that didn’t make it into my game story, which appeared in Friday’s newspaper.
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* Freshman guard Nicole Kornet, who started her first career game in Manning’s place: “You just never know. Something can happen in the blink of an eye, and you have to be ready. Practice is what makes you ready, and I felt good.”
* Speaking of practice, Coale said Kornet’s practice habits are what made her prepared for the sudden move into the lineup. The freshman comes from the same high school — Liberty Christian (Argyle, Texas) — as senior guard Whitney Hand.
“She practices extremely well,” Coale said. “I don’t know if it’s in the water at Liberty High School or what, but these guys know how to practice. She’s attentive. She learns … when you tell her one thing, she takes care of that one thing. She might make two other mistakes, but that’s alright with me. She doesn’t make that same mistake again. That’s a learner and competitor and she earned the right to be there.”
* During one postgame question about Hand’s frequent post play, the senior’s height on the official roster — 6-foot-1 — was mentioned.
“I’m not 6-1,” Hand said, laughing. “That’s not true. I wear stilts when I play actually.”
* Asked if she’s ever had a team with this little depth, Coale said her 2002-03 team was thinner. That season, Caton Hill and Erin Higgins each tore ACLs within hours of each other.
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