Stadium renovations to complete in august

OU is nearing completion on Phase IV of the Oklahoma Memorial Stadium renovation project, bringing the total for all improvements to the stadium and its support areas to more than $125 million since renovations began in 1998.

Phase IV included $15 million in upgrades to the locker rooms, training area, meeting and equipment rooms and the SoonerVision studio.

“The generous support of our donors and fans has driven our ability to plan and complete projects in a timely, well-conceived manner,” OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione said in a statement. “We have devoted consistent attention to our facilities in a manner that allows us to allocate the financial resources we develop in a cost effective manner, while expanding and improving at an appropriate pace.”

School officials expect the current work to be completed in August.

Coale participates in mock bracket excercise

Women’s head baskeball coach Sherri Coale is participating in a mock selection exercise at the NCAA national office in Indianapolis this Thursday and Friday.

Coale joins 15 other Division I women’s basketball coaches in the exercise, intended to educate coaches in the selection, seeding and bracketing of the NCAA women’s basketball championship.

“When the championship bracket comes out and it has some twists or turns, sometimes coaches don’t understand the process and come to conclusions that have no basis,” Coale said in a statement released by the OU athletics department. “For most of us, we’re involved with the development of our team and controlling those factors that enable us to control our own destiny. We don’t take the time to understand what the committee’s charge is. In order to fully understand it, you have to go through it.”

The NCAA began trying mock selection exercises in 2007 in an attempt to shed light on the process that the NCAA selection committees undergo each March when brackets are determined.

-James Lovett/The Daily