One of the best things about the return of the college basketball is that it means Sherri Coale starts up her blog. A sad entry, though, to to launch the '07-08 season, as she honors Mary Jane Noble.

Mary Jane Noble is the name that appears on the side of our Women's Basketball Office Complex. She gave us $8.17 million to build our dream. She said simply when she wrote the check, "The women's side of the tunnel better not measure one square inch smaller than the men's side when you're finished. I'll be happy to measure it for you when you're through."

Mary Jane was always about right. She was about fair. She was the voice of simple reason in the midst of panic and high pitched screams. I always thought she was a woman ahead of her time.

It seems ridiculously inadequate to say that Coale has a gift for words, but I'll say it anyway. She can make you smile and ache with a simple turn of phrase, and she sees the world in a way that makes you want to borrow her eyes for a day. Consider her tribute to Ms. Noble:

There is this tree in north Norman that I love. It stands majestic, by itself, in the middle of a field. A tree line flanks it to the south but the area immediately around it is barren. No one tends to it. It just stands there alone and thrives. It's as if the brazen oak demands the space it grows in, and then some, just to be. And it screams of sureness and serenity and strength. I drove by it when I left the gym on Friday. In lots of ways it reminds me of Mary Jane. It asks nothing of you and you are better just for having driven past it.

There's an art to that. I think they call it Presence.