Mechelle spoke with Sherri Coale (who is, by the way, doing a fabulous job of coaching post-Paris/minus-Hand, dontcha think? Which may explain why, ahem, Coale hasn't written anything new lately. But I'll wait....)

I was chatting with Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale about various topics Thursday, and she said something off-handedly at the end of the conversation that stuck with me all day.

And that was how by this point in the season, teams and players start to “believe” they are the numbers that are associated with them _ for good and for bad. Meaning, if you are 7-1 in league play, or you’ve made nine of your last 20 3-pointers, or you went 5 for 5 from the free-throw line in the last 2 minutes of a game, that becomes your identity.

But if you are 1-7 in league play, or you’ve only made two of your last 20 3-point shots, or you turned over the ball four times in the last 2 minutes of a game, then that becomes your identity.