Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Watching her son Colton's high-school team make an unexpected run in the high school playoffs gave Sherri Coale a fresh reminder of the exhilaration of being the underdog.
It's not a feeling she gets to experience much anymore as the head coach at Oklahoma.
Her Sooners (31-4) take much more than the No. 1 seed into Tuesday night's regional final against sixth-seeded Purdue. There's the added expectation of victory since they'll be playing in front of a home crowd in Oklahoma City and then the matter of All-America center Courtney Paris' national championship guarantee.
All that combines to create an entirely different atmosphere than what she experienced as her son's Norman High School team headed into the postseason.
"They were David and everybody they faced was Goliath, over and over. And they won and they won, and they got one game away from state. I had so much fun living vicariously through that as a mom, being David," Coale said.
"I had forgotten the difference and how much it feels different because we're always supposed to win now. We're supposed to be here. This is what we're supposed to do."
Purdue coach Sharon Versyp has said she thinks her team has been able to relax and do without any pressure because it entered the NCAA tournament as an underdog. Only five teams have ever made it to the Final Four when seeded No. 6 or lower, most recently seventh-seeded Minnesota in 2004.
"There's always that added pressure when you get to that promised land, but that's what we're here for," Versyp said. "This is what you live for, every single day. This is what players and coaches dream of is having that opportunity to take that next step."
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