WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Oral Roberts is a Christian university, so its athletes are very familiar with the story of David and Goliath.
And the women’s basketball Golden Eagles are not shying away from comparing the Biblical story of David to tonight’s game against top-seeded Tennessee.
“We talked about the five smooth stones that David came to the battle with and put it in our terms and decided what our five smooth stones were that we needed to beat Tennessee,” ORU forward Janae Voelker said. “In a way, Tennessee is the Goliath and we’re the David. We kind of related it to that and got a lot of game-plan stuff off of that. We saw how David responded and how he was able to prepare.”
Oral Roberts coach Jerry Finkbeiner revealed meanings for two of the stones during Saturday’s news conference: blocking out defensively and building the confidence of David.
“That’s the only non-basketball one we have,” he said. “David was a confident young man and an unknown. Hopefully, the confidence of David will be showing through our team.”
Will Candace come back?
Asked if any scenario existed that would bring her back for another year, Tennessee star Candace Parker said she’s not even thinking about her future beyond this tournament.
“Just the game in front of me,” she said. “That’s what I’m thinking about right now. That’s how I lived all year. You can’t control what happens in the future.”
Coach Pat Summitt offered a brief answer when asked about trying to convince Parker to stay.
“I’m waiting to win six games,” she said.
You may not recall ...
Finkbeiner said he met Summitt at an awards banquet almost 15 years ago when he won the NAIA coach of the year honor the same season she won the award for Division I.
“We took a bunch of pictures and sat at the same banquet table,” Finkbeiner said Saturday. “I reminded her of that this morning, but she didn’t remember that moment. I did, but she didn’t.”
