Oklahoma Coach Backs Big 12 Women's Tourney's Return To K.C.

Univ. of Oklahoma women's basketball coach Sherri Coale is "on board with the decision" to move the Big 12 women's basketball tournament from Oklahoma City to K.C., according to Blair Kerkhoff of the K.C. STAR. The event had been in Oklahoma City the past four years and five of the last six, and Coale said, "Things run their course. It had lost its fire in Oklahoma City, there's no doubt about that." Kerkhoff notes the women's tournament now returns to Municipal Auditorium for the first time since '12. It will "run jointly with the men's event at the Sprint Center." The women's dates are March 12-15, with the men's tourney slated for March 11-14. K.C. has been the site for 11 Big 12 women's tournaments. Coale: "It's a different Kansas City. This downtown area was not present the last time our tournament was here." Kerkhoff: "Fill even half of Municipal, which seats about 9,700, and the building feels alive" (K.C. STAR, 10/23).