Sherri Coale is none too crazy about Senior Night sendoffs.

She could do without the pomp and the circumstance, the emotions and the tears, the videos and the tributes. Don’t misunderstand — the Oklahoma women’s basketball coach is as touchy-feely as they come, but she wants her players to enjoy playing together every day, not just at the end of the season.

And besides, this isn’t even goodbye. The season is far from over.

Still, tonight will be tough.

It is Senior Night for a class that has forever changed a program, a class headlined by Courtney and Ashley Paris.

"The season’s not over, their careers are not over, so there’s nothing really to be sad about,” Coale said. "It should be a celebration of what they’ve meant to our program.”

That is a party that could last all night.

The Paris twins, who will be honored along with fellow senior Carolyn Winchester, have meant so much to this program. They validated it. They promoted it. They elevated it.

But they have yet to push it over the top.

The program was on the rise when the twins arrived in 2005. There was the Final Four run in 2002, a magical season where the Sooners caught lightning in a bottle.

With the Paris sisters, everyone expected the Sooners would scale those heights again and again. Reaching the championship summit seemed entirely possible, too.

It hasn’t happened.

This season is far from over, of course. One last chance remains for Courtney, Ashley and Co. to win a national title, and these Sooners have the look of a team that could win it.

But what if they don’t? What if the Paris twins finish their college careers without a national championship?

Will the promise of the sisters be unfulfilled?

It would be easy to say yes. The Paris twins, after all, are unlike anything the women’s game has ever seen, especially Courtney. Never before has anyone had their skills at their size.

But here’s the harsh reality— winning a national title is tough even if you have a pair of players like this.

"We went to seven Final Fours, played in four championship games before we won a national championship,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said earlier this season. "It’s hard to do. It’s hard to get there.”

For four years, though, the Paris sisters have kept the Sooners in the national picture. They have had help, of course, but more than anyone, the twins have powered the program.

"Their program is one that’s strong and that’s going to be consistent in being among the elite teams,” Summitt said.

The sisters have elevated the Sooners even without a national title.

They have home crowds that are the envy of many college basketball teams, men’s or women’s. They have media coverage that rivals any women’s program, save Connecticut or Tennessee. And they have underclassmen who will continue to build on the groundwork that has already been laid.

Gail Goestenkors, now the coach at Texas, had a similar experience when she was at Duke. The Blue Devils were forever changed when they signed Alana Beard.

She would become the national player of the year, and they would become a perennial power.

"Once you get some great players in there,” Goestenkors said, "it kind of snowballs.”

So it has been with the Sooners.

Regardless of what happens the final month of their college careers, the Paris twins have fulfilled their promise. They have lifted the program to a higher place even if they haven’t lifted a national championship banner.