Jennie Baranczyk's Sooner women right where they want to be
Oklahoma will meet Connecticut in the Sweet 16 coming off the game it had been trying to find ever since its fourth-year coach arrived … oh, yeah, the nation's top prospect is on her way, too
Connecticut, if you can believe it, is a 14 1/2-point favorite over Oklahoma in Spokane, Washington, Saturday, a figure that presents awfully steep given one team’s a two-seed and the other a three in the NCAA tournament’s West Regional.
Husky fans, though, have the right to see it oppositely, given OU fell 101-60 at second-ranked South Carolina about a month before UConn blasted the Gamecocks 87-58 on the same floor.
Do the math, and perhaps because the Huskies can’t possibly be made 70-point faves, 14 1/2 will have to do.
And still, from here, it looks like a close game and it looks like a close game because coach Jennie Baranczyk’s Sooners are finally, finally, finally where they want to be, playing how they want to play, and all of it goes right back to Monday’s 96-62 second-round victory over Iowa.
Prior to Monday, since Baranczyk came aboard, OU had been appointed Nos. 4-, 5- and 5-seeds into March Madness and each of those seasons finished a game short of the Sweet 16 … aka the round you reach with some consistency when you’re really one of the nation’s best programs … also the round Sherri Coale’s Sooners reached nine times between 2000 and 2013 … also the round OU had failed to reach under anybody’s direction since … until now.
Since Baranczyk’s arrival, OU’s been a terrific basketball story, from the new coach finding a way to retain her first roster, to getting the Sooners right back into the tournament after three years in the wilderness, to the way her teams have been so much fun to watch, getting up and down the floor, matching baskets with assists and scoring a ton of points, more than 100 five times this season alone and 90-plus another six.
Though a terrific story, come tournament time, OU failed time and again to offer its best game. Prior to a few days ago, only once in six NCAA tourney games under Baranczyk had the Sooners even broken 80 points, upending Portland 85-63 in 2023’s first round.
Now, they have.
Now, they’re rolling.
If there was one player whose performance and leadership OU badly needed put back into its mix it was Skylar Vann, maybe the best player in the entire Big 12 last season, who nonetheless led the Sooners in scoring just once through the SEC conference slate.
Well, she’s back.
Vann went for 24 points against Florida Gulf Coast and a team-high 17 against Iowa, grabbing 15 collective rebounds along the way, making 15 of 24 shots, 6 of 11 from 3-point land included.
A better script for Vann’s last two trips down the Lloyd Noble Center tunnel can hardly be imagined.
“It’s a lot to take in,” she said. “Our goal since Jennie has been here is just to win and just play with joy.
“I think to leave the LNC and Sooner Nation with a win here just means so much.”
Vann made it happen without getting in Raegan Beers’ way at all, the Sooner post managing a double-double — 11 points, 13 boards — against the Hawkeyes two days after going for 25 and 18 against FGCU.
Also against Iowa, OU picked up 16 points from Payton Verhulst, 13 from Sahara Williams, 11 from Liz Scott and 10 from Zya Vann, whose plus 33 over her 23 minutes on the court led everybody.
“I thought we all seized the moment,” Williams said.
That, they did.
OU did not not give up big leads as it had two days earlier, its turnover count stopped at a not-too-many 15, it played no weak quarters and still the Sooners left room to improve, only shooting 40.7 percent (33 of 81) and 32.4 percent (11 of 34) from 3-point land, though it’s unlikely they’ll find a way to match their plus 31 rebounding effort, corralling 64 to Iowa’s 33.
“We didn’t stop,” Baranczyk said. “We never rested on our laurels … we just stayed competitive and stayed guarding for 40 minutes.”
Probably her team had offered 40 minutes of effort at different times over the regular season, but not with the same focus, concentration, fearlessness or abandon.
Baranczk recalled times those facets had not been present.
“We’ve had big moments where we’ve fallen down and not done that,” she said. “Today’s a big moment. There’s a lot of emotions in the game. I was really proud of the steadiness.”
Now, win or lose, the Sooners really have taken the next step.
Now they’re playing with house money and there are few better feelings, though one of them, pointing toward next season, may have popped Tuesday when the nation’s No. 1 recruit, Aaliyah Chavez, chose OU as her collegiate destination.
“They match how I want to play,” Chavez said. “I want to play fast.”
So the Sooners have that going for them, too.
A terrific present and a blindingly bright future.
They’re right where they want to be.