The Jennie Baranczyk era at Oklahoma has added another successful milestone.
The Sooners on Sunday landed an NCAA Tournament bid for the fourth consecutive year, and will host the first- and second-round games at Lloyd Noble Center for the second time in Baranczyk’s four seasons at the helm in Norman.
Oklahoma is 25-7 overall and drew a No. 3 seed. The Sooners will play Saturday against 14-seed Florida Gulf Coast (30-3). The Eagles won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular season and conference tournament, their ninth straight conference crown and 12th in the last 14 years. Emani Jefferson was both the ASUN Player of the Year and Tournament MVP.
The second-round matchup would be Monday between the winner of Iowa (22-10) and Murray State (25-7). The women’s tournament first and second rounds run Friday through Monday. Tip times will be announced later.
OU’s first season as a member of the powerful Southeastern Conference was an outrageous success as the team finished with an 11-5 regular-season record and went 2-1 in SEC Tournament play. Of Oklahoma’s six total conference losses, five were against teams ranked in the top 12 at the time, and the Sooners logged three ranked wins in league play. OU’s SEC success included a nine-game winning streak that extended into the conference tournament.
Oklahoma won six games in a row twice in non-conference play as the team was 12-1 going into SEC play.
The Sooners went into the postseason ranked No. 13 in the NCAA NET rankings. OU was projected as a No. 3 seed in the NCAA bracket reveal on Feb. 27. Baranczyk’s squad reached as high as No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 in November, and finished the regular season at No. 11.
OU has been idle since losing 93-75 to No. 2 overall NCAA seed South Carolina in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, SC — way back on March 8.
The SEC landed 10 teams in this year’s bracket and has won three consecutive national championships (two by South Carolina, one by LSU) and four of the last seven.
Baranczyk’s OU squad has known nothing but success since the former Iowa Hawkeye forward came to Norman from Drake after the 2020-21 season ended with the Sooners out of the postseason for the second straight full season under Sherri Coale.
The Sooners have been led all season by 6-foot-4 center Raegan Beers, a transfer from Oregon State who averaged 17.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game this year. Beers was first-team All-SEC and made several All-America lists. Beers shoots .660 from the floor this season. Beers posted 11 double-doubles in her first season as a Sooner.
Senior Payton Verhulst, a 6-1 senior guard and former Louisville transfer, earned second-team All-SEC honors after earning first-team All-Big 12 last year. Verhulst had a career-high 38 points in an SEC game against Missouri and recorded a 29-10-10 triple double against No. 13-ranked Duke. Verhulst averages 14.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game.
Sahara Williams is third in the Sooners’ balanced scoring attack at 10.8 points per game, giving OU three McDonald’s All-Americans in its starting five.
Three-time All-Big 12 forward and 2024 Big 12 Player of the Year Skylar Vann averages 9.3 points per game, while sister Zya Vann averages 7.1. Liz Scott (6.7), Lexy Keys (5.6), Reyna Scott (4.8) and sixth-year senior Nevaeh Tot (2.9) also regularly contribute to the offense.
