What Patty Gasso Said After the Texas Loss

The Sooners coach said this loss will ultimately help the team refocus and refine as the regular season winds down.

John E. Hoover | Apr 16, 2022

While Oklahoma’s 40-game winning streak came to an end on Saturday with a 4-2 loss to Texas in Austin, OU coach Patty Gasso said the defeat will ultimately propel the Sooners to bigger goals.

“We learned a lot from this game, in many ways,” said said, per an athletic department press release. “We learned a lot from this entire series, in ways that will make us better.”

OU’s ultimate goal wasn’t to go unbeaten, but rather to win the program’s sixth national championship. That hasn’t changed.

“To be realistic, we weren’t going to go undefeated through the season,” Gasso said. “It was just a matter of time. We got outplayed, and that’s exactly why we have our first loss. They earned it. They played well, their pitcher was fantastic and they did everything right. That’s what it came down to. We take this back to Norman and we refine and we get better. That’s what you do with losses.”

Gasso said the team handled defeat much like it has handled victories: with professionalism and with a greater goal in mind.

“There were no breakdowns in the locker room, whatsoever,” Gasso said. “It’s understanding that we need to fine-tune a lot of things as we go forward.”

OU’s 38-0 start remains the best in NCAA Division I history. The 40 consecutive wins is tied for the third-longest in NCAA annals, just short of the record of 47 straight.

The Sooners resume their chase on Wednesday at North Texas. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN+.

Published Apr 16, 2022

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.