OU Basketball: No. 9 Oklahoma to Open SEC Play in 'Physical' Clash of Styles With No. 5 Texas

The Sooners will open their account in the Southeastern Conference with a familiar foe in the first top 10 battle at the Lloyd Noble Center since 2009.

Oklahoma guard Lexy Keys / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK

NORMAN — Thursday will open a new era at the Lloyd Noble Center, but it will look and feel like the battles of old. 

Jennie Baranczyk’s high-flying No. 9 Sooners will open SEC play for the first time. 

Their opponent? The No. 5-ranked Texas Longhorns who split the 2023 Big 12 regular season crown with the Sooners and who won the Big 12 Tournament a year ago. 

Whether the battle with Texas feels familiar or new doesn’t matter much to Baranczyk, who is expecting an intense bout between the Red River rivals. 

“Everything goes out the window when you’re playing conference period,” Baranczyk said on Tuesday, “but especially when you’re playing a team that’s as good as Texas.”

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How to Watch No. 9 Oklahoma vs. No. 5 Texas

• When: Thursday, Jan. 2
• Where: Lloyd Noble Center
• When: 8 p.m.
• Channel: ESPN2

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The Longhorns (13-1), led again by Madison Booker, rolled through the non-conference but look a bit different than the team OU swept in regular season play last year. 

Star guard Rori Harmon is back after missing conference play last year with an injury, and the ‘Horns have a pair of new faces that play key roles in Miami transfer Kyle Oldacre and freshman Justice Carlton. 

And while Texas head coach Vic Schaefer’s philosophy of pounding the paint hasn’t changed, the matchups on the floor have been slightly altered from a year ago. 

“With Harmon back, that changes Booker’s role a lot,” Baranczyk said.” Not necessarily from a shooting standpoint, but Booker went from being a point guard to more of like a 3 or 4 for them. So that provides a whole different defensive element for people to navigate. And she is so good. Booker is just very, very talented. 

“And so is Harmon. I mean she runs it. She understands what her coach is looking for. She’s a true coach on the floor.”

Oklahoma believes in its depth as well, which has been on full display after the Sooners added Raegan Beers through the transfer portal, got Liz Scott back from injury and have gotten key minutes from true freshman Zya Vann off the bench. 

“It’s just a fun matchup... They have so many different players that have stepped up over time, too,” Baranczyk said. “So and its, we’re a little bit contrasting styles but we’re similar in depth in terms of being able to play so many people and have different combinations. And it can look different.”

There will be a major style clash, however, on Thursday. 

Even with Beers, the Sooners want to get up and down the floor and make it rain from deep. 

Oklahoma is shooting 34.4 percent from 3-point land this season, and the Sooners are averaging 26.6 3-point attempts per game. 

Texas, in contrast, has only made 52 3’s all season long. 

The Longhorns attack the paint relentlessly, and as a result are leading the country with 25.9 free throw attempts per game. 

Opting against shooting 3’s doesn’t mean Texas’ offense isn’t explosive by any means, as they average 91.6 points per game — the exact same mark as OU. 

“There’s going to be a variety of ways we have to be able to guard the paint because they are so versatile,” Baranczyk said. “They’re big. They can score with their back to the basket from their post game. They can get into the paint and drive. They also draw a lot of charges, so that’s something where you don’t want to be able to put them on the free throw line early because of offensive fouls. 

“So I think there’s a lot of just different factors that come into play when it comes to their free throw attempts. But they’re really aggressive and so are we.”

The addition of Beers and the return of Scott will be biggest in matchups like the one against Texas. 

OU has held opponents to shoot just 34 percent from the floor, which ranks 11th in the entire country, and the Sooners are second in the country with a rebounding margin of 18.2 boards per game. 

The Sooners do turn the ball over 17.5 times per game, a number that will have to come down especially if Thursday’s contest is low scoring, but Baranczyk believes in her team’s ability to ride the waves of momentum throughout the contest. 

“I think we have an ability to adjust,” she said. “I think we have an ability to fall down and get up.”

The SEC opener marks the first time since 2009 that the Sooners will play a top 10 matchup at the Lloyd Noble Center when No. 2 OU beat No. 5 Baylor.

But despite the stakes — the rivalry, the rankings and the opening of conference play — Baranczyk said Thursday is just the start of the next phase of the season for Oklahoma. 

“This team is hungry and I think this team is really continuing to grow together,” she said. “We’re not there. We’re not a finished product. This is still part of the beginning part of our journey and I think you can see that, but you can see some really special things.”