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OU Basketball: Oklahoma Lands Another NCAA Tournament Bid in Norman

The Sooners are in the postseason for the fourth year in a row under Jennie Baranczyk and will host first- and second-round games for the second time in four years.

John E. Hoover

Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk
Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk / BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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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 program's highest since reaching the Final Four in 2010. 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.

"I feel like the connection of our team has been really incredible," Baranczyk said Sunday nighgt. "I like the balance of our team. I like that we've had to find ways to win different. We've had to play different types of opponents. You know, playing Georgia is different than playing Kentucky. That's different than playing South Carolina. So it stretches you. And you know, there's so many good teams in the SEC. So for us, not only just recently, but I really think this conference has stretched us, and you really hope that you get to see that growth as you head into the NCAA Tournament."

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.

How to Watch Oklahoma vs. FGCU NCAA Tournament Game

When: Saturday, March 22
Where: Norman
Time: Approximately 1:30 p.m.
Channel: ESPNU

"Last week was a hard week for them, and we were really intentional about being able to to practice really hard," Baranczyk said Sunday night. "And sometimes you practice harder than actual games are ... and we had a few days last week where it wasn't, 'Hey, everybody, rest up and let's go.' It was, 'We're still a really hungry group.' I mean, this, this team is a it's a fun team. And you can see that."

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.

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John E. Hoover
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.

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