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OU Basketball: Oklahoma Playing With 'Chip' to Snap Sweet 16 Drought

The Sooners have lost in the Second Round each of the last three years and must go through 6-seeded Iowa to get back to their first Sweet 16 since 2013.

Ryan Chapman

Oklahoma's Skylar Vann and Raegan Beers
Oklahoma's Skylar Vann and Raegan Beers / SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
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NORMAN — For three years, Oklahoma has been stuck. 

Jennie Baranczyk has taken OU back to the NCAA Tournament in every year of her four-season stint in Norman, and the Sooners are 3-0 in the First Round. 

But Oklahoma is still searching for its first Sweet Sixteen berth since 2013. 

The Sooners fell at home to 5-seeded Notre Dame in 2022, then lost road games at 4-seeded UCLA (2023) and 4-seeded Indiana (2024).

Back at home, Baranczyk will have to go through her alma mater, Iowa, to reach new heights. 

“(Monday) is going to be a great tipping point for us to really see how far we have come and how far people want us to go here,” Baranczyk said on Sunday. 

The Sooners returned 98 percent of their production from the team that fell 75-68 in the Second Round in Bloomington, IN, last year. 

But Baranczyk wanted more. 

She landed center Raegan Beers out of the transfer portal, and she’s added 17.7 points, 9.2 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game this year. 

Beers also brings valuable experience. 

Oregon State advanced all the way to the Elite Eight last year with Beers, a stage the Sooners haven’t been on since 2010.

OU guard Payton Verhulst has also made a deep run, as she helped Louisville make the 2022 Final Four as a freshman before she transferred to Norman. 

Oklahoma’s seniors have racked up plenty of experience over the last three tournament runs, but Baranczyk said the entire team is happy to listen when Beers and Verhulst talk about what it takes to make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. 

“Our student-athletes are our greatest teachers,” Baranczyk said. “… Your players constantly teach you those incredible lessons, and then they teach you how to continue to get better. So their experiences getting to where they've been are different.

“So there is not a pattern. If there was a pattern it would be really easy to be able to do. But there isn't, and so you've got to learn through life experiences. I think they continue to teach me. I love their leadership, period, regardless of where they've been.”

Beers told Sooners on SI that once thing she’s seen this year that mirrors her experience last year was the intensity the team has brought to practice every day. 

“For these girls that maybe haven’t been there, they still know what it takes because we’ve been talking about it and they have seen the work that it takes in practice to even get to this level,” Beers said. “… So they know what it takes to get there.”

How to Watch 3-seeded Oklahoma vs. 6-seeded Iowa

  • Where: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman, OK
  • When: 3 p.m.
  • Channel: ESPN

Oklahoma certainly has the attention of the 6-seeded Hawkeyes, who dispatched of 11-seed Murray State 92-57 on Saturday.

Any opposing scouting report generally starts with Beers, but Iowa coach Jan Jensen said the versatility of every piece for the Sooners creates matchup problems. 

“You have to locate where Verhulst is because she'll stop and pull it right insight the March Madness logo and go in on you,” Jensen said. “And then you have the 4’s. The fours can shoot. (Sahara) Williams can post up… Saturday, Vann. Wow, her 3’s. And she looks like she shouldn't do that, right. She's strong, and I'm just going to post up at the block.”

Vann scored a season-high 24 points against Florida Gulf Coast in OU’s First Round matchup, only to be outdone by Beers’ 25 points. 

“She's so good at splitting you in the middle of the paint, and if she pivots, if she gets it from anywhere where that SEC logo is on the floor up to that charge circle, it's money,” Jensen said of Beers. “It doesn't matter. You could have three hanging on her, right. She's just so strong… She owns that area.”

Oklahoma has to settle in to execute the game plan, however. 

The Sooners played tight in the second quarter against the Eagles on Saturday, and it wasn’t until the very end that OU was able to pull away. 

“You’ve got to play the game and you can't get too far ahead of yourself and hold on to things that are (in the past),” Baranczyk said.  “… We've got to be able to step out and you got to be able to play the game. And then you to have things go right, you know.

“Some of these things you can control and some of those things you can't control. You have to give everything you have.”

Oklahoma (26-7) and Iowa (23-10) will meet at 3 p.m. at the Lloyd Noble Center on Monday (ESPN) to see if the year’s preparations will be rewarded with a trip to Spokane, WA, for the Sweet Sixteen. 

“It’s not going to be given to us… We have to go take it,” senior guard Nevaeh Tot said. “Like yes, we have the home court advantage but Iowa’s going to come in ready to play. Obviously they want to make it to the Sweet Sixteen just as much as we do. 

“So it’s just having that chip on our shoulder that we haven’t (been) But this year we have another chance to surpass that goal.”

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is managing editor at Sooners On SI and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK. 

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