Sooner Women's BB at Jumpman on Tuesday at 8:30 PM on ESPN2 !

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Women's Basketball Team will play in Charlotte, NC on Tuesday night at 8:30 PM in the Jumpman Invitational event against #24 North Carolina (7-4). The game will be broadcast on ESPN2 as part of a Jumpman double-header. In the first game on Tuesday night, the Florida Gators and the Michigan Wolverine Men's Teams play starting at 6:00 PM CST. For the Women's between Oklahoma and North Carolina game, Pam Ward, Debbie Antonelli and Myron Medcalf calling the action on ESPN2.

Here is the Sooners staff writers article about the important game vs North Carolina.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/1 ... vitational

As the article notes, the game against North Carolina will be the 5th game against a ranked team or a team receiving votes this season. The previous 4 teams were;

- Ole Miss (Sooner Win 80-70) on the road on Nov 9th.
- Virginia or Tennessee (Sooners defeated Virginia 82-67 on Nov 19th - Sooners were defeated by Tennessee 76-73 on Nov 25th)
- Princeton (Sooner loss at home 77-63 on Nov 23rd)
- UNLV (Sooner loss at home on Dec 9th 92-76.

The Sooners are either 2-2 or 1-3 versus the the four 'ranked' teams. Against those five as a group, the Sooners are 2-3. The Sooners would do themselves a great amount of good if they can defeat #24 ranked North Carolina on Tuesday night.

The game can also be Coach Baranczyk's 250th win of her coaching career which is also a very nice milestone for Coach Baranczyk.

After opening the season with 5 wins, the Tar Heels are 2-4 in their last 6 games.
- lost to #12 ranked Kansas State by 7 points in Manhattan
- lost to FGCU on the road by 1 point
- lost to #1 ranked South Carolina by 7 points at home
- won over UNC Greensboro by 15 at home
- lost to #17 UConn on the road by 12 points
- won their last game over Western Carolina by 60 points at home.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are still trying to find their fifth starter as it has been a different player for their last several games. some of that i due to injuries and some is just trying another player. They do have four good starters as they have been starting 3 guards and 2 forwards/centers.

At guard, they start Deja Kelly (#25 - 5'8" SR) who scores 14.8 Pts/G / 3.0 Reb/G in 33 minutes a game. She is second on the team in assists (30) and steals (23).
At guard, they start Lexi Donarski (#20 - 6'0" Grad) who scores 10.2 Pts/G / 2.6 Reb/G in 31.4 minutes a game. Donarski has made 25 Three's this season at a 37% clip.
At guard/forward they start Alyssa Ustby (#1 - 6'1" SR) who scores 12.0 Pts/G / 8.4 Reb/G in 30.1 minutes a game. Ustby leads the team in assists (38) and steals (24) and rebounds.
At forward/center they start Maria Gakdeng (#5 - 6'3" JR) who scores 11.1 Pts/G / 6.5 Reb/G in 25.2 minutes a game.

The remaining starter will likely be one of three guards: Paris (#2 5'9" SOPH), Nivar (#24 5'10" SOPH) and R Kelly (#1 5'7"FR). None of the three guards play over 18.7 minutes a game and score 7.6 Pts or less per game.

A wild card as a starter could be #13 Key (a G/F who is 6'4" Red-SOPH). She has played in one game, the last one and scored 7 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in 17 minutes of playing time. With Ustby and Key in the lineup, I can see matchup issues for the Sooners along the front line. A backup forward is #31 Poole who is a 6'2" SR who plays 16.5 minutes a game and averages 4 and 4 Pts/Reb.

The Tar Heels score 70.8 Pts/Game and pull down 39.4 Reb/Game. They do not shot the ball all that well as they shoot 47.9% from inside the arc and 27.1% from outside the arc and only 65.7% from the free throw line. They handle the ball well as they turn the ball over only 11.6 times a game while picking up 22.9 assists and steals combined a game.

I think that the matchup for Ustby is a huge key in the game. By the stats, she has to handle the ball a great deal to have the assists and she has to be quick or fast to have the steals she has. Depending on who the fifth starter or player is on the court, the Sooners will have to match up with perhaps two players over 6'3" and Ustby with their biggest starters.

I think that the starting guards Kelly and Donarski will both be bigger than the combo of Tot and Keys by about 5 inches each. Someone is going to have to stay close to Donarski at the arc and someone will have to play defense on Deja Kelly. I can see Reyna Scott being important for defense against the bigger guards, maybe even Joens if she is quick enough to stay with either of them.

I just see matchup issues if the Sooners play one-on-one defense in the game and I prefer the one-on-one defense over the zone that Oklahoma runs at time. It is going to be very important for the Sooners to play fast paced and to shoot well in the game to win. If they can run the bigs for North Carolina off the court it will help. But two of the bigs might be fairly good athletes based upon stats. It could be a real chess match with who is on the court. I think the Sooners may play without both Tot and Keys on the court at the same time and they may play with Williams, Vann and one of Culliton/Johnson/Allen on the court at the same time. They may have to do this to match up unless Verhulst can play big inside on defense.

The Sooners need a win in this game. I think they can win if they play probably what would be their best game of the year ar at least as well as they played against Ole Miss and Virginia.

Good luck to the Sooners on Tuesday.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The game at the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte, NC started about 35 minutes late as the game between the Florida and Michigan Men's teams went two overtimes with Florida winning the game. With that, the game between the Oklahoma and North Carolina women ended shortly before midnight in Charlotte. But the game was really over sometime just after the 3rd quarter started for OU. In the end, North Carolina won easily over Oklahoma 61-52 as they outscored OU 45 to 29 in the last 3 quarters.

OU did start quickly though. The Sooners started quickly as they led 12-5 in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the game. Lexi Keys hit the first 3-pointer that Oklahoma took in their first possession. Surprisingly, that was the last one the Sooners made as they missed their next 25 attempts from downtown. Not many of those 25 misses were even on the inside of the rim as the Sooners shot very poorly from the field last night. The play was almost non-stop until the about the 6 minute mark of the 1st quarter when OU lead 14-9. By then both teams were pretty well gassed I think. At that point, the Sooners substituted five players for five players and the game was really never the same after that. Oklahoma did manage to lead 23-16 at the end of the 1st quarter.

The Sooners shot 6 for 21 in the 2nd quarter and scored 13 points in the quarter. Meanwhile, Deja Kelly and Alyssa Ustby got things going for North Carolina as they scored 11 and 7 points respectively as North Carolina tied the game by half time at 36-36. The Sooner shooting got worse in the 3Q as they were 2 for 19 and scored 4 points in the 3Q. North Carolina got 10 points from Donarski (former Iowa State player) and Paris to lead 52-40. The Tar Heels lead grew to 15 three minutes into the final quarter at 56-41. OU tried to mount a comeback as they outscored the Tar Heels 11-5 during the final 7 minutes but they were still 2 for 12 from the field in the 4thQ but picked up 8 free shots to cut the lead own to 9 points at the final buzzer.

The difference was shooting. OU shot 26.4% for the game that included 3.8% from the 3-point area. They only shot 61.9% from the free throw line. North Carolina did not shoot great but at least they shot 41.1% from the field and 20% from beyond the arc. The two best players for NC shot 13 for 25 and scored 36 points (Kelly and Ustby). The two top scorers for OU shot 9 for 30 and scored 25 points (Verhulst and Vann). Verhulst was the only Sooner that made more than 3 buckets from the field in the game.

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the disappointing loss for the Sooners.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/12/1 ... vitational

I think this quote from Coach Baranczyk tells us one thing. "I thought our first quarter was really good," head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "Then in the second quarter we didn't attack the paint like we did early on. Honestly, I feel like we got really good looks that normally go down for us and tonight they just didn't. To me the thing that the quote tells us is that Coach Baranczyk is trying to put a positive spin on the loss when there was very little to be positive about.

This edition of the Sooners under Baranczyk may just be a flawed team. The flaws do not show up playing against the Grambling' or the Alabama State's of the game. But the flaws have shown up in the 4 of the 5 most recent games they have played. The 1-4 streak has been telling for the Sooners. The 6-4 Sooners have a big uphill challenge looking ahead to the Big 12 confernece play after their next game against Southern (1-8) on Friday night in LNC. The Sooners may struggle to win 15 games by the end of the regular season. It is really hard to believe, how much they miss Liz Scott on the floor playing center right now. Scott is out for the season with a shoulder injury but returns for next season. The Sooner just do not have a presence inside right now and that forces several players to play out of position.

The Sooners start Big 12 play on the 30th against UCF in LNC. There is a great deal to work on for the Sooners between now and then. The shooting will be better but that will not be the solution of the real keys to future victories. Hopefully Coch Baranczyk finds the real keys for future victories in the next 10 days.

Boomer Sooner!

[SwampSooner]

The game was pitiful, to say the least. After the 1st quarter, it looked like the Sooners became rattled and started rushing everything. When it became obvious that our 3 ptrs were not going in, UNC started packing the lane, shutting down the drives to the basket. We scored only 4 points in the 3rd quarter!

I won't say they gave up, but that 2nd half, man-o-man. We slowed the pace and still couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. The last time I saw such poor shooting from an OU team, it was the final 4 semi against Villanova. Similar type arena - very open.

Hope the men can do better tonight.

[TN Sooner]

This team isn’t beating anyone when they’re 1-26 from 3. A lot of those misses were closer to air-balls than buckets- hitting well off any chance of going in.

I watched the first half live and went to bed. I watched the second half this morning. I chose wisely.

I know Skylar has earned the start, but she is just a better player off the bench.

I expected this team to struggle early but come together and be pretty solid by February. Unfortunately, it seems we had some good success early and then have really struggled lately. We knew it would be tough to replace the Big 3. I hope we can get things together soon.

[MsProudSooner]

It's kind of amazing that they didn't lose by more considering how badly they shot the ball. The officiating had nothing to do with the loss but it was nearly as bad as our shooting. I hope the men have better officiating tonight.

[SoonerLee]

Team is fixated on shooting the 3’s
With 2 players 6’3 and 6’4 I would think she would develop an inside game. I like when they played together using the high low post. Playing so poorly what’s there to lose playing some freshman.
Don’t understand why they don’t value the basketball. Turnovers way too many. Send message and pull the player and send them to the bench that has turn over. You would be surprised how fast the turnovers come down. Players hate to sit they like to play.
I think they play NC 5 times ou wins 4/5.
They definitely have to develop an in side game there bigs appear to be good passers.
Play the bigs what you have to loose,
Sooner Lee

[MsProudSooner]

Team is fixated on shooting the 3’s
With 2 players 6’3 and 6’4 I would think she would develop an inside game. I like when they played together using the high low post. Playing so poorly what’s there to lose playing some freshman.
Don’t understand why they don’t value the basketball. Turnovers way too many. Send message and pull the player and send them to the bench that has turn over. You would be surprised how fast the turnovers come down. Players hate to sit they like to play.
I think they play NC 5 times ou wins 4/5.
They definitely have to develop an in side game there bigs appear to be good passers.
Play the bigs what you have to loose,
Sooner Lee

Beatrice Cullitun is our 6'3" sophomore and Landry Allen is 6'4" freshman Both played last night. When we are shooting as poorly as we did last night, teams pack the paint, dare us to shoot 3s and make it almost impossible to get a good look inside. When, we are hitting a decent percentage of our 3's we end up scoring more points in the paint than from outside because teams have to honor the outside shot and can't pack it in on the inside

[AustinTXSooner]

Team is fixated on shooting the 3’s
With 2 players 6’3 and 6’4 I would think she would develop an inside game. I like when they played together using the high low post. Playing so poorly what’s there to lose playing some freshman.
Don’t understand why they don’t value the basketball. Turnovers way too many. Send message and pull the player and send them to the bench that has turn over. You would be surprised how fast the turnovers come down. Players hate to sit they like to play.
I think they play NC 5 times ou wins 4/5.
They definitely have to develop an in side game there bigs appear to be good passers.
Play the bigs what you have to loose,
Sooner Lee

We had 15 turnovers and UNC had 23. Turnovers didn't lose the game. Poor shooting did. And MsProudSooner is right, the officiating was horrendous. Played into UNC's game.

[SoonerMike]

I mostly agree with previous comments. One of the things we lack is players that can and will make a offensive play when we are in a dry spell. We lost 3 big time scorers who did that for us the last few years. Skylar did a little, and Payton started to do a little, but yes, we started missing shot after shot, and it effected all our shooting. Defense was OK, hustle was good, but we couldn't hit a shot.
We need to develop leaders to help in tough times, or this season is going to go downhill fast.