Sooner Women's BB Travels to Utah to play BYU: Wed Jan 3rd @ 8PM
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2024 2:32 pm
Fresh off their opening Big 12 win over UCF, the Oklahoma Sooners travel to Provo to play BYU in a late night 8 PM CST game. On Saturday, BYU lost to TCU in Ft. Worth 81-67. On Saturday, OU defeated UCF by 17 points 69-52. Oklahoma comes into the game with a 1-0 Big 12 conference record and a 7-5 overall record. BYU is 10-4 overall and is 0-1 in Big 12 play.
The game will be televised on ESPN+ and the Sooner Radio Network for OU Women's BB.
Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game with BYU on Wednesday night.
https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/2/ ... -wednesday
The Sooner Women's team has played BYU and won all six times. Coach Baranczyk owns two of those 6 victories over BYU as result of games in 2021 and 2022 with wins by 8 and 11 points in the consecutive seasons.
The game will likely turn into a contrast of styles, tempo and matchups. BYU is lead in almost every way by Lauren Gustin, #12 SR 6'1" F. In the two games with OU during the last two seasons, Gustin scored 15 and 13 points and pulled down 20 and 21 rebounds. The Sooners have to put a body on her and play her tough the entire game. This season, Gustin is averaging 16.4 points and 15.6 rebounds with almost 5 offensive rebounds a game. The matchup against Gustin is the key matchup for the Sooners. The only achilles heel for Gustin is that she has turned the ball over 51 times this season.
Two guards also play well for BYU with Woolston and Whiting, both freshman adding 25.9 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. Woolston is 5'11" while Whiting is 5'10". Woolston leads the Cougars in 3-point buckets while Whiting leads the Cougars in assists and steals. These two young guards could provide some matchup issues for the Sooners as well.
The remaining frontcourt players who starts is Calvert, a 6'4" F who scores 9.3 pts and 4.9 boards a game. She has 27 blocks this season and can make a 3-pointer is left open. The remaining guard is a Senior, Smiler, 5'8", who scores 7.6 pts and 24 boards a game. Smiler does everything, assists, steals, 3-pointers and blocks.
Four of the five starters for BYU play over 33 minutes. Their ability to keep up the pace with OU's quick pace could be key in the game at altitude. But of course that atlitude, could cause OU problems as well.
BYU plays only 4 or 5 other players with three of them being 6'0" G/Fs and a 6'3" forward and a 5'9" guard. BYU will have 3 or more 5'11" players on the floor most of the time.
The Cougars score 70.3 points a game and pulls down 41.2 rebounds. They commit 17.9 turnovers a game with 16.4 assists and 6.2 steals a game. They probably do not run much though as they only put up 54.2 shots a game. They shoot almost 39% from 3-point territory, 48.0% from inside the arc and 62.1% from the free throw line. They do go to the free throw line 20 time which helps them score.
The Sooners will be able to shoot more shots than BYU as the Sooners average 14 more shots game and 18 fee shots of their own. Oklahoma is shooting 51.4% from inside the arc but only 30% from beyond the 3-point line. A key number as always will be the Sooner turnovers as they average 19.5 a game. If OU can keep the turnovers under 15 against BYU, it should help a great deal.
We may see a change in the starting lineup for the Sooners. I just do not see how OU matchups us with a "frontline" Vann, Williams and Verhulst. I will make a guess and say that either Culliton or Johnson will start tomorrow with Williams moving to the bench for the game. Culliton/Johnson/Landry will triple-team Calvert and Hamson (bench) for BYU. I think Vann nd Williams will double-team Gustin while Verhulst and Joens (bench) probably matches up with Whiting (who goes to the boards). I think we may see just one of Tot and Keyes start tomorrow also as I think Scott moves into the starting lineup to play against Woolston. The other Sooner guard will matchup with Smiler. Kennedy can relieve as needed against the three BYU guards.
I think OU will want to run when they can. If they can control the boards (keeping one eye on Gustin) and get the ball out on the break, they may have some success running if they handle the ball well in transition. But when they run their set offense, movement of the ball is important and back door cut will help the offense. I would like to see fewer quick threes for the Sooners tomorrow night as the Sooners try to run patterns and work for better higher percentage shots against BYU.
I think the Sooners can pick up a win on Wednesday night against BYU. Maybe it is an upset win on the road as well. But OU's net ranking is #70 compared to BYU's #91.
Good luck to the Sooners in Utah! Coming home as a team 2-0 will be much better than returning to Norman 1-1 preparing to play Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon in LNC.
Boomer Sooner!
The game will be televised on ESPN+ and the Sooner Radio Network for OU Women's BB.
Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the game with BYU on Wednesday night.
https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/2/ ... -wednesday
The Sooner Women's team has played BYU and won all six times. Coach Baranczyk owns two of those 6 victories over BYU as result of games in 2021 and 2022 with wins by 8 and 11 points in the consecutive seasons.
The game will likely turn into a contrast of styles, tempo and matchups. BYU is lead in almost every way by Lauren Gustin, #12 SR 6'1" F. In the two games with OU during the last two seasons, Gustin scored 15 and 13 points and pulled down 20 and 21 rebounds. The Sooners have to put a body on her and play her tough the entire game. This season, Gustin is averaging 16.4 points and 15.6 rebounds with almost 5 offensive rebounds a game. The matchup against Gustin is the key matchup for the Sooners. The only achilles heel for Gustin is that she has turned the ball over 51 times this season.
Two guards also play well for BYU with Woolston and Whiting, both freshman adding 25.9 points and 8.8 rebounds a game. Woolston is 5'11" while Whiting is 5'10". Woolston leads the Cougars in 3-point buckets while Whiting leads the Cougars in assists and steals. These two young guards could provide some matchup issues for the Sooners as well.
The remaining frontcourt players who starts is Calvert, a 6'4" F who scores 9.3 pts and 4.9 boards a game. She has 27 blocks this season and can make a 3-pointer is left open. The remaining guard is a Senior, Smiler, 5'8", who scores 7.6 pts and 24 boards a game. Smiler does everything, assists, steals, 3-pointers and blocks.
Four of the five starters for BYU play over 33 minutes. Their ability to keep up the pace with OU's quick pace could be key in the game at altitude. But of course that atlitude, could cause OU problems as well.
BYU plays only 4 or 5 other players with three of them being 6'0" G/Fs and a 6'3" forward and a 5'9" guard. BYU will have 3 or more 5'11" players on the floor most of the time.
The Cougars score 70.3 points a game and pulls down 41.2 rebounds. They commit 17.9 turnovers a game with 16.4 assists and 6.2 steals a game. They probably do not run much though as they only put up 54.2 shots a game. They shoot almost 39% from 3-point territory, 48.0% from inside the arc and 62.1% from the free throw line. They do go to the free throw line 20 time which helps them score.
The Sooners will be able to shoot more shots than BYU as the Sooners average 14 more shots game and 18 fee shots of their own. Oklahoma is shooting 51.4% from inside the arc but only 30% from beyond the 3-point line. A key number as always will be the Sooner turnovers as they average 19.5 a game. If OU can keep the turnovers under 15 against BYU, it should help a great deal.
We may see a change in the starting lineup for the Sooners. I just do not see how OU matchups us with a "frontline" Vann, Williams and Verhulst. I will make a guess and say that either Culliton or Johnson will start tomorrow with Williams moving to the bench for the game. Culliton/Johnson/Landry will triple-team Calvert and Hamson (bench) for BYU. I think Vann nd Williams will double-team Gustin while Verhulst and Joens (bench) probably matches up with Whiting (who goes to the boards). I think we may see just one of Tot and Keyes start tomorrow also as I think Scott moves into the starting lineup to play against Woolston. The other Sooner guard will matchup with Smiler. Kennedy can relieve as needed against the three BYU guards.
I think OU will want to run when they can. If they can control the boards (keeping one eye on Gustin) and get the ball out on the break, they may have some success running if they handle the ball well in transition. But when they run their set offense, movement of the ball is important and back door cut will help the offense. I would like to see fewer quick threes for the Sooners tomorrow night as the Sooners try to run patterns and work for better higher percentage shots against BYU.
I think the Sooners can pick up a win on Wednesday night against BYU. Maybe it is an upset win on the road as well. But OU's net ranking is #70 compared to BYU's #91.
Good luck to the Sooners in Utah! Coming home as a team 2-0 will be much better than returning to Norman 1-1 preparing to play Cincinnati on Saturday afternoon in LNC.
Boomer Sooner!