Sooner Women BB host Kansas on Saturday @ 6PM on Saturday in LNC

[OUBeliever56A]

In a doubleheader day @ LNC, the Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball Team host the Kansas Jayhawks in a 6 PM tip-off tomorrow night at the Lloyd Noble Center. Both teams are coming off important wins in their last games. The Sooners defeated Texas in Austin in a very big win by 4 points with OU playing perhaps their best game of the season. Kansas defeated the Iowa State Cyclones at home in Lawrence by 2 points on a last second layup.

OU is in 2nd Place with a 6-1 conference record while Kansas is 3-5 in 9th place. But somehow, the Jayhawks have a Net Ranking of 44 while Oklahoma is at 46 after their win over Texas. So, someone thinks that Kansas has a shot at inning in Norman tomorrow.

Kansas starts four guards and a center. It is a very experienced group with four super-seniors and a freshman. The freshman, Nichols, is a 6'0" guard that is averaging 14.1 PPG and grabs 3.2 rebounds. She is having a good freshman season. The other three guards are 5'7" Mayberry, 5'8" Franklin and 5'11" Kersgieter. The three of them score 32 points a game. I have always thought Kersgieter played with intensity and was a thorn in the other teams side. all three can play. OU will have to match up with them effectively. They do like to post guards against smaller guards so Tot and Keys has to be ready for that. The fifth starter is the 6'6" center, Jackson. She has talent but is not very quick or fleet footed. She plays 25 minutes a game with the other 4 starters average at least 29.

The Jayhawks only play one other player over 12 minutes a game. Cobbins has played 21 minutes a game and averages 4.1 PPG and 3.9 rebounds as a 6'0" G/F. Kansas does use two players as the post player behind Jackson in 6'4" Papadopoulou and 6'3" Telegdy. Together they scores 3 points and get 4 rebounds in 15 total minutes. Gill, a 5'10 F/C plays 12 minutes a game and averages 2.5 points and 1.4 boards.

I hope the Sooners have focused on the recovery from their superior effort on Wednesday. It takes time to build that body back to game shape after extended minutes and travel. I am sure the training staff has focused on that and that they took either Thursday or Friday light at practice.

The Sooners can probably run enough to force Kansas to play the 6'6" Jackson less. I have always been worried about Jackson inside, but that has not developed against the Sooners. The Sooners have held her under 14 points the last two seasons. I hope the Sooners are able to do that this season. I think the game outcome revolves around the guard play and who matches up with the freshman Nichols. Maybe Verhulst and Williams draw that assignment. Vann and the Sooner triple towers off the bench will hold their own, probably inside. Tucker may play an important role off the bench to play against Nichols or the hot guard at the time. Of course, it all starts with the shooting, if the Sooners shots are going through the net, most everything else will flow well.

Good luck to the Sooners.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the OU-Kansas game Saturday night.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/26 ... n-saturday

The game will air on ESPN+ and tip at 6 p.m. CT. The game is Oklahoma's white out game and fans are encouraged to wear white Oklahoma gear. The famous Red Panda returns to Lloyd Noble Center for the halftime performance. There is no mention of the radio broadcast or the ESPN+ announcers for the game.

Good luck for the Sooners as they try to win their 4th in a row on Saturday night.

Boomer Sooner!

[EMan]

Sooners get the win, but it wasn't any walk in the park. I believe OU's biggest lead in the game was 6 points at 36-30. Overall the Sooners shot poorly and only hit 4 three's all game. But they protected the ball with only 8 turnovers to kind of even out some of the poor shooting. It looked like perhaps the big win at Texas* may have drained them some as they seemed to lack energy tonight. But once again, they made the plays late to pull out the W, 60-55.

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball Team did not play their best game, but they did win at home in Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday night 6-55 over the Kansas Jayhawks. The Sooners have now won 4 games in a row and own a 7-1 conference record and are in a solid 2nd place in the league. The Sooners are now 13-6 on the season. The Sooners somehow managed to win this game despite shooting only 32% from the field, including only 38% from inside the 3-point line, and only 19% from outside the 3-point line. Even their free throw % was down at 66.7%. But 14 offensive boards and turnover differences (OU only committed 8 in the game) create 17 more shots from the field from the field as OU made three more buckets in the game than Kansas which created the 5 point difference in the game. Oklahoma also outrebounded Kansas 46 to 38.

I think even Coach Baranczyk admitted in her post-game interview that the Sooners did suffer from fatigue in Saturday's game after the max effort against Texas on the road in Austin on Wednesday night. The game against Kansas was a much slower paced game. but in the end, the Sooners delivered a win with some clutch play lead by Skylar Vann the entire game. Vann scored 21 points and pulled down 7 rebounds (both game highs for OU). Payton Verhulst added 12 second half points (she did not score in the first half) and 6 rebounds in a good supportive effort. Tot scored 6 points with 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Keys and Johnson scored 5 points (Johnson all in the 4th quarter) and they had 5 and 4 rebounds.

Oklahoma scored consistently throughout the game except for a 5-minute period of play in the 3rd quarter. OU had just scored on two consecutive possessions at the 7:15 mark as Verhulst made two three's on back-to-back possessions to give the Sooners the lead 36-30. The OU substituted for the entire five Sooners on the floor. IMO, that killed the momentum that OU had and they did not score for five minutes after most of the starting lineup had rotated back into the game. Tot made a bucket to make the score 38-35 with 2:00 minutes left in the quarter.

What was even more odd was that in the 4th quarter with the score tied at 44-44, the Sooners repeated the same substitution change at the 7:07 mark. This time, Johnson scored 3 points and the Sooner led 47-45 when the starters started subbing back in. I wish I understood substitution strategy sometimes for the Sooners. I know that still won but it is just different to me. Maybe it was a measure to give some rest to the Sooner starters which was probably needed. But it seems to be a goo thing to keep 2 or 3 starters on the floor at all times to me.

With the game tied at 53-53 just inside 3 minutes, Vann made two big buckets to give OU the 57-53 lead. Trailing 57-55, Kansas was force to foul OU three or four straight times to force OU to the free throw line inside one minute left in the game. Keys was the final Sooner fouled to send her to the line. Keys made both for 59-55 lead. Ater a Kansas miss, Vann was fouled as she pulled down a rebound and made one more free throw to produce the final score of 60-55.

Oklahoma did look a bit slower in the game compared to Wednesday's game and the travel in Austin. But it seems like OU does not have a real 'cure' for guarding a player going over a screen on defense. The played being screened, tries to get over the screen with lots of contact with the OU player behind the screen usually just watching. Williams is the only one that sometimes jumps out to stop the ball to help the Sooner trying get over the screen. Kansas easily scored 8-10 buckets along the edges of the lane a step or two after going by a screen.

The Sooners are now 7-1 in the conference and in second place. They have a opportunity on Wednesday night to even their record as they host Kansas State in the LNC in a 6 PM tipoff. K-State won their earlier game in Manhattan 74-57. The Wildcats are playing right now without Ayoka Lee due to an injury which removes 19 points from the K-State total in the first game.

In closing, the week that Skylar Vann had is very impressive. In the two games this week (Texas and Kansas), Vann scored 40 points with 19 rebounds and 6 assists. She was 15 for 24 from the field and 3 of 6 from beyond the arc and 7 of 8 from the free throw line. she played over 62 minutes in the two games also. If she does not win the Big 12 player of the week, it would be a shame IMO.

Congrats on the win, and winning four conference games in a row.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here is the Sooner staff writers article about the Sooners win.

https://soonersports.com/news/2024/1/27 ... -in-big-12

Here is a quote from Coach Baranczyk after the game.

"This is one of those games that show how tough the Big 12 is," third-year head coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "This league is so unique because of how different teams play and the versatility from top to bottom. I'm proud of the way that we stuck in it. I'm not necessarily proud of our offensive production or our energy early on, but I'm proud of the way that when push came to shove in the fourth quarter, we were able to come out on top, and that's not something we were able to do a month ago."

Boomer Sooner!

[AustinTXSooner]

Kansas certainly controlled the tempo. But our defense came to play. We were quick in spurts, but Kansas was not letting our transition game get started. When they put up a shot, it seemed that only Jackson remained behind to try and rebound.

Jackson is an interesting case study. Part of the reason she plays less minutes than the other starters is that she gets in foul trouble. She protects the rim, which makes it harder for us to drive, so we had to shoot from outside. The interesting part to me is that she looks like she's not having any fun at all. She looks like her parents are making her play. I didn't really see her talking to her teammates either. She could be as good as Ayoka Lee if she played with the right frame of mind (that includes practice), but she doesn't. She has plenty of talent and she does affect games when she's playing, but she could be much more dominant.

[SoonerMike]

Good comments above. I will only add that this team may have learned a little on how to win, even when not paying well. K Johnson in late in the game for Walker, and played well. So, nice win. Congrats