On a March Monday three years ago, Jennie Baranczyk spent much of the second half of her team’s NCAA Tournament game with a glassy-eyed look. There wasn’t much the OU women’s basketball coach could do that day. The Sooners had fallen behind Notre Dame by 23 points after the first quarter, and the deficit ballooned to 35 points by halftime.
The Irish bludgeoned the Sooners.
OU didn’t have the size or the skill or the strength to compete with Notre Dame.
Fast forward to this most recent March Monday, a day in which the Sooners were the ones doing the bludgeoning, and the change that Baranczyk has brought to OU women’s basketball is obvious.
“Today’s, I think, one of those validation points,” she said after OU’s 96-62 beatdown of Iowa, “when you play for joy and play together, look at what happens.”
Yes, the Sooners look to be a united, harmonious bunch, but they’re also dang good. They are talented and tough, fast and physical.
It’s anyone’s guess how OU will match up against Connecticut in their Sweet 16 showdown on Saturday. The Huskies have long been dang good, and they have the best player in the tournament. After Southern Cal’s JuJu Watkins suffered a season-ending knee injury, the mantle of best-in-the-show fell to UConn’s Paige Bueckers. She and the Huskies will be a load for the Sooners. For any opponent, really.
But OU looks as prepared as it has been in years for a challenge such as this.
That’s a credit to the players, of course, but all of it starts with Baranczyk.
Early in her tenure at OU, there was evidence of how good she is. She took over a team that went 12-12, and with the same core players — Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson, Ana Llanusa — the Sooners went 25-9, finished fourth in the Big 12 and earned a host site for the NCAA Tournament.
It was a huge accomplishment.
But that second-round loss to Notre Dame showed that OU still had a long way to go.
“The first year here obviously we weren’t ready for it,” Baranczyk said.
So she and her coaching staff went back to work, developing the players already on campus and going after even more talent. Prepsters. Transfers. (The biggest get might’ve come Tuesday when the nation’s top recruit, Aaliyah Chavez, chose OU over Texas and a who’s who of women’s basketball, but that’s a story for another day.)
Baranczyk didn’t just land players who seemed to be natural fits for her up-and-down, high-octane style either.
Raegan Beers is evidence of that.
Even though she was widely regarded as one of the best players in the transfer portal a year ago, the 6-foot-4 center from Oregon State isn’t a speedster. Not saying she’s slow, but she’s a more traditional center. Back to the basket. Pummel you in the paint. Punish you on the board.
But her inside threat has been a perfect compliment to the Sooners’ shooters. As a team, the shooting percentage from the floor has gone from 42.4% a year ago to 45.8%. From behind the arc, it has gone from 31.3% to 32.2%.
Beers has also brought an attitude to the Sooners. She got popped in the face twice in that game against Iowa, and yes, her grimaces made it clear that she was in pain. But in both cases, she returned to the game.
That’s powerful not only for Beers but also for everyone else on her team.
“Sometimes it’s more about the presence that we have for one another,” Baranczyk said. “She still is trying to learn how amazing her presence is and how when she is really strong like that, it is such an anchor for us.”
Another thing that’s been interesting is that Baranczyk hasn’t been afraid of going with whoever she believes gives her team the best chance to win.
Nevaeh Tot and Lexy Keys started last season while Aubrey Joens averaged almost 17 minutes a game. This season, Keys has come off the bench all year, Tot became a reserve midway through the year and Joens is playing only seven minutes a game.
Why?
Liz Scott returned from injury, Reyna Scott got way better, and Little Vann, Zya, is big time.
It would’ve been easy for Baranczyk to lean into seniority or the status quo. Egos can get bruised, and equilibriums can get disturbed.
And maybe they did.
But the Sooners seem to have navigated through any rough waters, and now, they have a chance to advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2010 and for only the fourth time in program history.
Every time OU has made the Elite Eight, it has made the Final Four.
Are Baranczyk and her Sooners ready for that jump?
Their first two games in this year’s tournament are signs of a grand evolution. Yes, the domination of Iowa was impressive, but every bit as telling was the way the Sooners learned from a close call in the first round. They didn’t play their best against Florida Gulf Coast. Even though they eventually won going away, they let Florida Gulf Coast stick around and found themselves in a tighter fit than expected in the third quarter.
Two days later, OU put its foot on Iowa’s throat and leaned in.
“I do think you have to work through some things to get to those moments,” Baranczyk said.
“This is not just this season. This is years going.”
She nodded.
“The journey keeps going,” she said.
Eyes that were glassy three short years ago have a different look today.
It’s a look of steel.
Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at @jennicarlsonok.bsky.social and twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.
OU vs. UConn
TIPOFF: 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Spokane Arena in Spokane, Wash. (ESPN)
