Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Oklahoma women’s basketball team hopes to focus on getting better while utilizing the experience it has returning.
Coming off back-to-back Big 12 Championship wins and entering their inaugural SEC season, the No. 10 Sooners are bringing back 98% of their scoring from the 2024 Big 12 Championship game.
OU will also enter the SEC with 94% of its minutes, 98% of its scoring, all five of its starters and nearly the entire bench returning.
“We just have an incredible group of women that decided to come back and a lot of our returners are fifth-year seniors,” OU head coach Jennie Baranczyk said during Southeastern Conference Basketball Media Days. “That’s incredible.
“You’re just a little bit more hungry. You feel like you’ve done well, but you’re not where you want to go. And so, there is that sense of urgency that you don’t get with every team.”
The Sooners roster has played 700 cumulative career games making it one of the most experienced rosters in the country.
The focus for Baranczyk and OU is to get better. The SEC will provide challenges that the Sooners did not face in the Big 12. Heading into the year, Oklahoma will be in a conference with preseason No. 1 South Carolina, No. 4 Texas, No. 7 Louisiana State, No. 20 Mississippi, No. 22 Kentucky and No. 24 Alabama. Even with the experienced team Oklahoma has, it will have to step ahead.
“They know in this league, you don’t get a day off, so that is where our focus really has been,” Baranczyk stated. “That’s the best part about having an experienced team, your practices are really good, and there’s a huge sense of urgency every day.”
Last season, the team struggled when shifting from offense to defense. Oklahoma was also undersized in paint, but Baranczyk hopes 6-foot-4 Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers will help on the interior.
The All-American joined the Sooners as one of the nation’s top recruits in the transfer portal and was named a member of the All-SEC First Team this past week.
“She’s exactly what we needed, and she fits, from a cultural off-court standpoint, so well with our team and her personality,” Baranczyk said. “She fits so well on the floor. I think one of the things our team does so well is everybody’s different. Everybody brings a different skill set and so she brings something that we did not have, and so it’s been an incredible fit so far, and I’m excited for our team to continue to go.”
Oklahoma will open its season against Southern at 5 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 4 at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman.
This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings.
