In 2023, Oklahoma capped off conference play with its first Big 12 regular season title in 14 years.
Last year, head coach Jennie Baranczyk led a once-struggling program to new heights in just her second season. However, there was one caveat.
Oklahoma had to share its accolade with Texas.
The Longhorns were the only team that did not lose to the Sooners in conference play, beating them in both meetings. One year later, OU is back on top of the Big 12 and has the opportunity to leave the Lloyd Noble Center on Wednesday night with a second consecutive regular season title.
But this time, the Sooners could potentially hoist the trophy single-handedly.
“You can sit there and not just dream about it, but you potentially have an opportunity to cut some nets down,” Baranczyk said before practice on Tuesday. “That’s pretty special. However, it’s still not our focus, ... I think that’s something that we learned a year ago, and I’m really hopeful we get to learn tomorrow.”
With two games left in their season, the Sooners just need to win one, but to secure the title in Norman, the No. 20 ranked team in the nation will have to get a win over No. 3 Texas (26-3,13-3 Big 12).
The Longhorns are in the midst of an eight-game winning streak dating back to its last matchup with OU. On Jan. 24 in Austin, the then-unranked Sooners defeated the Longhorns 91-87.
The win over Texas was debatably one of the focal points of OU’s season, but for Texas’ head coach Vic Schaefer, a loss like the one his team suffered against the Sooners wasn’t going to happen again.
“It doesn’t need to go any further than right here,” Schaefer said postgame on Jan. 24. “The buck stops here. Obviously, I didn’t have my team ready to go tonight. I didn’t have the girls ready to play and Oklahoma was really good tonight.”
And Schaefer kept his word.
Texas has not dropped a game since and has gathered two ranked wins over No. 2 Kansas State and No. 13 Baylor.
The Longhorns offense has carried them through the final stretch of conference play and is composed of lethal shooters like freshman forward Madison Booker. Texas boasts the fourth best field goal percentage in the nation, shooting an average of 50.3% from the floor a game.
“You cannot underestimate (Texas) whatsoever,” Baranczyk said. “They obviously have a freshman phenom (Booker) that’s incredible. They have size, they have athleticism, they’re rebounding like crazy right now. They’re a good team. They’re not just a one-player program, so everybody has to do their part tomorrow.”
Like Texas, Baranczyk and the Sooners were also forced to recover and respond after a tough loss.
Part of OU's dominant conference run can be attributed to its last non-conference game of the season, where it suffered an upsetting defeat to a Southern team who had just one win.
But that finish forced Baranczyk to reevaluate her team.
“I don’t know if we necessarily needed all of that, but we did need the response,” Baranczyk said. “I feel like we responded in the right way. What I mean by that is I feel like we looked in the mirror, we owned it and said ‘okay, this is where we’re at, this is what’s happened, how do we get better?’”
OU’s response would change the team’s mindset and image, but the Longhorns will pose many challenges on Wednesday.
The matchup offers opportunities for both teams to earn a high-stakes win. However, Baranczyk is focused on the game, not the rivalry, and is encouraging the community to do the same.
“To me, don’t come because it’s Texas,” Baranczyk said. “I don’t really care to see one ‘horns down,’ one ‘Beat Texas’ shirt, I don’t want to see any of that. I want you to come because you love this team.”
No. 20 Oklahoma (20-7, 14-2 Big 12) will play No. 3 Texas at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman on ESPN+.
This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings
