'That Oklahoma jersey drives my passion': Skylar Vann's choice to stay with OU turned a lifelong dream into reality

In the era of NIL and transfer portal mayhem, Skylar Vann could have gone anywhere after a tumultuous first season with Oklahoma women’s basketball. 

But Vann didn't — she stayed. 

“I’m from Oklahoma,” Vann told the OU Daily.

For the senior, playing at OU was a lifelong dream set into motion, but the path was not smooth, nor easy, and in the midst of struggle, it was her commitment to the program that stood beside her as she walked through it.

The forward was a last minute OU recruit, who was originally destined for Temple. However, four years later, Vann and Oklahoma’s women's basketball are seemingly interchangeable.

However, that was not always the case.

Vann dreamed of playing for the university, but her freshman year was heavily regulated due to COVID-19. It also posed questions of uncertainty when former OU head coach Sherri Coale retired after Vann’s first season with the Sooners.

But in the era of the pandemic, it was only fitting that a Zoom call would change her life and collegiate career.

Four weeks into the offseason, Vann and her teammates were coachless and confused about where the program was headed. However, an answer came in the form of current OU head coach Jennie Baranczyk.

“The only reason why I ended up staying is because of that Zoom call with Jennie,” Vann said. “It’s always risky when a coach leaves and a new one comes in — the whole program changes. I was like ‘I’ll hop on this and see what I think based on this first conversation.’

I got lucky being able to have her come in and grow this program into something special.”

Although Vann knew Baranczyk would make the team better, she would soon experience the learning curve that accompanies change.

Stepping into the facility for her sophomore season, Vann couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the vigor of a division one college basketball program.

“It was so hard,” Vann said. “I think for me, that was the moment where I was like, ‘Oh, my freshman year was nothing compared to what I’m doing right now.’ That’s when I knew how intense college basketball really was.”

For the next three years, Vann would learn from Baranczyk and she would realize that although growth is a step-by-step process, it is not always linear. Despite initial struggles, her connection to the university and her love for the game of basketball kept her committed.

I have family here, it’s hard to imagine leaving,” Vann said. “You gotta do what makes you happy. But playing in that Oklahoma jersey drives my passion.”

‘An uncanny knack for finding the basket’

Dreams of a crimson and cream jersey donned with the number 24 were some of Vann’s earliest memories, but the distance from the Deer Creek gym to the Lloyd Noble Center created a path that was long way to reality.

The Edmond, Oklahoma, native grew up just 38 minutes away from OU’s campus and was born into the Sooner bloodline. In a family of athletes, her father, former OU men’s basketball player, Bryatt Vann, who played under head coach Billy Tubbs from 1992-93, served as a role model for his daughter..

“I started working out with Skylar around the sixth grade,” Bryatt said when reflecting on his daughter's time playing at OU. “We were doing those 5:30 a.m. workouts.”

While mostly quiet and reserved in person, Skylar led by example — turning into a fierce competitor on the court.

During her junior year, Vann, who attended Deer Creek High School, averaged 18.9 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, making her high school one of the top scoring programs in the state.

Offers from Division I universities were flowing, but OU was where it ran dry. After signing to play at Temple her senior year when her dream school seemed out of reach, Vann flipped her commitment when she finally received a late offer from Coale.

Although it took time for the former head coach to envision the impact that Vann could have on the program, Coale was eventually able to recognize the potential the younger player harnessed.

“She has always had an uncanny knack for finding the basket,” Coale told the OU Daily. “Some kids are shooters and some kids are scorers, she just has that nose for the basket. I don’t know if I recognized her full capacity for putting the ball in until I got her."

Unfortunately, the 2020-21 season was derailed because of the COVID-19 Pandemic and games were hindered because of protocols. The Sooners, and Vann, struggled, and OU finished the year 12-12. The forward averaged eight points and 4.7 rebounds per game, a far cry from the potential she showed at Deer Creek.

Despite Coale’s departure after the conclusion of the season, Baranczyk quickly got to work putting OU back on its feet, and with COVID sanctions mostly lifted for the 2021-22 season, the Sooners were able to get back on track.

Oklahoma finished the season 25-9, its best result in five years and found its way back into the NCAAW Tournament after a four-year drought.

Vann would continue to come off the bench and clock almost the same amount of minutes as the season prior, but she found success within Baranczyk’s system, and averaged 11.8 points a game, earning Big 12 Sixth Player of the year.

It was evident that the junior, who would tally 11.5 points and 6.8 rebounds an outing, and would help lead OU to its first Big 12 regular season title in 14 years, knew her role. She would also become the first player to win Big 12’s Sixth Player of the Year back-to-back.

At that moment, Vann understood that even though she could start for many Division I schools, she was coming off the bench, and impacting the program she believed mattered the most.

“Her work ethic from then to now is one of the main things that empowers her to play as great as she does,” Bryatt said. “That strong work ethic and willingness to win.”

‘Managing the emotion of expectation’

Years after early morning practices with her father ended, Skylar Vann has extended her family’s legacy while simultaneously creating a name of her own.

Following the path Sherri Coale had hoped Vann would when she took a chance on a young player with an OU-driven dream four years ago, she has defined her own path to success.

Since then, Coale moved on, and so have many of the other former players Vann met during her first year at Oklahoma. Including three of the Sooners’ most talented assets, guards Ana Llanusa and Taylor Robertson and forward Madi Williams who all left in the offseason.

The trio averaged a combined 38.8 points per game the previous season, and Williams Boasted 51.4 3-point percentage before being selected 18th overall by the Seattle Storm in the WNBA Draft.

For Vann, she was losing teammates, and saying goodbye to people she considered both friends and mentors.

Not only did she have to learn how to navigate life and basketball without Williams, Llanusa and Robertson, but she also had to overcome an unexpected loss. Senior forward Liz Scott, a starter and elite rebounder for OU announced on Nov. 3 that a shoulder injury she suffered early in the regular season would be season-ending.

“At first it was definitely really weird,” Vann said. “It was my first time never working out without them. We had new people that came in, so it made the adjustment easier, but always remembering what I learned from them is super important.

I learned a lot playing behind them like their leadership and what to do in big moments, and they got me to where I am now.”

Vann has taken the lessons she inherited and crafted them into an original style of leadership and play. Coming off her best scoring season yet, where she averaged 15 points, 7.2 rebounds a game and shot 46.4% from the floor, she was named the Big 12 Player of the Year. Vann also reached 1,000 career points on Nov. 15 against Alabama State.

“Sky just continues to be really steady for us,” Baranczyk said. “Sky was always somebody that really played well with Maddie (Williams), or Liz (Scott). But early on this season, we had to be like, ‘Okay, Sky, figure it out yourself.’ Now, she has found that flow within the flow.”

Besides Vann and senior guard Nevaeh Tot, the rest of the team consisted of transfers like junior guard Payton Verhulst, senior guard Lexy Keys and freshman forward Sahara Williams. The roster was new to OU, but not to basketball, and, for the first time, Vann was in a position to lead.

“I knew there was a new responsibility for me as a leader,” Vann said. “But it was easy for me to do that because we have a lot of people who are super experienced. There was not really a situation where I felt like I had to bring everybody with me, we all just went together naturally.”

Oklahoma started the season strong with a 5-0 record and notched a week two upset over then-No. 12 Ole Miss, climbing to No. 22 in the AP Poll, but the early momentum came crashing down with the program’s first defeat of the year to an unranked Princeton team on Thanksgiving.

The Sooners spiraled and would lose to a one-win Southern team in Norman to finish out non-conference play 1-4. In the midst of what seemed to be a season-determining loss, it was discouraging, but Vann understands it served as the fuel that propelled OU’s conference success.

“It’s easy to feel defeated,” Vann said. “We all kind of felt like ‘are we going to allow this to continue to happen, or are we going to make a change.

"Our practices started to become more intense and aggressive. We were all truly getting better mentally. It was hard, but I’m happy it happened.”

The Sooners quickly moved past the loss and produced a mid-season comeback, finishing Big 12 play 15-3.

Oklahoma created memorable moments along the way like the hard-fought upset of No. 2 Kansas State in Norman, and a Lexy Keys’ buzzer beater to win a second regular season conference title against No. 3 Texas.

And Vann was a part of it all.

Against Kansas State, she rallied against the Wildcats to notch a game-high 21 points, and against Texas, Vann made the Key’s assist to give OU the win.

Vann learned how to lead, and how to win, by watching, and applied it as she earned a starting spot in the line up after three seasons. However, she would not have been able to fight through the lows and experience the highs if she decided to leave.

Through a global pandemic, a coaching change and having to learn how to be effective off the bench, Vann stayed — even when she did not have to.

And her younger self, Brannczyk and Oklahoma women’s basketball thank her for that.

“Skylar is so solid,” Baranczyk said. “It has been fun to see her process through everything. From playing that first year, to all of a sudden, managing the emotion of expectation.

"She has just led from that space.”

This story was edited by Gracie Rawlings.