A Tale of Two Teams: How Oklahoma Flipped the Switch
Oklahoma was full of unknowns coming into this season. After several non-conference bumps in the road, the Sooners have found answers to their questions. Now they sit at the top of the Big 12.
Oklahoma. Where the land is flat and the women’s basketball team has had both incredible valleys and peaks. All in one season.
You see programs turn around quick. And quick means a year or two. Not two months. Let’s walk through one of the biggest 180s of a single season I have seen, courtesy of the 2023-2024 Oklahoma Sooners.
Pre-Season
What were the expectations coming into the season? Both inside and out of the program the response to that question was “we gonna find out”.
Following the graduation of arguably the greatest class in Oklahoma history there were major holes to plug. When you lose Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson, and Ana Llanusa, there is bound to be.
To fill those holes, some reinforcements were on the way. Payton Verhulst, who had made her way to Norman after a midseason transfer from Louisville, would be available. Lexy Keys switched from orange to crimson coming from in-state rival Oklahoma State, filling in the role of Taylor Robertson. Plus Sahara Williams, a five star recruit out of Iowa felt primed to make an immediate impact.
The roster was far from completely depleted, but had no clear floor or ceiling on what they could be as a unit together.
Before the season started Liz Scott was ruled out for the season with a shoulder injury. Another question to now try and find an answer to.
Four of the starters from the 2022-2023 season would not be on the floor.
At this point the season had arrived and it was time to find out.
Non-Conference Play
The season started off hot. Five straight wins including one on the road against future SEC foe Ole Miss that was good enough to raise some eyebrows.
Maybe this team is more put together than anticipated.
Once Thanksgiving came around they would suffer two losses at the Fort Myers Tip-Off to Princeton and Tennessee. Far from bad teams but both games felt like wins that could not be pieced together.
Jab. Jab.
They would come back to Norman for a stabilizing win over Grambling but then fall at home to a solid UNLV by 16.
Jab.
Then on the road at the Jordan Classic against North Carolina came another loss. Two in a row.
Jab.
Then three losses in a row came on an unsuspecting Friday afternoon game at home against then 1-9 Southern, 79-70.
Right hook. Knockout.
An absolute knockout. Now sitting at 6-5, the entire program felt stunned. It was an odd watch. I have seen every Oklahoma game since Jennie Baranczyk took over the program in 2021. Not once had I felt I watched her team completely stop fighting until the game against Southern.
In non-conference there were several stats that jumped out as worrisome but none more than averaging 20 turnovers a game. The defense then suffered with all but one of the losses coming when the opposing team scored 75+ points.
Every player seemed to be on a different wavelength. I’d say one band, five different sounds but I don’t think everyone was even in the same band at the time.
The loss to Southern felt damning for the season. How in the world do you come back from a loss like that? That is a loss that can absolutely break a season, break a team, break a PROGRAM.
But it didn’t.
What felt like a knockout at the time has now in hindsight turned into the moment that the Sooners picked themselves up at the count of 9 and looked in the mirror.
Big 12 Play
When looking at the reflection in the mirror, I feel the Sooners saw a group of individuals. They came out of that Southern loss having made the decision to be a team.
Immediately the results started to go in the Sooners favor. A 5-1 start to Big 12 play with the lone loss coming on the road to a then healthy and #12 ranked Kansas State.
Here is the caveat: all five of those wins were against the teams that make up the present day bottom five of the Big 12 Conference rankings. Better than losing to Southern? 100%. Back to the standard that won a share of the Big 12 last season? Not so fast.
The four games following was when we were going to finally find out where this team stood.
Oklahoma goes across the Red River to face #10 Texas. 91-87 win.
A great win but rivalries can throw expectations out the window.
Then they host a talented but granted underachieving Kansas team. 60-55 win.
Ok, interest piqued.
Revenge time. #2 Kansas State comes to Norman, notably without star center Ayoka Lee. 66-63 win and the highest ranked win for Oklahoma since 2004.
Wait a minute now…
On the road in Stillwater for Bedlam. They beat Oklahoma State 81-74.
Oh, they might have figured it out….
Those four games is when it became real. This was not the same group of players that lost to Southern. Oklahoma had become a team in real time and just continued to find ways to win. But how?
Two things. One quantifiable and another you got to watch to see.
First, the quantifiable: turnovers. As noted earlier Oklahoma was averaging 20 turnovers a game in non-conference play. From the beginning of the Big 12 season to now they have cut that down to 13.25 per game.
Their one other conference loss against #24 West Virginia? 24 turnovers. That ain’t a coincidence!
Now the part you need to see. There is one quote that has been burned into my brain and it came from Kansas State Head Coach Jeff Mittie postgame after Oklahoma’s win in Norman. He was asked if there was a difference between this years defense and last years.
Mittie said nothing too different X’s and O’s wise but the offensive windows were much smaller. That is when it clicked for me. The Oklahoma Sooners had become a team.
Now when you watch them on defense they will fly around, rotate, TALK. The makings of a good *team* defense.
It is hard to directly quantify that and it doesn’t paint the full picture but remember that 75+ point non-conference benchmark? It has only been hit twice in conference play, against Texas and Cincinnati, with both ending up being wins.
Over the course of a couple months Oklahoma went from a down year to fighting for everything they could want. Forged in the fires of non-conference losses came out a team that has molded together better than anyone could have expected at that time.
The Now
Now #20 Oklahoma gears up to play #3 Texas on Wednesday. The Sooners sit at 14-2 in the Big 12, at the top of the standings, and a win at home wins the Big 12 Regular Season Title. It would be their first time getting a piece of it in back to back years since 2006 and 2007.
Long way from Southern huh?
Back in preseason nobody knew what the expectations were going to be. They took the long road but the Sooners have peaked at the right time. Where do they end up? Well, we gonna find out.