OU women ready to play again, face tough opponent in Florida Gulf Coast
When OU faces Florida Gulf Coast at 3 p.m. Saturday in Bloomington, Ind., in the NCAA Tournament, it will have been 12 days since the Sooners last played. And that result on March 11 — a 17-point loss to Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament semifinals — has left a sour taste in their mouth.
Oklahoma is hopeful that layoff will help it come Saturday. And that its disappointing performance will inspire the Sooners to bounce back. But for coach Jennie Baranczyk, now in her third season at OU, she knows the time off and the last game don’t mean as much as some might assume.
“Maybe. I don’t know if we’re even going to know that answer. But I do like the way we’re working through some things right now,” Baranczyk said. “I feel like I don’t necessarily know the answer from a game standpoint, but from a coaching standpoint, it was nice to get us back in the gym and working on — you can only work on yourself.
“You can project all you want to project, but you’ve really got to work on yourself. And there’s not moments that you really get to do that throughout the season other than October. You go right into game prep and you try to sneak things in here and there, but that week was really fun for us.”
OU certainly has plenty to work on, according to Baranczyk. After winning the Big 12 regular season title, Oklahoma earned a five-seed. But the Cyclones humbled the Sooners in Kansas City. And they know they can’t take 12-seed Florida Gulf Coast lightly.
FGCU has been a dominant program in the Atlantic Sun Conference, winning its seventh consecutive conference tournament title this season. Last year, the Eagles upset fifth-seeded Washington State in the first round. This season, they’re led by redshirt junior guard Emani Jefferson, who is averaging 16.1 points per game.
In many ways, they play much like the Sooners, with a fast pace and a green light from beyond the arc.
“They really spread you out,” Baranczyk said. “They’re a team that goes five out, they get up and down, it’s a fun style, lot of 3-point shots. They play five guards so that creates some mismatches on some ends. They win.
“Win in the NCAA Tournament, they win in the regular season. They went undefeated and won their conference tournament. They’ve got great tradition. They are just a very, very well-coached, disciplined team that has a very unique style that you have to adapt to. And so you have to game plan for this team. You have to understand what you are looking for. You have to stay very disciplined. And so it’ll be a great test for us. It’ll be a great matchup for us.”
If OU wins, it would play the winner of No. 4 Indiana and No. 13 Fairfield. A victory would mark three consecutive seasons in which the Sooners won their first-round game. But for Baranczyk, she’s still looking to reach her first Sweet 16.
And many believe this might be the team to finally get her there. Oklahoma has been one of the hottest teams in the country for the past three months. They were impressive in conference play, going 15-3 and beating Texas twice, which is a one-seed in the tournament.
But Baranczyk isn’t looking ahead. And neither are her Sooners. For them, it’s one game at a time.
“I don’t think the mindset was definitely to go in and go out as fast as we did but I do think that you do have to, you have to learn,” Baranczyk said. “I think the first year you kind of just get surprised at how good everybody is because it’s the first year that they’ve been in the tournament and then you go to that second year and you get a little bit better. But I think again, that’s what we’re trying to really focus on is just continuing to get better. We know that we’re going to play really, really good teams and you’ve got to be able to go, you know. Part of it is you’ve got to be able to go on someone else’s home floor as well.
“We’re just going in and we’ve gotta continue to focus on getting better and being able to play. I love coaching this team. This is a really fun team and I want to coach them as long as I possibly can.”
