‘We’ve got a lot of work to do’: Jennie Baranczyk, OU women’s basketball ready to take on the SEC

The hardwood Sooners are returning nearly their entire roster from last year for the 2024-25 season after leaving the Big 12 as its regular season champion and making the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight season under Baranczyk.

“It felt really good to end the Big 12 the way that we ended,” Baranczyk said Monday during one of OU’s “Wake up in the SEC” breakfasts at Mother Road Market in Tulsa. “And the best part about going to the SEC (is) it’s never done. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

OU is entering quite the women’s basketball conference. Tennessee boasts the second-most championships in women’s college hoops history thanks to decades of excellence under Pat Summitt. Dawn Staley and South Carolina and Kim Mulkey and LSU have combined to win the last three national championships, and Texas under Vic Schaefer has been a consistent challenger for the Sooners.

“Every time you get those, you get your schedule released, and you look at it and you’re like ‘Oh my gosh, look at who we have to play on the road,’” Baranczyk said at SEC spring meetings. “And then you look at it and you say, ‘Oh my gosh, look at who we have to play at home, too.’ I think it just kind of starts to hit you when you realize how good this league is.”

Fortunately, Oklahoma has a successful coach in Baranczyk who remained in Norman through the offseason coaching carousel despite openings at Tennessee and her alma mater, Iowa. She was recently awarded a contract extension through the 2029-30 season that holds an average annual value of $1.575 million.

“I have never worried about where other people think you should go,” Baranczyk said shortly after the positions she was a hypothetical candidate for were filled. “When I got to Drake, I thought I was going to be at Drake forever. And that was something I thought we could build up — that team and that program. And obviously, as time went on and things changed a little, I knew that it was time to go. But I didn’t know I could find a place I love as much as I loved Drake. And I found that in Oklahoma.”

Baranczyk’s foundational mantra from the day she arrived at OU has been “We’re going to love what we do and how we do it and who we do it with.” That’s not changing as the Sooners embark on their maiden voyage through their new conference, she said. But she does know some adjustments have to be made.

Oklahoma’s offense can be high flying and fun at times. The Sooners can also get out of control, resulting in turnovers. They averaged 16.1 per game last season, which would’ve been fourth-most among SEC teams.

Getting Sooner Nation excited about the OU women’s basketball team has also been a challenge. The Sooners’ average home attendance of 4,409 last season would’ve ranked seventh in the SEC. Not bad, not great.

Receiving a new arena via the Rock Creek Entertainment District plan that’s working its way through Norman city processes this summer could help the draw, but there’s still the issue of getting people to come to the Lloyd Noble Center until the new venue is built.

Oklahoma has been unable to get past the second round of the NCAA Tournament thus far with Baranczyk on the sideline. The OU coach is conscious of what needs improving, though, and stands ready to meet the challenge head on.

“I feel like you constantly have to evolve,” Baranczyk said at SEC spring meetings. “So change completely? I don’t know. But there are things that you do have to change and there are things that you do just have to elevate. Everything has to get bigger, right?

“So we have to do a better job of being able to fill the LNC. We have to do a better job of being able to create more excitement around everything that we’re doing. And so we’ve got to create a better product to be able to compete on a high level, to compete for national championships or you can’t even compete for conference championships.”

In the 2023-24 season, Baranczyk developed an awesome new core of players following the graduations of long-tenured stars Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson and Ana Llanusa.

Skylar Vann was the Co-Big 12 Player of the Year for her two-way prowess and Louisville transfer Payton Verhulst emerged as a bona fide scorer.

The supporting cast includes veteran floor general Nevaeh Tot, sharpshooters Lexy Keys and Aubrey Joens and physical rebounder Sahara Williams.

The Sooners’ paint presence is expected to be stout next season. They return Liz Scott, who missed all of last year with an injury. And they added one of the best available transfers in former Oregon State center Raegan Beers.

Baranczyk is excited to take that cast into the SEC and see how it stacks up.

“I think you look forward to playing everybody because honestly I think every night it’s a dogfight, every night,” Baranczyk said on SEC Now on Monday. “And it’s new. It’s new to us. I mean, I know we’re new to everybody, but there’s no familiarity and so that’s going to be really fun in itself, especially that first year or two.”