Oklahoma basketball: Sooners hire new women’s coach
By Chip Rouse
A week ago, Porter Moser was announced as the new men’s Oklahoma basketball coach. Now the new women’s coach is also in the fold.
Jennie Baranczyk was announced on Saturday an the new head coach of the Sooner women’s team. She succeeds Sherri Coale, who retired last month after 25 seasons in the role.
Baranczyk’s basketball resume is impressive enough by itself, but what set her apart from others in the highly competitive candidat, third ie pool, said OU athletic director Joe Castiglione, was that “her mastery of the head coaching role extends far beyond the court, and it’s clear that her personal and professional values align with ours.”
That was a quality that also impressed Oklahoma officials about Moser.
A former First-Team All-Big Ten player at Iowa (2000-04), Baranczyk comes to Oklahoma from Drake University, where she served as head coach for the past nine seasons. During her time there, the Lady Bulldogs compiled an overall record of 192-96, including six consecutive 20-win seasons.
She led Drake to three NCAA Tournament appearances and was twice named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year.
Baranczyk brings with her a background as an offensive-minded coach whose teams are highly efficient and productive on the offensive end of the court. This past season, Drake led the nation in assists per game (20.4), was sixth in the country in field-goal percentage (48.1), 22nd in scoring offense (76.4) and 24th in three-point field-goal percentage (36.4).
And that wasn’t a one-time phenomenon for Baranczyk’s Drake teams. Over the past seven seasons, Drake ranked second nationally in effective field-goal percentage (.540), third in assists per game (20.6) and sixth in scoring offense (80.1).
Baranczyk’s coaching career began in the Big 12 Conference as an assistant at Kansas State (2005-06). She also was an assistant at Colorado (2010-12) before being named head coach at Drake.