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Oklahoma basketball: Jennie Baranczyk named National Coach of the Year

By Chip Rouse

Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk reacts in the second half during a women's basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.,Monday, March, 21, 2022. Notre Dame won 108-64.Ou Women Notre Dame
Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk reacts in the second half during a women's basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla.,Monday, March, 21, 2022. Notre Dame won 108-64.Ou Women Notre Dame /
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Women’s Oklahoma basketball coach Jennie Barancyzk has been honored as the National Coach of the Year by World Exposure Report, a national sports news service and website.

Barancyzk just completed her first season coaching the Sooner women and led Oklahoma to a 25-9 overall record and a 12-6 fourth-place finish in the Big 12 standings. That represented a 13-win improvement from 2020-21, and the Lady Sooners earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship for the first time since 2018.

Oklahoma was awarded a host site in the first-two rounds of this season’s NCAA Tournament. The Sooners won their opening game over IUPUI before losing to Notre Dame in the second round. It was the first time an OU team had advanced beyond the first round since 2017.

The Sooners finished with a No. 22 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 and were ranked as high as No. 12 during the 2021-22 season. It is the first time in five years Oklahoma women’s basketball has ended the season ranked in the top-25 in the AP poll.

Among OU’s 25 wins included four victories over top-25 teams, most notably a regular-season sweep of Big 12 regular-season champion Baylor. The four wins over ranked opponents was the most by a first-year women’s coach in program history and the first since 2009-10.

Barancyzk replaced longtime OU head coach Sherri Coale, who retired after the 2020-21 season after serving 25 seasons in the role. She came to Oklahoma after serving nine seasons as the women’s head coach at Drake in Des Moines, Iowa. In 2017, Barancyzk was named the ESPN Mid-Major Coach of the Year.

The Sooners can look forward to another promising season in 2022-23 as they return virtually the entire roster, including All-America honorable mentions Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams. And to add some icing on that cake, Oklahoma is ranked No. 10 in the ESPN Way-Too-Early Top 25 for next season.

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