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Oklahoma basketball: OU women earn No. 5 seed in NCAA Tournament

By Chip Rouse

Mar 10, 2023; Kansas City, MO, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate after beating the TCU Horned Frogs at Municipal Auditorium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 10, 2023; Kansas City, MO, USA; The Oklahoma Sooners celebrate after beating the TCU Horned Frogs at Municipal Auditorium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Aiken-USA TODAY Sports /
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While the Oklahoma men’s hoops season has ended, the Oklahoma basketball women will be playing on as a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament.

The Sooners (25-6) will take on the No. 12 seed Portland Pilots in Los Angeles on Saturday in the opening round of the tournament. The Big 12 regular-season co-champions are making their second straight NCAA Tournament appearance after missing the tournament three consecutive seasons from 2019-2021 in Sherri Coale’s final three seasons as head coach.

Oklahoma is the No. 5 seed in the Greenville Region. For the first time, this year’s women’s tournament will feature just two regions” Greenville (South Carolina) and Seattle. The first two rounds will be played this Friday through Saturday at the campus sites of the top-16 seeds. OU will play the opening round at historic Pauley Arena, the home of the UCLA Bruins, the No. 4 seed in Greenville Region I.

If Oklahoma is able to dispose of Portland on Saturday, the Sooners’ likely second-round opponent will be UCLA. The top seed in Oklahoma’s side of the bracket is No. 1 overall seed South Carolina, and the Sooners would see the Lady Gamecocks in the Sweet 16 if they were to get that far.

The OU women come into the NCAA Tournament with a 25-6 overall record, one of their best campaigns in program history. Featuring a lineup with four senior starters (Madi Williams, Taylor Robertson, Ana Llanusa and Liz Scott), the 2022-23 season is the Sooners’ best since the 2008-09 team that went 32-5 and advanced to the Final Four. OU’s 14 Big 12 wins are the most since the 2008-09 Sooners finished the conference season 15-1.

The Sooners are 50-15 in Jennie Baranczyk’s two seasons as head coach.

Portland (23-8) is the champion of the West Coast Conference having defeated Gonzaga for that league’s automatic NCAA Tournament berth. This will be Portland’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 26 years.

This will be the 23rd NCAA Tournament appearance by the Oklahoma women, 21 of those coming since 2000 under Coale, who coached the team for 25 seasons before retiring after the 2020-21 season.

The Sooner women are 34-22 in NCAA Tournament action. They have never won a national championship, but they have made it to the national semifinals three times and been a national runner-up once, losing to No. 1 overall seed Connecticut 82-70 in 2002.

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