Aaliyah Chavez wastes no time sparking Oklahoma hype for next season

It took no time at all for Oklahoma freshman point guard Aaliyah Chavez to start looking forward to next season, and that's excellent news for OU fans.

The No. 4 seed Sooners had their season ended on Saturday in Sacramento, California, with a 94-68 loss to No. 1 South Carolina in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. With her jersey still on in the locker room of Golden 1 Center from the loss moments before, Chavez, though, made it clear to The Oklahoman's Colton Sulley that she was already eyeing an even better finish next year with all the confidence in the world in her classmates.

Aaliyah Chavez confident in Sooners' future because of freshman class

“It’s gonna be scary next year," Chavez said. "Obviously we have a lot of people coming back. We came out hard and, man, the freshman group in general is gonna be so special. Obviously I'm really close to them, and it's just gonna be amazing next year."

Chavez headlined a stellar freshman group for the Sooners as the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 class. She led OU as a frosh with 18.3 points a game and was even more special throughout her first March Madness. Chavez was OU's leading scorer in the loss to South Carolina with 21 points and averaged 18 in three NCAA Tournament games.

Any team with Chavez on it, especially after a season of college ball under her belt, is destined to be great, but OU head coach Jennie Baranczyk made sure to surround Chavez with the type of talent for Chavez to be able to finally carry the Sooners beyond the Sweet 16 in the near future. Of the 11 players on OU's roster in 2025-26, five were freshmen. The Sooners will lose three seniors, including starters Raegan Beers and Payton Verhulst.

Sure to slide into one of those open starting spots will be forward Brooklyn Stewart, who appeared in every game this season as a freshman. She was a consensus four-star recruit and ranked as the No. 66 player in the class by ESPN.

The rest of the freshman class included local five-star product Keziah Lofton from Bethany, Oklahoma, and a pair of international additions in Emma Tolan from Ireland and Daffa Cissoko from France. And all that listed talent doesn't even include returning starters Sahara Williams and Zya Vann, plus whatever talent Baranczyk finds in the Transfer Portal this offseason.

Chavez's confidence in the future of OU women's basketball season shouldn't just instill belief in fans, but also ease any worry of that future not including her as plenty of other programs would be willing to pay a lot of money to have Chavez on their roster. And if next year really is going to be scary, it has to include Chavez wearing crimson and cream.