Oklahoma basketball: Sooner women picked to finish 4th in SEC Preseason Media Poll
By Chip Rouse
Unlike their male counterparts, the Oklahoma women's basketball team will enter its inaugural season in the SEC as one of championship contenders.
The Lady Sooners are projected to finish fourth in the SEC 2024-25 Women's Basketball Preseason Media Poll. Oklahoma trailed only conference favorite ad reigning national champion South Carolina, Texas and LSU in a vote of local and national media that cover the SEC.
The Oklahoma women are ranked 10th in the Associated Press Preseason Top-25, which came out this week.
In a similar preseason poll conducted on the men's side, Oklahoma was projected to finish 15th out of the 16 SEC teams.
After the Sooners, the rest of the preseason projections in the SEC Media Poll are, in order, Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky, rounding out the top half of the league. No. 9 Florida, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State, Auburn, Texas A&M, Georgia, Missouri and Arkansas complete the bottom half of the conference.
Oklahoma, which finished its final season in the Big 12 as conference champions (15-3) and a 23-10 overall record, also placed two players on the preseason All-SEC team. All-American center and Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers was named to the All-SEC first team, and reigning Big 12 Player of the Year Skylar Vann was a second-team selection.
Returning 98 percent of their scoring production from last season, the Sooners and fourth-year head coach Jennie Baranczyk are in good position to have another strong season in their first year in the SEC
The OU women will open the season at home at Lloyd Noble Center on Nov. 4 hosting Southern from the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC).