The Oklahoma women have advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013. The 3-seed Sooners will play No. 2 UConn on Saturday afternoon in the Spokane Regional.
Oklahoma (27-7) advanced to the round of 16 with a pair of impressive wins over Florida Gulf Coast and Iowa in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners' 34-point second-round win over 6-seed Iowa was the second-largest margin of victory in the NCAA Tournament in OU women's basketball history.
UConn advanced by overwhelming Arkansas State 103-34, then defeating 10-seed South Dakota State 91-57.
The Sooners are going to have to play as well, if not better, to get past a UConn team that might only be an uncharacteristic 2-seed in this year's tournament, with some experts believing the Huskies are the best team in the field.
The Huskies are 33-3 this season and ranked third in the country behind UCLA and South Carolina by both major polls heading into the NCAA Tournament.
UConn and the Oklahoma women have played each other 13 times previously, and the Sooners have yet to win a game against the Huskies. Most of those meetings were during the regular season, but OU and UConn have met twice before in the NCAA Tournament.
In 2000, the two teams played each other in the Sweet 16, with UConn winning 102-80. Two years later, they faced each other in the national championship game. The Huskies won their eighth of what is now 11 national titles in that game, prevailing 82-70.
What fans need to know
Oklahoma
- The Sooners average 85.4 points a game, which ranks fifth nationally. Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers and senior Payton Verhulst lead the way offensively, averaging 17.5 and 14.9 points a game, respectively.
- Oklahoma ranks No. 2 in Division-I women's basketball averaging 47 rebounds per game and 18th in offensive rebounds with 14.8 per game. The Sooners had an NCAA Tournament record 72 rebounds against Florida Gulf Coast in the opening round. That was followed with 64 two days later against Iowa.
- The Sooners have won 11 of their last 12 games. A win over UConn would give them 28 wins, the most by an OU women's team since the 2009 Final Four team finished 32-5.
- OU returned a nation-leading 98% of its scoring production from last season's Big 12 championship team. And to that, the Sooners added All-American Raegan Beers, a transfer from Oregon State.
UConn
- UConn is led by three-time First-Team All-American and 2021 National Player of the Year Paige Bueckers, who leads the Huskies in scoring (19.2 per game) and assists (4.8 per game). Graduate Azi Fudd is equally dangerous on the offensive end, averaging 13.4 a game. Both Bueckers and Fudd shoot better than 40% behind the 3-point line and better than 90% at the free-throw line.
- This is UConn's 36th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Huskies have appeared in an NCAA record 31-straight Sweet 16s. And, oh, by the way, UConn is the winningest team in NCAA Women's Tournament history with an overall record of 138-24.
- UConn leads all of Division-I women's basketball with a 51.3 field-goal percentage. A team that is that good and efficient shooting the basketball puts tremendous stress on a defense.
- A trifecta of scary stats: UConn is 33-1 when it leads at halftime, 33-0 when leading after three quarters and is outscoring its opponents this season by an average of 30.2 points a game.
Prediction
Not surprisingly, Oklahoma is a double-digit underdog to UConn. In fact, the opening line for this game earlier in the week established the Huskies as a 17.5-point favorite.
No question the Sooners are going to be pedaling uphill in this matchup. This UConn team may not be quite as good as in year's past, but it's still plenty good enough to win it all.
The Sooners will put up a good fight, but as much as it hurts me to say this, they aren't at the same level as UConn. History will repeat itself. The Huskies stay unbeaten against Oklahoma.