If there was ever a time to get hot during the women's basketball season, it's right now, and the Oklahoma Sooners are warming up.
The Sooners took care of No. 21 Tennessee 100-93 on Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center for their third win in a row over a ranked team. OU also beat then-No. 24 Georgia 71-67 on Thursday and then-No. 23 Alabama on the road last weekend to extend its winning streak to four with only two games left in the regular season before March Madness tips off.
Sooners back inside top 10 of AP Top 25 after 3 ranked wins
A week that featured a pair of ranked wins bumped the Sooners up four spots from outside the top 10 at No. 11 to No. 7 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll that was released on Monday. OU and Iowa were the biggest movers of the week.
The current four-game winning streak has the Sooners at 21-6 overall and 9-5 in SEC play. OU sits in fifth in conference standings behind South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Texas and LSU, respectively. The top 5 teams in the SEC standings make up half of the top 10 in this week's AP Top 25.
This was a stretch in the season that would unveil if these Sooners truly were in the top tier of women's college basketball this season and could better their Sweet 16 run in last year's NCAA Tournament. Getting through three ranked opponents unscathed certainly proves the Sooners have what it takes to at least get back to the Sweet 16.
As for beyond that, OU is 4-1 this season against teams ranked but outside the top 10. That mark dramatically dips to 1-5 against top-10 teams, which is likely the caliber of squads the Sooners would face in the Sweet 16 or any further into the NCAA Tournament. However, all those top-10 matchups came before OU recently caught fire as every starter scored at least 15 points in the win against Tennessee.
The Sooners have two unranked matchups left in the regular season against Arkansas on Thursday and at Missouri on Sunday, and although those won't go down as high-quality wins, two more victories would still send OU into the SEC Tournament on a six-game winning and just as hot as anyone. And right now, at the perfect time, the Sooners have a better chance than ever before this season to beat any team in the country.