OU women begin 2024-25 season at No. 10 in AP Preseason Poll
By Chip Rouse
Oklahoma women's basketball will tip off its inaugural season as a member of the SEC as the No. 10 team in the 2024-25 Associated Press Preseason Poll and is picked to finish fourth in the SEC Preseason Media Poll for the coming season.
The Lady Sooners will open the season on Nov. 4 with a home game against Southern out of the Southwestern Athletic Conference. Oklahoma is coming off a 23-10 season and their seventh Big 12 regular-season championship in its final year in the Big 12.
The three teams picked ahead of Oklahoma in the SEC preseason poll were favorite and reigning national champions South Carolina followed by Texas and LSU. Those same three teams are ranked ahead of the Sooners in the AP poll, with South Carolina receiving the top ranking. Texas comes in at No. 3 in the AP preseason top 25 and LSU is No. 7.
Jennie Barancyzk enters her fourth season and is 266-122 overall (74-26 in the Big 12) as head coach of the Sooners. OU returns virtually its entire roster from last season, including senior team leader Skylar Vann, senior guard Payton Verhulst and sophomore forward Sahara Williams from the core group. Vann led the Sooners averaging 15.1 points and 7.0 rebounds. Verhulst averaged 12.6 points and Williams 10.3 a year ago. Also returning after missing all of last season with an injury is senior forward Liz Scott, who averaged 8.6 points and 6.3 rebounds in 2022-23.
The Sooners have also added Oregon State transfer Raegan Beers, who averaged 17.5 points and 10 rebounds per game as a sophomore last season.
The OU women tuned up for the season opener next Monday defeating Oklahoma Christian 114-47 on Tuesday night. Fourteen Sooners saw action in the game, indicating the roster depth Barancyzk will have at her disposal this season. Williams led the team with a game-high 17 points in the exhibition with four other OU players finishing in double figures in the scoring column.