Oklahoma basketball: Sooner women going Dancin' as NCAA 5 seed

The Oklahoma basketball program wasn't shut out of the NCAA Tournament completely. The Sooner women were awarded a five seed in the NCAA Women's Championship.

The Big 12 regular-season champions will be making their 22nd March Madness appearance since 2000 and 24th overall. This also is the third straight season three-year OU head coach and Big 12 Coach of the Year Jennie Barancyzk has led the OU women to the NCAA Tournament. The Sooners are 22-9 and finished with a 15-3 conference record.

Oklahoma will play No. 12 seed Florida Gulf Coach (29-4), champions of the Atlantic Sun Conference for the seventh consecutive season. The game will be played on Saturday in Bloomington, Indiana. The winner will play the winner between No. 4 Indiana and No. 13 Fairfield in a second-round matchup next Monday in Bloomington.

This will be the first meeting between OU and FGU. This is the third straight year Oklahoma has been a No. 5 seed or better. The Sooners are 4-3 in NCAA Tournament appearances as a No. 5 seed.

The Sooners will be led in the tournament by Big 12 Co-Player of the Year Skylar Vann (14.7 points and 7.1 rebounds per game) and conference Newcomer of the Year Payton Verhulst (12.9 points and 5.9 rebounds per game). The Eagles, making their 10th NCAA Tournament appearance, are led by ASUN Player of the Year Emani Jefferson (16.1 points per game).

The Oklahoma women have seven combined wins this season over teams that are in this year's NCAA Tournament field. Overall, 15 of the 31 games the Sooners played this season were against teams in the tournament field.