OU Basketball: No. 9 Oklahoma Searching for ‘Hungry’ Response Against No. 15 Tennesse

A strong start made way to a frustrating night in Oklahoma’s SEC opener. 

After building a nice first quarter lead, the No. 9-ranked Sooners turned the ball over 27 times and hit only two 3-pointers in an 80-73 defeat to No. 5 Texas.

Jennie Baranczyk’s team will have to put that loss behind them quickly, as Sunday brings another top 15 clash. 

Oklahoma (12-2, 0-1 SEC) heads to Knoxville to take on the No. 15-ranked Tennessee Lady Volunteers (13-0, 1-0) at 2 p.m. (ESPN).

Bouncing back will be the name of the game all year in conference play as everyone’s schedule is littered with ranked matchups, but Baranczyk hopes the nature of Thursday’s defeat to the Longhorns will light a fire under her team. 

“We passed up some looks that we don’t need to pass up,” Baranczyk said after the loss to Texas. “… I don’t think we’re as confident as we need to be right now. And so this is one of those games where you kind of hope that we get our little edge back and making sure that we know that we can do that. 

“I haven’t seen a team of ours pass up as many shots either, and then we turn it over after. So those are the things that will be really interesting as we all process this because this team is good.”

OU’s star guard Payton Verhulst was especially disappointed because the Sooners dictated the pace of the game early against Texas, but as the game wore on, the Longhorns were able to better assert themselves.

“I thought in the first quarter especially we were playing a lot of Oklahoma basketball the way we like to play,” she said. “We weren’t letting their defense dictate what we did on offense. And I think that slowly kind of changed throughout the game.”

Sunday’s contest against Tennessee will provide less of a style clash than the battle with Texas.

The Lady Vols want to get out and run just like the Sooners, and Tennessee leads the nation by attempting 36.5 3’s a game. 

Sophomore guard Talaysia Cooper leads  the way, scoring 17.9 points per game, and the Tennessee defense leads the country forcing 27.38 turnovers per game. 

Obviously, the Sooners are going to have to be much better at valuing the basketball. 

Veterans Nevaeh Tot and Skylar Vann accounted for 10 of OU’s 27 turnovers against the Longhorns, mistakes Baranczyk hopes her team leaders will be able to quickly put behind them.

But that will all be for naught if the Sooners pass up as many looks as they did on Thursday, which was the real crux of Baranczyk’s frustrations after the loss. 

“These women are resilient and we respond. So that’s what I want us to see. So I want to see us to be able to step in, own what we did, not feel sorry for ourselves,” Baranczyk said. “… At some point we’ve got to realize how good we actually are and I can’t do that for you. I don’t think there’s anybody that could believe in this team more than I do… I’m really disappointed in the way that we finished the game… At the end of the day we’ve got to compete in every possession and you can’t take one off. 

“And I think that’s probably part of what everyone keeps telling us the SEC is all about. But we already knew that in this game… That’s what’s unfortunate.”

Both teams rank in the top five in pace nationally, so there should be plenty of chances for the Sooners to cut loose if they take the floor with confidence against Tennessee. 

Oklahoma is 3-0 in true road games already this season, but will need to extend that start to 4-0 to avoid falling to 0-2 in conference play for the first time since the 1998-99 season. 

“We have a really, really good basketball team,” Baranczyk said. “So I’m excited to see how we respond… I’m excited to see how hungry we continue to get because our best basketball could be ahead of us, no question.”