Women’s Hoops Hosts Oral Roberts Monday to Open Season – University of Oklahoma

To kick off Oklahoma’s “Welcome Again to Basketball” day, the Massive Purple Rally begins at 3 p.m. Followers in attendance at each the ladies’s sport (4 p.m.) and the boys’s sport (7 p.m.) can have the chance to win their share of over $80k in prizes, together with a brand new automobile courtesy of Fowler Vehicles.

The sport will likely be broadcast reside on SoonerVision on ESPN+ with Chad McKee and Bryndon Manzer on the decision, with radio protection reside on 1520 AM in Oklahoma Metropolis and 99.3 FM in Norman with Brian Brinkley on the decision. Followers can join ESPN+ and obtain entry to over 100 OU athletics occasions, together with the majority of Oklahoma’s residence schedule. 

THE STARTING FIVE

• The No. 15/16-ranked Sooners are 37-11 all-time in residence openers and 32-16 traditionally in season openers. Oklahoma is 2-0 all-time vs. Oral Roberts in residence openers, defeating the Golden Eagles in 1988 and 2000. 
    
• For the primary time since 2017, Oklahoma appeared within the preseason AP High 25 ballot, debuting the season at No. 15. The Sooners had been additionally ranked No. 16 within the USA TODAY WBCA Coaches Ballot. The Sooners’ rating of fifteenth is the staff’s highest within the preseason ballot because the 2013-14 squad opened the 12 months ranked eleventh. As one of the vital dominant applications of the twenty first century, Oklahoma has now been ranked within the prime 15 of the preseason AP ballot 10 instances since 2000.
       
• Second-year head coach Jennie Baranczyk will lead a roster that has mixed to play over 700 profession video games, highlighted by Robertson (118), Williams (114) and Llanusa (83). The Sooners return all 5 starters from final 12 months’s NCAA Event staff and 6 gamers from their bench, highlighted by Massive 12 Sixth Participant of the 12 months Skylar Vann. A freshman class of 4 and the addition of Iowa State switch Aubrey Joens full Oklahoma’s 16-player roster. 
       
• Oklahoma went 25-9 in 12 months one of many Jennie Baranczyk period, making this system’s first NCAA Event since 2017. The Sooners hosted the primary two rounds of March Insanity for the primary time in a decade, falling to Notre Dame within the NCAA Second Spherical. The development for Oklahoma ladies’s basketball from 12-12 in 2020-21 to 25-9 in Baranczyk’s first 12 months marked the primary time in program historical past for a first-year coach to enhance by 10+ wins of their first season. The 13-win soar is the second-largest total in program historical past, trailing solely Cathie Schweitzer, who elevated the staff’s win whole by 16 between the 1977 and 1978 seasons.
      
• The most effective gamers to ever play at Oklahoma, Taylor Robertson enters Monday’s sport simply 28 factors shy of two,000 factors. If she crosses the 2K threshold, she’d be the seventh Sooner all-time to take action. 

SERIES HISTORY

Monday’s matchup marks the thirty seventh all-time assembly between Oklahoma and Oral Roberts, however the first since 2016 and simply the second since 2005. Oklahoma holds a 21-15 benefit within the collection, together with a 10-6 file at Lloyd Noble Heart however ORU gained the latest assembly, knocking off the Sooners 74-67 in Norman in Dec. 2016. 

KNOW YOUR FOE

Led by first 12 months head coach Kelsi Musick, who arrived at ORU after 13 seasons at Southwestern Oklahoma State, the place she led the staff to the NCAA Division II Nationwide Championship sport in 2019. The Golden Eagles knocked off Rogers State in an exhibition sport 96-74. ORU made 12 3-pointers on 26 makes an attempt, however had been led by publish participant Tirzah Moore, who completed with 22 factors and 12 rebounds. 

UP NEXT

The Sooners proceed their non-conference schedule Friday, Nov. 11 at 10:30 a.m. when SMU, who earned votes within the preseason coaches ballot, involves Norman. The sport will air on ESPN+.