OU Women Basketballers travel to Lubbock to play on Wednesday!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooners Women's Basketball team travels to Lubbock for their mid-week Big 12 game this week. They are coming off of their big win over Iowa State at home on Sunday afternoon. The Sooners are 2-1 and 12-2 overall. Texas Tech is 1-2 in conference and 13-2 overall. Texas Tech won their first conference game this season on Saturday at TCU. The game will be televised on ESPN+ at 7 PM on Wednesday night.

Here is the pre-game article from the staff writers.

https://soonersports.com/news/2023/1/10 ... in-lubbock

The two teams are somewhat alike in the fact that both teams play 10 players for over 10 minutes a game and as many as 11 or 12 each game. Tech has three guards that average over 10 points a game as well as a C, F, and a G that average 8 PPG. Tech has two players that average 5 or more rebounds. In a rare stat, a 6'0" forward leads the team in assists.

OU plays at a faster pace than Texas Tech as they score 31.29 buckets a game while Texas Tech makes 24.75 buckets a game. OU also makes 9.0 three-pointers per game while Tech makes 5.7 per game. Both teams make 15 free shots per game. OU pulls down more rebounds than Tech 46 to 36. Steals and Turnovers are similar for the two teams.

I think that the Sooners have the probably the best 4 of the best 5 or 6 players that will play in the game. Oklahoma cannot afford to let this game get away from them as the Sooners need every win on the road as they can get. This should be one of those games.

If the Sooners play smart and shoot well, the win should happen.

A couple notes about Sooner milestones.

Taylor Robertson has made 487 three's in her career. She trails the #1 player for 3's of all time by 8 buckets from downtown.
Ana Llanusa has scored 1443 points in her career. she is 57 points from 1500 for her career. When she get to 1500 points, the Sooners wil have 3 players with that many points. I wonder if any team has had 3 current players with as many as 1500 points. I know that the Sooners are th eonly team that has two active players with 2000 points.
Good luck to the Sooners on Wednesday night.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball Team successfully traveled to Lubbock, won their game against the Red Raiders and returned to Norman all in the same day on Wednesday. Their 89 to 79 win counts, but it was not a game that should be modeled for future success, IMO. I actually thought that Coach Baranczyk was over-the-top with her comments after the game. Yes, the game was won and the Tech crowd was into it, but there is lots, yes lots, to work on.

Game recap:
- OU bolted out to a 14-7 lead behind Tot's fast start with 8 points in the first 5 1/2 minutes of play. Good start.
- Tech got back in the ball game as they outscored OU 12-5 the remainder of the quarter to tie the game at 19-19 at the end of the 1Q.
- Tech took the lead at the 5:21 mark of the 2Q and regained in the lead until the 5:23 mark of the 3Q when Llanusa made a 3 to put OU ahead 52-50. Tech led for over 10 minutes straight.
- OU remained in the lead for the rest of the 3Q and led 62-61 at the end of 3Q.
- The game remained close for the first 3 minutes of the 4Q as OU led 70-69.
- Oklahoma closed well and outscored the Red Raiders 19-10 over the last 7 minutes to win 89-79.
- Watching the game (with Ron Thulin doing the play, Thulin is on old Channel 4 sports guy) I rarely thought OU was playing well except for the beginning of the game and the end of the game. That was about 12-13 minutes. If you manage the other 28-27 minutes and don't get behind by too much, that works. But I wonder if it works all the time.

OU outscored Tech 33-17 in those 12 or 13 good minutes.
Tech outscored OU 62-56 in those other 27-28 minutes of 'not good' basketball.
I would suggest that Tech does not have the talent to outscore OU for 27 minutes, in any way, shape or form.

Once again, Llanusa was the centerpiece of the Sooners play. She scored 20 points had 3 boards and 6 assists. This was her fourth 20-point game-in-a-row in Big 12 play. Skylar Vann added 19 points, 11 boards and 6 assists of her own. Liz Scott scored 13 with 7 boards and 4 assist in 15 minutes of play. Williams scored 13 also with 6 boards and 4 assists in only 21 minutes due to foul trouble. Robertson got on the board late as she added 10 points, 9 boards and 2 assists with 2 three-pointers in the game. Tot, who scored her 8 points in the first half of the 1Q finished with 8 points, 3 boards and 5 assists. Culliton with 4 and Johnson with 2 completed the scoring.

OU did shoot better than Texas Tech but not from the 3-point area, which is something different. OU limited their turnovers to 12, which is good also.

So there were good things in the good win. But they were rarely in 4th gear but never really in 1st gear either.

IMO, something that does need to be addressed is Madi Williams and her foul trouble. Due to 2 1st half fouls, Williams only played about 6 1/2 minutes in the first two quarters. Her first foul at the 7:43 minute of the 1Q, was something that she should just never do. Tech had a given layup and Williams 'swiped' at the ball and she had her first foul. Two minutes into the game, ther eis no reason for Williams to do anything bu grab the ball after it drops through the net and pass the ball inbounds. IMO. As the 2Q started, before they had played a minute, once again Williams fouled. she went to the bench shortly after and did not play the rest of the half after playing 5 minutes in the 1Q due to player rotation substitutes. Williams played about 15 minutes in the 2nd half and did not commit a foul until early in the 4Q and then committed her 4th foul at the 6:53 mark of the 4th. she went to the bench for about 3 minutes and then returned to finish the game. Williams is just too important to the Sooners to be sitting on the bench in foul trouble.

- Llanusa - Is really playing well. For the first 4 Big 12 games, she is averaging 23.75 PPG,, 3.5 Boards and Assists in 35 minutes a game. She is also closing in on the 1500-point mark for her career. She needs 37 more points to reach the mark.

- Vann is playing well also with 12 PPG, 9.75 boards and 3.25 assists in 24:15 minutes a game.

- Robertson is scoring 13 PPG with 5.25 boards and 2,75 assists in 31.75 minutes. Williams is scoring 14.75 PPG, 7 boards in 25:15 minutes a game.

- On the broadcast last night, they mentioned that Williams passed a milestone last night. Williams is the only Sooners with 2000 points, 850 rebounds and 300 assists. Last night Williams passed the 300 assist mark. Williams has 2087 points and 909 rebounds with 301 assists. She could get to 2250 points 1000 boards by the end of the season. Great career.

- Robertson kept her consecutive games with a '3' streak going with her 57th straight game, I think that number is right. She also added 2 more '3s' to her career total. T-Rob now has 489 THREE's in her career. She is 6 made three's away from tying the player from Ohio State with 495 three's.

The Sooners play again on Saturday as part of the DH at Lloyd Noble Center as the men play West Virginia at 11 AM with the women playing Kansas at 2 PM. Kansas comes into Norman with a 2-2 mark in the conference and a 12-3 overall record. OU is 3-1 n the conference and has a 13-2 record.

Boomer Sooner!