Red River Rivalry: OU hosts UT Thursday Night in LNC - #9 vs #5!

[OUBeliever56A]

The Oklahoma Sooner Women's Basketball Team (12-1 - Ranked #9) will host the Texas Longhorns (13-1 - Ranked #5) at Lloyd Noble Center on Thursday night, Jan 2nd, at 8:00 PM in a nationally televised game on ESPN2 and broadcast on 107.7 FM, The Franchise on the radio. The game will be the first SEC Contest for the Sooners and the Longhorns in Women's Basketball. In the Red Rivaly games the last two seasons, Oklahoma was swept by Texas in the 2022-23 season with two wins and then the Sooners swept the Longhorns in the 2023-24 season to return the favor. The game will be the first game with two Top 10 teams in the LNC for the Women in about 15 years. Oklahoma currently has a home-court 16-game winning streak.

The game will be closely contested if both teams play well. Here is a look at many of the stats:

Stat -------- Oklahoma - Texas
Record ------------- 12-1 - - - - - 13-1
Points/Game ------ 91.6 - - - - - 91.6
PTs allowed/G ---- 60.9 - - - - - 54.6
PTs Margin -------- +30.7 - - - - +37.0
2-PT Buckets ------- 336 - - - - - 427
2-PT % ------------- 56.7% - - - - 54.8%
3-PT Buckets ----- 119 - - - - - - 52
3-PT % ------------- 34.4% - - - - 29.1%
% 3-PT Shots ----- 36.8% - - - - 18.7%
Made F-Throws -- 162 - - - - - - 273
F-T % -------------- 68.1% - - - - 75.4%
Shooting % -------- 48.5% - - - - 50.1%
Shots/G ----------- 72.15 - - - - 68.36
Turnovers/G ------- 18.2 - - - - 13.2
Assists/G ----------- 23.1 - - - - 17.8
Steals/G ------------ 10.2 - - - - 12.9
Ratio A-S / TO ----- 1.62 - - - - 2.33
Rebounds/G ------- 51.0 - - - - - 42.6
Offensive Reb/G - 16.23 - - - - 17.21
REB Margin -------- +18.2- - - - +14.6
Blocks/G ------------ 4.53 - - - - 5.79

As you can see from the stats above, OU shoots more "three's", almost twice as many by percentage and Texas is more of a 2-point bucket team taking the ball into the paint. Oklahoma regulary plays 6 players that are under 6'0" while Texas plays only 2 players regularly that are under 6'0". Texas, playing closer to the basket, shoots more free throws and shoots a better percentage than does the Sooners. Texas handles the ball a bit better with a 2.33 Ratio of Assists-Steals compared to Tunovers compared to the 1.62 mark for Oklahoma.

My thoughts are that the game will boil down to a couple, maybe three phases of the game.

#1 - 3-Point Shooting --> Does OU shoot the ball well tonight from three-point territory? If they shoot at or above their season's average of 35%, they should be able to stay in the game. Oklahoma will also have to limit the # of 3-point shots by Texas to under their season's average of 13 shots and their 29% shooting.

#2 - Rebounding --> Who wins the battle of the boards? It is important for Oklahoma to win the battle of the boards and to limit the number of offensive rebounds Texas grabs. Texas will be trying to do the same thing against Oklahoma. If one team has a 8-10 rebound advantage they will likely be in control of the game.

#3 - Fouls --> OU plays 5 players inside regularly, maybe 6. (Beers, S Vann, L Scott, Johnson, Culliton and Williams). Texas plays 6 players inside regularly (Booker, Jones, Moore, Oldacre, Carlton and Mwenentanda) . But I think that Texas is deeper within those 6 players as five score 8 points a game and 3 players grabbing 6 rebounds a game. For OU only 4 players score 7 points or more per game and only 2 grab 6 rebounds. It is interesting that both teams have at least one big that also plays outside while scoring in Booker and S Vann. If OU gets into foul trouble with Beers, Vann, Williams or L Scott, the play drops off by a large margin for Oklahoma. I think the only player that is true for Texas is Booker and maybe Jones and Oldacre.

Matchups:

Here is how I see the player matchups for the game:

Starters:

• Beers vs Jones 6'4" => This matchup is big. Who can play and stay out of foul trouble. Texas can recover from Jones not being in the game. OU needs Beers on the floor.

• S Vann vs Moore 6'1" or Lee 6'0" depending on who starts => S Vann can win this battle. Vann usually plays very well in big games. Van will play inside when subs enter the game.

• Verhulst or Williams vs Booker 6'1" => This is a big matchup for Oklahoma. If the Sooners can slow down Booker and limit her 1-on-1 game, it will be good news for the Sooners.

• Williams or Verhulst vs Holle 6'0" => The off-guard for Texas has usually played well vs Oklahoma the last two years. OU needs to keep Holle under control.

• Tot vs Harmon 5'6" => Harmon is good. Tot needs to keep Harmon underwraps and not let her pentatrate the lane. Tot needs to make a couple of three's early.

Reserves:

• First three off the bench for OU: Z Vann, Keys and L Scott => Z Vann and Keys will matchup with Harmon, Holle and Preston outside. Z Vann needs to be aggressive but under control. Keys needs to make a couple of "key" three's early. L Scott and the starters will match up with Oldacre, Carlton and Mwenentanda inside.

• Johnson, Culliton and R Scott => Johnson and Culliton do not have to win the game when they play. They just need to limit the inside offense and rebound strong on the defensive end of the floor. They have to play solid defense. R Scott needs to relive Tot and Z Vann and keep the offense going. Her height on defense could come in handy as well agaisnt the off-guards or small forwards. (I wonder if we will see Aubrey Jones make it into the game tonight for OU. Her quick 3-point trigger might be helpful.

To me, I wonder if OU will play more zone tonight than normal as Texas does not shoot well from 3-point territory. Playing zone allows OU to pack the lane and rebound more effectively in theory. This could be a change we see tonight. Oklahoma may need to do this if they get in foul trouble inside.

Oklahoma is probably quicker than Texas is on the floor. If OU can control the defensive boards and get the running game started and efficiently score off the break, Oklahoma's odds greatly increase for a win. Oklahoma will try to do this. We will see if they are successful in doing so.

I hope the referees allow the two teams to play tonight and that they do not call hand checks or call ticky-tack fouls on drives and out on the perimeter. Let the women play tonight.

Here is the pre-game article by the OU Athletics Communications group:

https://soonersports.com/news/2025/1/1/ ... ps-sec-era

I really hope it is a big crowd tonight in LNC. The article above says that the Sooners will honor Oklahoma legend, Danielle Robinson on Thursday night. Robinson recently announced her retirment after a 14-year professional basketball career on Wednesday. That will be nice to see as well tonight. Robinson averaged 15.2 points a game, 3.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 2.2 steals.

Good luck to the Sooners tonight.

Boomer Sooner!

[BudaSooner]

OU Women lose to Texas, 80-73. Man, whatta sloppy, SLOPPY game! Lady Sooners ain't gonna win many games giving the ball away like they did tonight. No box score is available that I could find, but the women turned it over 25-27 times tonight! And even at that, they were in the game right up until the end.

[SwampSooner]

OU Women lose to Texas, 80-73. Man, whatta sloppy, SLOPPY game! Lady Sooners ain't gonna win many games giving the ball away like they did tonight. No box score is available that I could find, but the women turned it over 25-27 times tonight! And even at that, they were in the game right up until the end.

27 turnovers for OU in the game. A couple of other stats: OU was 2 of 16 from 3 pt range and Combined shots were ~56 to 55 combined fouls called. Hard to get a flow when your shots aren't going in and the refs are not letting you play.

OU had a 12 pt 1st quarter lead and the game was tied at 60 going into the 4th quarter. As stated above, sloppiness killed them. UT pulled out to a 6 pt lead in the 4th. OU would cut it to 2 and then turn it over a couple of times and fall back to down 6. OU would claw back only to turn it over a couple of times to find them down 7. Sooners could not catch back up after that.

[EMan]

The number of unforced turnovers by OU last night was incredible. Their entry passes all game were terrible. I lost count of how many times they just threw an entry pass over someone's head, or had a player establish position inside and throw the ball out of their reach and out of bounds. OU also attempted a couple of bounce passes to a cutter that had zero chance of getting through. The Sooners gave good effort. They played hard. And they did a great job on the boards, outrebounding the Horns by 16. But their execution on the offensive end left a lot to be desired! I'd give credit to Texas playing some good D, and they did, but OU was their own worst enemy with the incredible number of errant passes. And their poor outside shooting. Verhulst played really hard, but her outside shot just wasn't there last night. She uncharacteristically missed numerous open threes. As they say, it was just one of those games. And it came at a very inopportune time.

And yes, it was a pretty poorly officiated game. On both ends. Neither Beers nor Booker for Texas played even half the game due to foul trouble. Would've been nice to see the game if both teams could've played full strength. I'll be the first to admit it was a very physical game, but the officials were extremely inconsistent with what they were calling. And you could tell it frustrated the players. It made for a very uneven game and very little flow. When the officials get involved in a game that much, it's never a good thing.

[OUBeliever56A]

Thursday night at the LNC was all set to be a party. The fans turned out pretty well as 8,039 of them were in attendance. Oklahoma played a productive 1st quarter and led 26-17. Then Oklahoma played a poor 2nd quarter as Texas outscored them 23-13 to take the lead by halftime at 40-39. The teams played a competitive 3Q as the Sooners outscored the Longhorns by 1 to tie the game at 60-60. Then OU played a poor 4Q and fell short of their goal of a victory to open SEC play and to defeat Texas. Texas won 80-73 with the last 6 points by Texas scored from the free throw line as OU fouled to try and get back to a tied scored.

While the 2Q and the 4Q were problems, huge problems, the real reason that Texas won the game was the relentless pressing defense that they played the entire game. The 'blue-blood" Longhorns did the work required on defense to earn the victory. They overplayed every inbound pass. They overplayed every pass from a Sooner. They pressured the player with the ball almost every possesion. Way to often. the Sooner picked up the ball off the dribble and then tried to find someone to pass the "hot potato" towards. That brought the Oklahoma high-speed offense to a stand still. The pressure defense caused OU to try too many passes to cutting Sooners or passes that were off to post players as they were trying to create an opening. In those two quarters (2nd and 4th) the Sooners turned the bal over 16 times. Those 16 turnovers equaled 40% of the Sooner possesions in those quarters (a total of 40). A team can rarely win with that stat in 20 minutes of a game. Rarely.

On the other end of the court, Texas was able to score on 1-on-1 plays, for the most part, consistently. Texas has players like Harmon, Lee and Booker who can score off the dribble and thay did. Those thre Longhorns scored 10 times off the dribble against the Sooners. While the Longhorns were pressuring the Sooners on defense, Oklahoma was going behind screens and playing behind post players and rarely pressuring the ball. Texas did not settle for the long 3-pointers at all as they only shot 6 of them, making 4 by Lee. That was only 98% of their shots in the game. Texas was 25 of 56 from inside the paint for 44.6% which is actually 10% under their seasonal average. Texas did not shoot well. But OU really offerend very little resistance on defense. Inside the paint, Jones and Oldacre were 10 of 12 as they were able to catch and turn and shot the ball against defenders playing behind them.

I think I was wrong in my thought before the game that OU was the quicker team. If the Sooners are quicker, Texas outworked the Sooners last night on defense in almost every way. I say this while feeling that Lexi Keys and Zya Vann did play aggressive defense against Texas. Beatrice Culliton came of the bench to play a soild strong game on defense and on the boards. Peyton Verhulst rebounded the ball well also.

The officiating of the game did not help either team last night. Too many "ticky-tack" fouls and touch fouls were called on both teams. Both teams had players looking at the refs with an open mouth like, "Me", "I fouled". What I feared happened, OU's Raegan Beers got into early foul troubles on 2 fouls that were, well, unwise play and picky calls. By halftime Beers and Sahara Williams had 2 and 3 fouls respectively and they played only 4:34 and 12:47 minutes in the half. Two of Williams fouled came quickly late in the 2Q. But fortunat for OU, L Scott and Culliton played well in relief of them with 9 and 4 points for Oklahoma. What also helped was that Booker and Jones for Texas were also in foul trouble and only played only about 11 minutes in the half and only scored 8 points in the 1st half. There 54 fouls called last night in the game while only 121 shoots were taken. I did not think that there was really all that much contact at all in the game.

I mentiond scoring off the dribble above and that Texas was able to do that. OU does not do that well. Only Verhulst, sometime Williams and Zya Vann can really score of the dribble. For the most part, OU is a spot-up, catch andshoot team. Even Verhulst and Skylar Vann socre while moving away from the bucket most of the most inside the 3-point line. Liz Scott can score over defenders falling away fairly well also. (Scott scored 14 points for OU last night.) It is something that OU needs in their offense. OU only shot 2 for 16 or 12.5% from beyond the arc as most were challenged shots. But OU took 26.7% of their shots from downtown. Texas only shot 9.8% of their shots from beyond the arc while making 4 of 6.

If you would have told me that OU would outrebound Texas 44 to 28, I would have thought OU would win. But when you tell me that Beers only played 18 minutes and scored 11 points, I would have thought Texas might win. In you told me that Oklahoma would get 0 points from Z Vann and Keys (0 for 7), I probably would have thought Texas would win. If you told me that Madison Booker would only score 8 points in 18 minutes, I might have thought OU would win. If you told me that Harmon, Jones and Oldacre scored 45 points, I would have favored Texas to win. If you told me that Texas would make twice as many "three's" as OU, i would not have believed you and I would hav that that Texas would win. It was one of those games.

I thought this might happen in SEC play. The play would be more athletic and that there would be better defense than the directional schools played against OU in the pre-conference schedule. OU really has had trouble getting the ball to Beers or Vann or L Scott inside al season. It makes sense that against better players, OU would have more. When you add hard aggressive on-ball defense to that, OU is going to struggle. Last night, with the refs tendancies, against pressure, a player should take the ball to the bucket on the dribble. Most of thime a foul will be called or you should be able to stop and shoot in the paint and score as a D1 Top 25 Team player. OU rarely did that.

Here is the OU Athletics Communications group's recap of the game last night.

https://soonersports.com/news/2025/1/2/ ... n-sec-play

For the game here were the team stats:

Stat --------------- Oklahoma - Texas

Points -------------- 73 - - - - - 80
2-PT Buckets ---- 26 - - - - - 29
2-PT % ------------- 54.5% - - - - 44.6%
3-PT Buckets ----- 2 - - - - - - 4
3-PT % ------------- 12.5% - - - - 66.7%
% 3-PT Shots ----- 26.7% - - - - 9.8%
Made F-Throws -- 19 - - - - - - 18
F-T % -------------- 73.1% - - - - 81.8%
Shooting % ------- 43.3% - - - - 45.5%
Shots/G ----------- 60 - - - - 61
Turnovers --------- 27 - - - - 18
Assists ------------- 14 - - - - 14
Steals -------------- 10 - - - - 15
Ratio A-S / TO --- 0.89 - - - - 1.61
Rebounds ---------- 44 - - - - - 28
Offensive Reb ---- 21 - - - - - - 11
Blocks ---------------- 1 - - - - - - 4
2nd Chance PTS - 23 - - - - - 17
PTs in the Paint --- 34 - - - - - 26
Fast Break PTs ---- 1 - - - - - - 10
PTs off of TO's ----- 15 - - - - - 28
Bench Points ------- 20 - - - - 33

One last note. On the contested jump ball with abot 40 second left in the 3Q. After the play and the very long review, A Tecjnical Foul was called on Oldacre of Texas from Cutlliton being knocked to the floor. An additional foul was called on Madison Booker of Texas and on Payton Velhurst of OU. Yet, there were no foul shots taken by either team. All the fouls were made in a dead ball situation. Per the possesion arrow, Texas got the ball out-of-bound. That is all. Since when are there fouls called with both teams in the bonus, especially a Technical Foul, and no one shoot a free throw. I have never seen this and I do not understand it. OU could have made 4 freebies and Texas could have made 2 freebies. I wil not say it would have changed much as to the outcome of the ballgame, but I simply don't understand.

Oklahoma is in for another tough game on Sunday against Tennessee. They have to forget the loss to Texas quickly and get ready to travel to Knoxville to play Sunday at 2 PM on ESPN. Tennessee is now 13-0 after they defeated Texa A&M 91-78 in College Station.

Boomer Sooner!

[OUBeliever56A]

Here are a couple more things about the 2nd and 4th quarters last night.

• While committing 16 turnovers in 40 possesions for a 40% turnover rate here is the rest of the story.

• Oklahoma scored on 11 possessions out of the 25 remaining possessions. That is a 44.0% clip.

• They missed 10 two-point shots and missed 6 three-point shots.

• They had 5 offensive rebounds scoring just 3 2nd chance points in the 2 quarters.

• In the 2Q, OU scored at the 9:18 mark, the 8:38 mark, the 5:28 mark, the 3:57 and 3:27 mark and at the 0:52 mark.

• In the 4Q, OU scored at the 6:11 mark, 5.22 mark, 4:04 mark, 2:41 mark, 0:39 mark and 0:30 mark.

• OU had 6 offensive rebounds in the two quarters. OU only scored 3 points after the offensive rebounds.

• If OU would score 44% of the time on the 16 possessions that were turnovers, they would have scored 6 buckets for a likley 10-12 points if some were free shots and none were 3's.

Those 10 - 12 points on the lost possesions from turnovers would have made a big difference. Texas scored 15 points after those 16 turnovers also. That would be a big difference also. A huge difference.

Oklahoma does need to value the ball on every possesion instead of making too many passes to small targets or where they hope someone will be.

[TN Sooner]

I had to wait for a cooling off period before commenting on this game…

I get so frustrated watching these ladies play sometimes. When they are good, they are very good, if not great. But when they make a couple/few turnovers, they seem to go into “ultra” mode where they start forcing careless (or - my description - hopeless - 10% or less chance of success) plays that lead to absolute stupid levels of more turnovers.

Texas was playing insane defense and making passing very difficult for us - our response was to try ever more stupid passing over and over again. This was a masters class in defending OU - we couldn’t get the ball moving and thus couldn’t get good looks at 3 and couldn’t get the ball into the paint with the receiver in good scoring position. Fortunately, there aren’t that many teams that can play at that level. Unfortunately- several of the teams that can are in our conference.

Throw in terrible officiating. It was terrible throughout the game, but I also don’t believe the “fracas “ warranted a 12 minute review and I didn’t see anything technical worthy or intentional foul worthy.

Yet - without Rory Harmon being unguardable for about 5-6 minutes in the 4th quarter, this would have been close right down to the end.