OU Basketball: Streaking Oklahoma Embarks on SEC Tournament Gauntlet

Oklahoma enters the postseason riding a seven-game winning streak, with one of the most potent offenses in women’s college basketball and one of the most prolific players in Raegan Beers.

These are helpful developments as the No. 10 Sooners open the SEC Tournament against Georgia Thursday at 12:30 p.m.

Potentially harmful is what awaits OU in Greenville, S.C. later this week.

Assuming the Sooners handle Georgia – they are the 23-6 5-seed at the tournament while Georgia is the 13-18 12-seed – they play Kentucky in the quarterfinals Friday.

The Wildcats are the 22-6 4-seed. They are the last team to beat OU, 95-86 Feb. 2 in Norman.

Should the Sooners advance to Saturday’s semifinals, they will likely face South Carolina. The Gamecocks are the SEC top seed and defending national champion. They swamped OU 101-60 Jan. 19.

On the chance OU makes it to Sunday’s conference championship, 2-seed Texas or 3-seed LSU likely looms as the opponent. The Longhorns are ranked No. 1 in the nation. The Tigers are No. 9. The Sooners lost 7-point games to both in January.

SEC Tournament

Bon Secours Wellness Arena

Greenville, S.C.

THURSDAY

Game 1: 8-seed Vanderbilt vs. 9-seed Tennessee, 10 a.m. (SEC Network)

Game 2: 5-seed Oklahoma vs. 12-seed Georgia, 12:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

Game 3: 7-seed Ole Miss vs. 10-seed Mississippi State, 5 p.m. (SEC Network)

Game 4: 6-seed Alabama vs. 11-seed Florida, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

FRIDAY

Game 5: 1-seed South Carolina vs. Game 1 winner, 11 a.m. (ESPN)

Game 6: 4-seed Kentucky vs. Game 2 winner, 1:30 p.m. (ESPN)

Game 7: 2-seed Texas vs. Game 3 winner, 5 p.m. (SEC Network)

Game 8: 3-seed LSU vs. Game 4 winner, 7:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

SATURDAY

Semifinal: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 3:30 p.m. (ESPN2)

Semifinal: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 6 p.m. (ESPN2)

SUNDAY

Championship, 2 p.m. (ESPN)

That path to OU’s first conference tournament title since winning the Big 12 in 2007 provides context to Jennie Baranczyk’s comments about the SEC last Sunday, following her team’s 91-84 victory over Alabama.

“The SEC is a different level. It just is,” the coach said after her Sooners concluded their first regular season in their new league. “I’d heard that. I heard the ‘night in and night out’ and all that. That’s no disrespect because I think the Big 12 is really good, too.

“I’m just saying from my experience, especially this season, it’s pretty phenomenal.”

So is this: ESPN analyst Charlie Creme has seven SEC teams among the top 16 seeded teams in his latest mock NCAA Tournament field. South Carolina and Texas are 1-seeds, LSU is a 2, OU and Kentucky are 3s, and Alabama and Ole Miss are 4s.

Creme slots all seven to host NCAA first- and second-round games beginning March 21.

All seven will be in Greenville this week, brawling for conference supremacy before taking the fight to the NCAA field.

At least the Sooners arrive equipped and confident.

They entered Sunday’s regular-season finale on a six-game streak built by an average victory margin of 19 points. They beat Alabama for number seven thanks to a faster pace, deeper bench and a superior balance of inside and outside scoring.

Payton Verhulst contributed the most outside production with 24 points highlighted by four 3-pointers. Beers, as usual, was OU’s dominant inside player with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

The 6-foot-4 post enters the postseason playing ridiculously efficient basketball. She has averaged 24.5 points over her past four games on 38-of-45 shooting, while logging just 24.3 minutes per outing.

Baranczyk can count on contributions from up to 10 players this week, but Beers, winner of the last two SEC Player of the Week awards, is the standout.

It helps to have a standout to lean on when facing tasks like OU’s this week, when navigating a conference like the one OU has joined.

“I mean, the SEC is so good,” Baranczyk said in closing down the regular season. “You’re not just playing against people that can play, you’re playing against future WNBA players, you’re playing against future Olympians.”