By admin 
NORMAN – Thursday will usher in a new era at the Lloyd Noble Center, but it will look and feel like the battles of yesteryear.
Jennie Baranczyk high-flying No. 9 Sooners open SEC play for the first time.
Their opponent? The No. 5 ranked Texas Longhorns who shared the 2023 Big 12 regular-season crown with the Sooners and won the Big 12 Tournament a year ago.
Whether the battle with Texas feels familiar or new doesn’t really matter to Baranczyk, who expects an intense battle between the Red River rivals.
“Everything goes out the window when you play during the Conference Period,” Baranczyk said Tuesday, “but especially when you play a team as good as Texas.”
The Longhorns (13-1), again in the lead Madison Boekerrolled through the non-conference, but looks a little different than the team OU played in the regular season last year.
Observatory Rori Harmon is back after missing conference play last year with an injury, and the ‘Horns have a few new faces playing a key role in the move to Miami Kyle Oldacre and freshmen Judge Carlton.
And while Texas head coach Vic Schaefer’s philosophy of pounding the paint hasn’t changed, the matchups on the floor have changed slightly from a year ago.
“With Harmon back, it changes Booker’s role tremendously,” Baranczyk said. Not necessarily from a shooting standpoint, but Booker went from a point guard to more of a 3 or 4 for them. So that provides a whole different defensive element for people to navigate. And she’s so good. Booker is just very talented.
“And that goes for Harmon too. I mean, she runs it. She understands what her coach is looking for. She is a real coach on the floor.”
Oklahoma also believes in its depthwhich was on full display after the Sooners were added Raegan beers received through the transfer portal Liz Scott back from injury and getting big minutes from a true freshman Zya Vann from the bank.
“It’s just a fun match… They have so many different players who have also stepped up over time,” Baranczyk said. “So, we have a little bit of contrasting styles, but we’re similar in depth in the sense that we can play against so many people and have different combinations. And it can look different.”
However, there will be a major style clash on Thursday.
Even with Beers, the Sooners want to get up and down the floor and make it rain from deep.
Oklahoma is shooting 34.4 percent from 3-point land this season, and the Sooners are averaging 26.6 3-point attempts per game.
Texas, on the other hand, has made just 52 3s all season.
The Longhorns attack the paint relentlessly, leading the nation with 25.9 free throw attempts per game.
Opting against shooting 3s doesn’t mean Texas’ offense is explosive by any means, as they average 91.6 points per game – the exact same mark as OU.
“There will be different ways we can protect the paint because they are so versatile,” Baranczyk said. ‘They’re big. They can score from their post-game with their backs to the basket. They can get into the paint and drive. They also draw a lot of offense, so that’s something where you don’t want to be able to put them at the free throw line early because of offensive fouls.
“So I think there’s a lot of different factors that come into play when it comes to their free throw attempts. But they are very aggressive and so are we.”
The addition of Beers and the return of Scott will be biggest in games like the one against Texas.
OU has allowed opponents to shoot just 34 percent from the floor, which ranks 11th nationwide, and the Sooners rank second in the country with a rebounding margin of 18.2 boards per game.
The Sooners turn the ball over 17.5 times per game, a number that will have to drop especially if Thursday’s game is low-scoring, but Baranczyk believes in her team’s ability to ride the waves of momentum all game to ride.
“I think we have the ability to adapt,” she said. “I think we have the ability to fall and get back up.”
The SEC opener marks the first time since 2009 that the Sooners will play a top 10 game at the Lloyd Noble Center when No. 2 OU defeats No. 5 Baylor.
But despite the stakes — the rivalry, the rankings and the opening of conference play — Baranczyk said Thursday is just the start of the next phase of the season for Oklahoma.
“This team is hungry and I think this team will really continue to grow together,” she said. ‘We’re not here. We are not a finished product. This is still part of the beginning part of our journey and I think you can see that, but you can also see some very special things.”