Road Swing Starts Tuesday at BYU for Sooners

NORMAN – In a rematch of last year's overtime thriller, No. 15 Oklahoma and BYU are set to face off once again, this time with the matchup taking place in Provo, Utah, on Tuesday at 4 p.m. CT. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv with Spencer Linton, Kristen Kozlowski and Jason Shephard on the call. Brian Brinkley will call the action on the Sooner Radio Network on 1520 AM KOKC in Oklahoma.

Tuesday's contest marks the first of a four-game road swing that will pit Oklahoma against three NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago. Following OU's matchup with the Cougars, the Sooners take on Utah in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, followed by a neutral site game vs. UT Arlington on Sunday in Fort Worth.

THE STARTING FIVE

One of the best players to ever don the Crimson and Cream, Taylor Robertson is looking to hit another career milestone Friday. The sharpshooting guard needs six points to cross the 2,000-point threshold. She would become just the seventh Sooner ever to score 2,000 points in their career. Fellow redshirt senior Madi Williams isn't far behind the guard and needs just 112 points to hit 2,000.
For the first time since 2017, Oklahoma appeared in the preseason AP Top 25 poll, debuting the season at No. 15. The Sooners were also ranked No. 16 in the USA TODAY WBCA Coaches Poll. The Sooners' ranking of 15th is the team's highest in the preseason poll since the 2013-14 squad opened the year ranked 11th. As one of the most dominant programs of the 21st century, Oklahoma has now been ranked in the top 15 of the preseason AP poll 10 times since 2000.
Oklahoma's trio of Ana Llanusa, Taylor Robertson and Madi Williams is the highest-scoring returning trio (52.5 PPG) in the nation and is one of the most experienced, too. Through two games, the three combine to average 41.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 9.0 assists and are shooting 50% from deep.
Oklahoma went 25-9 in year one of the Jennie Baranczyk era, making the program's first NCAA Tournament since 2017. The Sooners hosted the first two rounds of March Madness for the first time in a decade, falling to Notre Dame in the NCAA Second Round. The improvement for Oklahoma women's basketball from 12-12 in 2020-21 to 25-9 in Baranczyk's first year marked the first time in program history for a first-year coach to improve by 10+ wins in their first season. The 13-win jump is the second-largest overall in program history, trailing only Cathie Schweitzer, who increased the team's win total by 16 between the 1977 and 1978 seasons.
Once playing against each other, lethal 3-point shooters Taylor Robertson and Aubrey Joens have joined forces this season in Norman after Joens transferred to Oklahoma from Iowa State. The two have combined for 552 career treys, with Robertson sinking 451 and Joens hitting 101. Last season, the two sunk a combined 186 3-pointers, which was more than 234 Division I teams tallied as a whole.

SERIES HISTORY

When the Sooners and Cougars meet in Provo on Tuesday night, it will mark the eighth meeting of a lopsided series. Oklahoma owns a 6-1 all-time advantage vs. BYU, including an active five-game win streak. The Sooners' five-game win streak is tied for the program's fourth longest active streak.

LAST TIME OUT

The Oklahoma women's basketball remained perfect on the season Friday by knocking off SMU 97-74 at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. On the program's annual Junior Field Trip Day, where over 5,000 kids filled the arena, Madi Williams took over the game by scoring a game-high 25 points paired with five rebounds and four assists to power No. 15 Oklahoma (2-0) in the 23-point rout. The Sooners shot 61% (14-of-23) from behind the arc, marking the first time an OU team has shot over 60% from deep with over 20 attempts since Nov. 29, 2012, vs. Northwestern State.