Sooners Dancing For 24th Time

NORMAN – For the 22nd time since 2000 and 24th overall, the Oklahoma Sooners will play in the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. The regular season Big 12 champion Sooners earned an at-large bid and will be the No. 5 seed in the Albany I Region.

Big 12 Coach of the Year Jennie Baranczyk's team will take on No. 12-seeded Florida Gulf Coast in the first round, with the winner taking on the victor of No. 4 seed and host Indiana and No. 13-seeded Fairfield with the pod's first- and second-round games held in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Sooners and Eagles have never met, and Oklahoma is 4-3 all-time as a No. 5 seed (2000, 2015, 2023, 2024).

Oklahoma has now made the tournament as a No. 5 seed or better in each of Baranczyk's first three seasons. This is just the third time in program history, and the first since 2008-10, that the Sooners have secured a top-five seed in three straight seasons.

The Sooners (22-9, 15-3) won their first outright conference championship since 2009 by posting 15 wins in the league for the first time since 2008-09. Guided by Big 12 Co-Player of the Year Skylar Vann and Newcomer of the Year Payton Verhulst, Oklahoma swept Texas, a No. 1 seed in the bracket, and notched seven combined wins over teams that made the tournament. The Sooners played the 11th-toughest schedule in the country, with nearly half (15-of-31) of its games coming against teams that made the tournament.

A staple of the NCAA postseason, the Sooners have now made 24 NCAA Tournaments, including 22 since the turn of the century. The Sooners' 24 appearances in the tournament are the second most in the Big 12 Conference.

Oklahoma has made three Final Fours (2002, 2009 and 2010) and 10 Sweet 16s, most recently in 2013. In Baranczyk's first two seasons, OU advanced to the second round.

Game dates, times and TV designations will be released later through the NCAA and ESPN. For ticket information, contact the Oklahoma ticket office by calling 405-325-2424.

The First Four opening-round games of the 2024 championship will take place March 20-21 and will again be conducted on the campuses of four of the teams seeded in the top 16. First- and second-round games will take place March 22-25 on the campuses of the top-16 seeds.

Regional play in Albany, N.Y. (MVP Arena) and Portland (Moda Center) will occur from March 29-April 1, with each site hosting two regional semifinal games, March 29 and March 30. In addition, each site will host a regional championship game March 31 and one on April 1.

The 2024 NCAA Women's Final Four will be played April 5 and 7 at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

Players Mentioned

Skylar Vann

Payton Verhulst

Sponsors

University of Oklahoma Athletics