Oklahoma women’s basketball head coach Jennie Baranczyk has done a solid job this offseason of retaining the talent on her roster despite all the women’s college basketball transfer portal movement as of late. During a recent interview, the Sooners women’s basketball coach revealed that she has two individuals to thank for helping her limit transfer portal departures.
“With Madi (Williams), Taylor (Robertson), and Ana (Llanusa), to be honest, and them deciding to stay and to do this; to do something that they’ve never done on court. I don’t think we’ll ever fully understand the legacy that they left in terms of staying when it’s hard and wanting to do something together,” started Baranczyk.
“What it looks like from an outside perspective of the portal is we don’t always understand all circumstances of why people make decisions that they make. And they’re not always bad decisions or good decisions; sometimes, it’s just a decision. But I think that foundation is huge for them to have been able to stay and help build it. But then I also think that you have to get this mix of people that love Oklahoma, and we’ve had that too… they come for a bigger reason, and then they want to stay.”
Llanusa, Robertson, and Williams were key fixtures for Baranczyk and Oklahoma; last playing for the program in the 2022- 23 season. The trio decided to stick around after the university parted ways with its former head coach, Sherri Coale, who failed to make the NCAA tournament or have a record above .500 in her three years at the helm. Their decision to commit to Baranczyk instead of opting to find a new college basketball home was well rewarded as their new head coach quickly turned the program around, leading Oklahoma to three straight NCAA tournament berths as a No. 5 seed or better.
While Baranczyk could pat herself on the back for what she has accomplished at Oklahoma in just a short time, she gives all the praise to our players and the hard work that they have put in.
“As you wanna say, ‘Oh, it’s coaches,’… I do really feel like the women in that locker room have such an investment in each other, and it goes deeper, and then I think we really realize,” Baranczyk said. “And that’s something that we need to continue— I think that we’re all willing to do it together.”
Given how Baranczyk has been able to set a foundation of expectations for her program, with the help of her past and current players, the transfer portal has played a minimal role negatively in how Oklahoma’s roster has been built. And that is huge heading into the 2024-25 season as Oklahoma heads to the SEC and will get their opportunity to face off against two of the more dominant programs in the sport and winners of the last three national championships, LSU and South Carolina.
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