SHOCKING: Oklahoma Sooners NCAA Snub REVEALED | OU Women with a chance at deep NCAA tournament run

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Welcome to a bonus edition of Lockdown on Sooners and thank you for making Lockdown

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I'm John Williams of Sooners Wire and on today's show we're going to talk women's and men's

hoops.

We'll start with the men because they had a nice run down the stretch, one eight of their

last 11 two games in the SEC tournament, including a win over Texas A&M who earned a 10 seed

in the NCAA tournament.

And then they went to the wire with the Arkansas razor backs lost by three after an incredible

performance by Darius A. Cuff Jr.

And listen, I'm not going to sit here and say the Oklahoma Sooners deserve to be in.

You can't necessarily have the season that they had where you lose nine games in a row

and you find yourself clawing and scratching to get yourself back onto the bubble even.

At the same time, the rationale is not rationalizing because the SMU Mustangs were

the last team in according to committee chairman Keith Gill.

And the reason that SMU got in according to Kevin Scarbinski over there on social media

put it.

Keith Gill said they had better quality wins.

The SMU Mustangs have better quality wins than Oklahoma and Auburn, well, SMU's quality

wins teams that had NCAA fields or we're part of the NCAA field UNC Louisville, Texas

A&M.

That's two six seeds in a 10 seed.

Whereas Oklahoma had wins over five seed George Vanderbilt, eight seed Georgia, 10 seed

Missouri, 10 seed Texas A&M and 11 seed Texas.

So listen, you don't want to put Oklahoma in.

That's fine.

Just make it make sense because what you're saying is SMU, you want to SMU it.

And you didn't really care why you're putting them in.

It's the same thing we run into at the college football playoff, right?

At least make it make sense.

If you're going to say that they had better quality wins, map it out.

Show us the better quality wins because if you just want to say they had more conference

wins or they had a better record, then fine, just put it that way, they had a better record.

But if we're going to talk quality wins, let's make sure we're actually talking about

quality wins because Oklahoma had more quality wins than SMU.

And again, I come from a place that's that's sitting near saying, Oklahoma can't really

be upset about not being in because of the way that they played in the much month of January

and February.

You can't go on that run, lose nine in a row, and then sit here on March 16th feeling

like you should have been in.

The only reason you feel like you should have been in is because of the rationale that

the committee is using to say you should not have been in.

That's where I take exception because this team was playing the best basketball of just

about anybody in the country that wasn't an automatic qualifier by winning their conference

tournament.

Oklahoma was playing as good as anybody.

And if you want to hold that nine game losing streak against them, I get it.

But you can't sit there and tell me then that SMU has more quality wins than the Oklahoma

Games.

That's where I take exception to it.

That's where I feel like they got a little bit out of pocket with this rationale.

And why I understand why Oklahoma wouldn't want to play in the NIT.

They get a little bit of a head start on rebuilding and retaining their roster for the 2026, 2027

season.

They weren't snubbed until the committee came out with this rationale.

This is where the problem lies is you have people making decisions that have no idea what

they're talking about a lot of times and just throw stuff up against the wall and hoping

people buy it or not buying it or not buying it.

But shout out to the Oklahoma students for the way that they finished the season.

Hopefully that creates momentum for the future that we're not scratching and clawing just

to be a tournament team every single year.

Hopefully that creates momentum where you can bring back Xavier Brown, you can bring

back Darian Reed and those two can be the cornerstones of your 2026, 2027 team.

Remember Darian Reed is just a sophomore.

So he's got multiple years left and he was playing really, really good basketball in

the SEC tournament and down the stretch for the Oklahoma students.

I think he's a guy that you can build your roster around.

Xavier Brown is a really good scorer.

He's somebody that has the potential to fill it up for you.

But I find some other pieces in the portal to help compliment those guys and to, again,

replace, you know, Mohamed Wegey to replace Nigel Pack to replace Tay Davis.

You're going to have to find those guys, but they've done a good, they did a good job

last season finding those guys.

It was just they unfortunately found themselves in that funk during the nine game losing streak

and it was too little.

Unfortunately for them and, you know, obviously when the game against Arkansas and you're

punching your ticket to the dance, but you didn't.

So you're not now it's off season time.

Go rebuild, retool, and let's see if we can build something.

Did a show on Saturday about Porter Mosher being retained.

If you want to go check that out, I talk about why I think it's a good idea to bring

him back, not just for Porter Mosher, but for the Hoops program in general and for the

future of the program and what Roger Danny's planning to do.

So go check that episode out if you want to get my thoughts on that.

But coming up, let's talk about the Oklahoma women's basketball getting a foreseed and

a hosting in the women's NCAA tournament here next on locked on sooners.

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All right, the Oklahoma Sooners.

They do clinch a foreseed in the tournament, getting to host the first two rounds of the

Women's NCAA tournament, they'll host number five Michigan State, number 12 Colorado State

and number 13 Idaho.

So the Sooners are going to have a chance to get to the sweet 16 once again.

This is an opportunity for Sooner Nation to show out on Friday night.

They'll face the Idaho vandals on the 20th at 9 p.m. Central time.

So late game, but it'll be a good one.

I'm sure Michigan State Colorado State kick it off at 6.30 p.m. that evening.

And I like Oklahoma's chances to advance.

This is a good basketball team that's got the ability to fill it up and is a good defensive

basketball team too.

We'll, you know, have more further break down later on the down the road as we get closer

to tip off.

But you get South Carolina, you're on that same side of the bracket, but you've proven

that you can beat the game cocks.

It was a big upset, but you did show that you can play with them.

It's tough.

You're going to, it was going to be a tough slate no matter what.

You do get to avoid Yukon.

You get to avoid UCLA, but you're going to have to go in and find a way to beat a South

Carolina game cocks team again, that I'm sure is going to be out looking for some revenge.

So that's going to be a tough matchup for the sooners.

If for some reason, you know, Clemson or USC is able to upset South Carolina, that gives

Oklahoma a better chance of getting to the elite eight, but it definitely was going

to be a tough one no matter where it fell.

You're one seeds and the women's NCAA tournament, South Carolina, Texas, Yukon and UCLA.

Oklahoma really struggled with Yukon last year in the tournament.

One of Oklahoma's non-conference losses was to the UCLA Bruins and Oklahoma just doesn't

really seem to have an answer for Texas right now.

Texas is just really, really good.

But again, they did upset the game cocks, but if I was being honest, I'm not picking

against Don Staley in South Carolina.

They're just one of the best programs in college basketball for a reason, but you never

know.

You could get hot, Aliyah Chavez, Regan Beers, Peyton Verhol.

So they get hot from three beers and not beers, but Chavez and Verhol, in particular, they

can get hot from three.

They can play with anybody in the country because they're that good of scores, but you're

going to need some help from everybody else and you're going to need some good depth

scoring to end good defense to stop that South Carolina squad.

Again, it's a good, good program.

But shout out to Jenny Baranchek.

She's done a great job with the Oklahoma Sooners and she did a great job this year because

you lost a ton of talent off of last year's team and a ton of depth and they were able

to navigate this season and still end up with a four seed.

Probably should have been the three seed.

They were the number 10 team in the national seeding.

And so how that works out, not exactly sure, probably should have been a three seed at

least.

Here we are.

We're still getting a host, a couple games in Norman.

So it's a great opportunity to put the program on display and for recruits and prospects

and players in the portal that you might go after because you're going to have to replace

Regan beers after this year, Peyton Verhol's after this year.

And I think that's those are the key ones that you'll have.

Beatrice Coolitzin, you're going to have to replace her as well.

So some pieces that are going to have to be replaced in the portal or through the recruiting

ranks.

But it's a talented team.

And Jenny Baranchaik has done a great job, shout out again to that coaching staff.

This is a program that has made the tournament now 24 times since 2000 is what I saw.

So that's really an impressive run.

And Jenny Baranchaik has made the tournament every year that she's been at Oklahoma.

So keep that same energy and hopefully we can get a good crowd out there to Norman on

Friday night because it's going to be an excellent opportunity to host these games and again, put

some revenue back in the women's basketball program through those ticket sales and those

concessions and all that stuff.

So again, congrats to them and getting that foreseed and getting the opportunity to host.

Now go do something with it.

Let's go make a run.

That's going to do it for this bonus edition of Locked On.

Sooner or later, thanks so much for tuning in being a part of the show.

Wherever you get your podcast, we're free and available on all podcast platforms.

And on YouTube, hit that subscribe button, hit that notification button, let you know when

new episodes drop.

I'll have a weekend recap for softball coming at you on Tuesday for a bonus show and a look

at the SEC updated standings.

After now, everybody has played a weekend of SEC softball.

We'll do that for Tuesday.

But until next time, go check out the show wherever you get your podcasts.

And I'm John Williams.

You can read my work.

Over at SoonersWire.com.

Talk to you then, boomer, sooner.