Oklahoma Sooners Women’s Basketball head coach Jennie Baranczyk looks to improve and have another successful season in 2024-25 in the hope of accomplishing something for the first time in over 20 years.
At number eight, the Oklahoma Sooners Women’s Basketball 2002 historic season.
Sherri Coale led the Sooners as the head coach in her sixth season.
Oklahoma began winning their first ten games against 11th-ranked Purdue, Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Butler, North Texas, TCU, Wichita State, SMU, Montana State, and Illinois while scoring over 85 or more points in six of those victories.
The Sooners were handed their first-season loss by the top-ranked Connecticut Huskies 72-86.
Beginning the calendar year 2002, Oklahoma secured four wins of their next five games against the Colorado Buffaloes 78-67, the Texas Tech Red Raiders 80-68, the Oklahoma State Cowboys 65-48, and the Baylor Bears 82-73.
After falling to the Iowa State Cyclones 66-82, the Sooners won their last three remaining games of January defeating the Texas Longhorns 89-69, the Texas A&M Aggies 72-40, and Oklahoma State 66-58 ending with a 7-1 record in January.
Collecting their first five games of February with wins against the Kansas Jayhawks 79-57, 10th ranked Baylor 69-60, Texas A&M 67-51, the 12th ranked Kansas State Wildcats 76-68, and the Nebraska Cornhuskers 81-47. This extended their win streak to eight.
Dropping their third game of the season to the 15th-ranked Longhorns 68-62 in overtime, the Sooners won their final two games of the regular season versus the Missouri Tigers 90-70 and the 15th-ranked Red Raiders 75-56 ending the regular season with a 24-3 record as the Big 12 regular season champs for the third consecutive season.
The Sooners plowed through Oklahoma State 87-56, 13th-ranked Kansas State, and seventh-ranked Baylor in the Big 12 Tournament to become the 2002 Big 12 Tournament Champions.
Oklahoma was featured as a one-seed in the NCAA Tournament.
After blowing out the 16th-seeded Hartford Hawks 84-52 in the first round, the Sooners defeated the ninth-seeded Villanova Wildcats 66-53 heading to the Sweet Sixteen.
The Sooners defeated a couple of Big 12 teams in their next two games of the NCAA Tournament, the fourth-seeded Texas Tech 72-62 in the Sweet Sixteen and third-seeded Colorado 94-60 advancing to the Final Four.
From the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas the Sooners advanced to the National Championship by defeating a top-seeded Duke Blue Devils 86-71.
Sadly, the Sooners finished as runner-up losing to Connecticut who concluded the season with a perfect 39-0 record.
Oklahoma concluded the season with a 32-4 overall record and a 14-2 conference record.
By: Joey Ross
