NORMAN — When Jennie Baranczyk arrived in Norman as Oklahoma’s coach in April of 2021, the once-proud women’s basketball program felt hollow.
The Sooners hadn’t reached the NCAA Tournament in three seasons. Crowds that once made Lloyd Noble Center one of the sport’s most intimidating stops had thinned. Even the foundation built by legendary coach Sherri Coale no longer translated to packed stands.
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Baranczyk, then 39 and fresh from Drake, knew the rebuild would require more than wins. It would require belief — and people.
In her earliest pregame routines, she’d look into the stands and recognize the same dozen season-ticket holders. She knew them by name. She appreciated them. But she wanted more not just for OU, but for women’s basketball in the state, much like the surge she’d watched unfold back home in Iowa.
“It feels like it has taken forever,” Baranczyk told The Oklahoman this week as she stood in the LNC tunnel, gazing toward the court. “It’s a gradual, sudden effect. You’ve been dreaming, you’ve been trying and we obviously have a great staff that’s helped in that too.”
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The winning part came quicker than most expected. Under Baranczyk, the Sooners have returned to the NCAA Tournament four times and last March reached their first Sweet 16 since 2013.
One moment she’s dreamed about arrived Thursday.
OU announced Sunday’s 2 p.m. home game against No. 6 LSU is officially sold out. It’s the program’s first sellout at LNC since Feb. 28, 2009, when 12,193 fans packed the arena for a Bedlam win over Oklahoma State.
The Tigers and coach Kim Mulkey bring star power, no doubt. Still, selling basketball tickets in Norman — for the men or women — has rarely been easy. Just Tuesday night, Porter Moser’s OU men played the defending national champion Florida Gators in a sparsely populated arena.
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That’s what makes this different.
“Especially since it’s already announced,” Baranczyk said. “This isn’t a walk-up crowd. There are people that want to come. From a national perspective, there are a lot of eyes on this program and this conference. But think about how many people will be here, it’s their first time here and it’s their first time at a women’s basketball game.
“We don’t want to take that for granted.”
There are plenty of theories about why basketball has struggled to capture Norman’s attention. That it’s a football town, that the arena’s location works against it or that the fan base is fickle.
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But Baranczyk has quietly offered some counterarguments: invest and win.
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Oklahoma head coach Jennie Baranczyk talks to the team after a Bedlam women’s college basketball game between the OSU Cowgirls and OU Sooners at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025.
Last season, the Sooners’ women’s team increased its average home attendance by more than 1,000 fans per game, one of the biggest increases nationally.
“This has been grassroots,” Baranczyk said. “This isn’t just one campaign. Things have to align — who you’re playing, when you’re playing — but it’s still happening. We won’t take one second for granted, especially when it’s sold out days before. That’s incredible.”
Since joining the SEC, OU has seen what women’s basketball atmospheres can be. Last season, it played in front of 18,000 at South Carolina.
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This time, the energy will be at home.
Star center Raegan Beers can’t wait.
“It’s beyond exciting,” Beers said. “We have devoted fans who’ve continued to come in and show up for us. It is incredible just to see the work that we put in, day in and day out, for people to see that and want to come.
“Immediately my mind went to (four-time All-American) Courtney Paris. This team is doing the things that are getting us to where Courtney Paris was. To reach this point — I’m proud of this team for getting us there.”
Baranczyk remembers those days vividly.
When she was 22, just starting her coaching career as an assistant at Kansas State, one of her first clinics took her to Norman. Coale’s teams were rolling then.
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“You did not want to play here,” Baranczyk said. “It was crazy. It was rowdy. There were great teams and great battles.”
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Oklahoma head womenÕs basketball coach Jennie Baranczyk in the second half of the womenÕs college basketball game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners and Ole Miss at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Thursday Jan. 8, 2026.
There’s still ground to cover. Through 10 home games this season, OU women’s basketball is averaging 4,574 fans, a figure that would’ve ranked 29th nationally last year.
But as Baranczyk looks across at the LNC floor — where Mulkey will soon pace the sidelines in front of the largest women’s basketball crowd Norman has seen in more than 15 years — she can’t help but smile.
The blueprint never disappeared. Baranczyk believed this day would come.
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“There have been so many incredible players here — Danielle Robinson, Courtney Paris, Stacey Dales,” Baranczyk said. “They’re loud about their support. They’re tied to this place. That’s what makes it special.
“You never do enough when you’re in it. You want the alums to feel so proud. I hope they really do — I want to do more and more.”
For the first time in a long time, Lloyd Noble Center will be full again.
And for Baranczyk, that empty vision she once stared into is finally becoming reality.
Colton Sulley covers the Oklahoma Sooners for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Colton? He can be reached at csulley@oklahoman.com or on X/Twitter at @colton_sulley. Support Colton’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
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OU vs. LSU
TIPOFF: 2 p.m. Sunday at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman (ESPN2)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU-LSU women’s basketball set to be Sooners’ first sellout since 2009
