In their final year in the conference, the Sooners left their stamp on the Big 12, as three Sooners were recognized in the 2023-24 Phillips 66 All-Big 12 women’s basketball awards.
Coach of the Year
The Conference announced on Tuesday afternoon that Oklahoma Women’s Basketball head coach Jennie Baranczyk was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year after leading the Sooners to their second consecutive regular season title.
The Sooners weren’t expected to have the stellar season they had by the voters in the preseason. After all, Oklahoma’s redshirt senior group of Madi Williams, Ana Llanusa and Taylor Robertson ended their college careers as the highest-scoring trio in program history. But Baranczyk did well in replacing their production this season.
OU, who was voted fifth in the Big 12 Preseason Poll, replaced four starters from last season’s team to go 15-3 and win the regular season title outright. The award goes to a Sooner head coach for the first time since 2009 and the fifth time overall, while it is the third conference coach of the year honor for Baranczyk, earning the award twice in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Oklahoma’s Skylar Vann was named the Big 12 Co-Player of the Year alongside Texas’ Madison Booker. The awards were voted on by the head coaches, who could not vote for their own players.
Vann made a big impact again this year, but besides coming off the bench as the sixth man like she did at the beginning of her Sooner career, Vann was featured as a starter. In her new role, Vann averaged 15.6 points and 7.1 rebounds during Conference play while shooting an even 50.0% from the field, all of which rank among the top eight in the league.
She added six 20+ point games as the award went to a Sooner for the first time since Courtney Paris in 2009 and for the seventh time overall. Vann had previously won the Sixth Player Award the last two seasons and joined Lauren Cox (Baylor, 2020) as the only former Sixth Player Award winner to go on to win Player of the Year.
