Jennie Baranczyk Oklahoma Women's Basketball SEC Tipoff Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: I'd like to welcome to the podium Jennie Baranczyk.

We'll open it up to questions.

Q. Last season you led your team to an 11-5 conference finish. What are you seeing from last season that you can bring to this season to hopefully do that or better with your new team?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I mean, you look at the SEC, and it is such an intense and powerful conference, especially in women's basketball. I love the way that we're competing at a high level.

Going into our third season, I think we've learned a lot of different lessons, and one of the major lessons that we've learned is that we need a lot of depth on our team to be able to compete. So I think we've done that a lot in the offseason.

I love the way that our team is kind of coming together. We're a young team. We have ten freshmen and sophomores, seven new players. So it's been really fun to be able to see that.

For us to continue to get better, we've got to just grow as a team. We've got to fall down. We've got to have our leadership step up a little bit more, but it's going to be fun.

I think we're testing ourselves a lot in the nonconference. We're playing some really, really good teams. So for us to be able to head into January, I'm excited to get us a little battle-tested before then.

Q. You bring in a player like Sa'Myah Smith, obviously she played at Virginia last year, but some people may forget, she helped LSU win that championship. What do you envision -- how do you envision her playing into your role on your team?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Yeah, Sa'Myah has been just an incredible asset so far. I think she's a quiet leader, but she's somebody with just an insane amount of experience. So for her to know what it takes to win a national championship, for her to know what it feels like in February in the SEC, that kind of leadership doesn't go unnoticed and know how hard you have to work every day to know the kind of depth that you have to have.

We're really excited to get those game lights on, to get her on the court to be able to play. You watched her in the NCAA Tournament last year with Virginia, and she made an incredible impact on that team to lead them to the Sweet 16.

We're excited for a lot of different things. What Sa'Myah has already done is she's been a great leader. She shows up every single day, but she can really help elevate us to another level too.

Q. You mentioned that you have ten freshmen and sophomores on this year's roster.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: And a lot of hair color.

Q. But in an era in which a lot of teams are trying to get old and stay old, I guess why is that I guess the roster construction you went with?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Right. It's a little bit unique, right, but we want to be able to grow together. For us, we've kind of had a front-row seat to be able to watch what the Oklahoma City Thunder did and to be able to build it and grow and learn each other and grow together.

That's something that if you are a college fan right now and you still really want to watch a group of people grow together, that's our team. That's what we've done. We've had kind of waves of some players grow together. So this is no different. There's just more of us now.

I don't ever want to go away from the approach of being able to play freshmen. You got to see, we had a freshman last year have a pretty special year and will continue to elevate. We want to continue to attract that. We still want retention. That's still the goal for all of us is still to build that and to build a place that people want to come, stay, grow, and get better. We're just going to be in the young part of that.

So the fruit might be later. The fruit might be this year. You don't know. But we're going to stick together. We're going to grow it. But there is intentionality behind that. I still believe in young people, and I still want to be able to put them out there and gain that experience that they might not have yet.

Q. You referenced your special freshman from last year, Aaliyah. She did things that included her in the same sentence as people like Paige Bueckers. What's the next step, the next level she can reach?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, it's been fun to watch a player like Aaliyah Chavez come in. She came in, and she just got better. Throughout the whole year, you know, she had some special moments. She had some moments that she fell down, and wished those were different, but you got to watch her just continue to get better.

What you've gotten to see this summer is now not only do you know you have to get better, you also have to elevate the people around you. That's what the great players have done. That's something that she's got to continue to learn. How do you play to other people's strengths to help them shine?

You can see her really trying to learn her team. You can see her trying to do things. She plays with this joy, this intensity in everyday setting. I'm excited to watch her in a sophomore year not just bring her level up a little bit more, but to really watch others around her continue to shine and get better too.

Q. Obviously you don't have Raegan and Payton anymore, but what players would you say that you envision stepping up to kind of help replace what you lost in those two?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: One of the major key factors in replacing especially a Raegan Beers, obviously Payton Verhulst too, you don't bring one player in to exchange it. You kind of have to change some of the things that you get to see.

And what I mean by that is we have more depth. We have more players that are going to have to step up and do more things. I think everybody wants to elevate their game. I'm excited about the depth that we do have. We don't have depth that has a ton of experience together, but we do have depth that has experience.

We're going to be able to play that in a Sa'Myah Smith. We have a freshman in a LeeLee Bell who is going to get significant playing time and experience. You have Brooklyn Stewart who played a year ago and had some great minutes for us and now is more in a leadership position. We're talking about sophomores now that are, quote/unquote, veterans.

You're going to see it look different. You'll see Sahara Williams continue to play inside/outside and continue to elevate her game too.

This isn't going to be a we just recruited one player to come in. This is definitely going to be a team that has more depth that we'll have to be able to manage and put together.

Q. You had Pauline Love on your staff for a year, and now you will be coaching against her in the league. What characteristics did you see in her that made her SEC head coach-ready?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: You look at Pauline, and she has had such strength in recruiting especially, but what you didn't get to see that I got to see on an everyday basis is she works, she's confident, she makes people around her better, she's organized.

She is somebody that I can see why they wanted to come back and grab her. She's infectious. Her personality, she's positive. The players love her. She shows up every day, and she's grounded, and she's going to make people better.

I'm excited for her. I'm really thrilled that she's getting this opportunity. At the same time, you love to respect your competitors, and she's somebody I respect a lot.

Q. Why did you bring these two players? Sometimes coaches like to send a message. I don't know if that's your choice. I don't know.

JENNIE BARANCZYK: I'm not really good at sending secret messages. Mine are pretty direct. I love the way that both Sahara Williams and Aaliyah Chavez show up every day. I love their potential to be great leaders.

They are two young women that have the ability to elevate those around them, and they are very confident young women. They're women that are still navigating life. They're still women that can really depend on each other, and there's such strength in that, right? When you can really trust each other and depend on one another, there's great things that can come out of that.

So the message is pretty simple. I think they're pretty obvious leaders for our team, but also, these are opportunities that aren't necessarily about shining the light on them. This is the opportunity for them to shine the light on their teammates with all of you.

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