SPOKANE, Wash. — Heading into an NCAA Tournament game against the No. 2 seed UConn women’s basketball team, the players from No. 3 Oklahoma are feeling prepared by the slate of top teams they faced during the regular season in the SEC.
The Sooners aren’t wrong about the strength of their schedule. They faced six ranked opponents in conference play, including two matchups each with No. 2 South Carolina and No. 12 Kentucky. Senior guard Payton Verhulst credited UConn superstar Paige Bueckers as “a phenomenal scorer” but compared the defensive game plan for the Sooners to the way they handled Kentucky guard Georgia Amoore.
“Looking at Paige Bueckers, obviously she’s a great player. I do think that the SEC has gotten us ready for really good guards,” Verhulst said. “You look at Georgia Amoore, and we got to play Kentucky twice, so I think just learning from things like that will definitely benefit us in this game … The SEC is full of a bunch of great players, and we’ve kind of had to learn how to throw different pieces and different defenses at them. So I think obviously when you look at a team like UConn, that’s something that I think will help us for this game.”
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But even if UConn (33-3) seems familiar when it takes the court against Oklahoma (27-7) on Saturday (5:30 p.m., ESPN) in the Sweet 16, the Sooners may not be equipped to handle everything the Huskies have to throw at them.
Amoore, a second-team All-American in 2025, averaged 36 points over Kentucky’s two meetings with Oklahoma, and Bueckers is on another level as a three-time unanimous first-team selection. Kentucky’s offense also relied heavily on its star guard, but UConn has proven it can thrive without massive output from Bueckers. Azzi Fudd led the team with 27 points in its first-round win over Arkansas State, and freshman forward Sarah Strong poses one of the toughest all-around matchups in the country, averaging a double-double since the start of the postseason.
“We’ve got to play the way we normally play, and we’ve got to make some adjustments obviously like you always do at this time of the year,” UConn coach Geno Auriemma said. “But their style of play is very similar to ours. I think playing at a pace that they play at causes problems for a lot of people, and playing at the pace that we play at causes problems for a lot of people, so it will be an interesting matchup.”
UConn and Oklahoma play with similar high-speed attacks, but where the Huskies set themselves apart is with their ball security and ability to disrupt opposing offenses. UConn averages just 10.7 turnovers per game and has the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the country at nearly two-to-one, meanwhile Oklahoma’s 18.7 turnovers per game rank 320th out of 353 teams in Division I.
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The Huskies enter the matchup generating almost 19 turnovers on average, and they’re undefeated in 15 games when they force at least 18. The Huskies thrived on their transition offense in the first two NCAA Tournament wins, averaging 34.5 points off turnovers and 25 points on fast-break opportunities.
“What it comes down to for us is just keeping our same game plan, and communication will be key to stopping their fast-break scoring since they play up and down a lot,” sophomore KK Arnold said. “It’s just keeping the same energy, continuing to communicate and coming in with that same energy that will help create for our offense.”
UConn’s post players will have their hands full managing Oklahoma star Raegan Beers, a former All-American and 2025 first-team All-SEC selection, so the Huskies need a team effort to maintain their usual defensive presence. Beers averages 17.5 points and 9.3 rebounds plus 2.8 blocks per game, anchoring the Sooners as one of the best rebounding teams in the country at both ends of the floor.
Auriemma has spent most of the season asking his guards to get more active on the boards, and though UConn won’t be able to keep Oklahoma off the glass entirely, offensive rebounding will be particularly important to limit the Sooners’ second-chance opportunities.
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“I think this game is going to be really important group effort,” Fudd said. “They have really good guards, really good bigs, so everyone has to do their part. Guards have to help inside. The bigs are going to have to help us … We’ve got to make sure that we’re playing to our tempo of quickness and not getting outside of ourselves. We know that they’ve got a really great offense, so making sure that we’re doing the best that we can to slow them down, make sure their shots are contested, not giving them as many open looks. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think we’re up for it.”
How to watch
Site: Spokane, Wash., Arena
Time/date: 5:30 p.m., Saturday
Series record: UConn leads 13-0
Last meeting: 81-57 UConn, Dec. 22, 2019 in Uncasville, Conn.
TV: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+
Radio: UConn Sports Network on Fox Sports 97.9
