NCAA Women's Tournament Bracket: Oklahoma Sooners preview

Who? The Sooners of Oklahoma.

When do they play in the first round? OU plays Quinnipiac on Saturday, March 21 at 4 p.m. ET.

What? I have never understood why Oklahoma glamorizes the people who jumped the gun when Oklahoma was opened up to white settlement. But Boomer and Sooner and the Sooner Schooner are pretty awesome symbols.

Where? Norman, Oklahoma, where you can go see the oldest known painted artifact in North America.

Why? Strong numbers, and strong conference play.

How? They were an at-large selection.

Surprise? Predicted to finish fifth in the conference, they finished in second, three games behind Baylor.

RPI: 23

SOS: 9

Record: 20-11 (13-5 Big XII)

Good wins: Baylor.

Bad losses: South Florida at the Paradise Jam.

Who's running this show? Sherri Coale, since 1996, an NAIA player back in the day.

Extra, Extra! The Tulsa World and The Oklahoman.

Oklahoma is the kind of frustrating, confusing, enigmatic team that goes out and beats Baylor, then turns around and loses to Kansas. Oklahoma is hard to predict and harder to explain. But maybe they like it that way.

(Also, I don't like that they're moving away from listed weights. That's useful information, y'all.)

Long range specialist Peyton Little leads the Sooners in scoring. The sophomore guard averages 13.2 points. Big junior forward Kaylon Williams adds 11.9 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds.

I find it interesting that the other starters- senior Sharane Campbell-Olds, sophomore Gioya Carter, and freshman Gabbi Ortiz, along with junior Nicole Kornet- seemed to be more integral to the team's success in the non-conference season than in the conference season. Maybe that augurs well for tournament play (as long as they don't run into other Big 12 teams), or maybe the team dynamic has just changed that much.