The Guru Report — National: Two Major Upsets Bust the Big 12 Wide Open For Now; Marquette Edges DePaul in Big East Thriller and UConn Wins Easy

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

Within the Power Five the only one in the group that has not needed radar alerts for 99 percent of the last decade or so was the Big 12 where Baylor under Kim Mulkey ruled with an iron hand and if it somehow got fragile there was always Texas ready to perhaps make a comeback to its glory days.

Well, Mulkey has gone to the Southeastern Conference at LSU, which is quickly enjoying a renaissance and in the not-to-distant future if not closer, Texas and Oklahoma will be following but for now, it’s the home of intrigue.

With Wednesday night’s Kansas win at No. 13 Texas, the second conference home loss for the Longhorns, and Oklahoma’s comeback on Baylor a week after Kansas State ended a long drought against the Bears, the sure thing is gone, unless Iowa State may be ready to become that team.

And along with upset city came a new career record in the conference for shooting threes.

Besides, Nicki Collen’s jump from the WNBA Atlanta Dream to succeed Mulkey, another legendary change occurred with the retirement of Sherrie Coale and the hire of Drake’s Jennie Baranczyk.

On Wednesday the newbies met for the first time, Baylor at a poll low point of 14th but still quite talented and Oklahoma a return to prominence at 23.

At home in Norman, the Sooners rallied for an 83-77 triumph, snapping a seven-season losing streak in the series and a first top-15 win in five seasons since 2017.

“I am so proud of this basketball team,” Baranczyk said. “I love the balance we have. I love the belief that we have and that we just keep playing. When we focus on ourselves and just play like that and share the ball - it becomes really, really fun. The scoreboard then can take care of itself.”

Three times Oklahoma (14-2, 3-1 Big 12) had to erase 10-point deficits to ultimately down the Bears (10-4, 0-2), primarily on the play of Skylar Vann, who scored 22, points, grabbed seven rebounds, swiped four steals, dealt three assists and blocked three shots.

Putting icing on the cake Taylor Robertson was perfect beyond the arc, going 5-for-5 to become the conference’s all-time, 3-point shooter, eclipsing the previous mark of 392 set by Kansas State’s Laurie Koehn, who made her mark 2001-05.

Baylor, which had been on a 10-day covid pause, speaking of double digits, had leads of 10-0 to  get started, 31-21, and 59-49 until the Sooners awakened over the final 13 minutes for a 31-18 finish.

It’s the fourth time this season in separate games that Oklahoma has won games down double digits, beating No. 16 BYU, Utah, Kansas, and Baylor.

With 4:30 left in regulation, the Bears’ Queen Egbo on a layup gave the visitors a 75-71 lead before Nevaeh Tot sank two foul shots, launching an 8-0 run that sent the home team on to the upset.

Threes were the difference, Oklahoma making 14 of them off 27 attempts.

The Sooner defense forced 18 turnovers.

Next up ,  still at home at the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday will be a visit from TCU (5-7, 1-2) at 2:30 p.m.

It was the second straight loss for the visitors.

“People are going to take shots at me and say we lost another close game,” Collen said of the setbacks that also include one to Michigan last month at the Basketball Hall of Fame women’s showcase at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. “But players have got to make plays late. We were really good from the field until the fourth quarter.

“We shot our worst percentage across the board. Its players making plays late in those big moments. When the game is on the line, are you prepared to hit that shot?”

Oklahoma was behind most of the night, not leading until Vann snapped a tie with a shot from deep with 2:56 left in regulation.

Baylor did not make a field goal in the last 4:32 of play.

All-American NaLyssa Smith tied a career high with 30 points for Baylor and Egbo scored 16 with 10 rebounds, her 24th career double double.

“Taylor Robertson is amazing and it’s mind-boggling that she runs off screens for 40 minutes, all game long,” said Collen. “I thought Ja’Mee (Asberry) did an unbelievable job of guarding her all night … Our goal was to keep her at four, because we didn’t want her to break the Big 12 record.

“So really disappointed that happened, but hat’s off to her.”

Baylor next goes to Kansas in Lawrence Sunday at 3 p.m.

That’s the same Jayhawks who Wednesday donated Texas to be company of Baylor when it comes to misery.

Of course, Vic Schaefer was hired away from Mississippi State, which he built into an SEC powerhouse, with the idea of chasing Baylor and now the Longhorns have blown two chances to start making ground.

On Wednesday in the Erwin Events Center in Austin, Kansas (11-2, 2-1) left town with a 70-66 overtime victory, as the Longhorns (11-3, 1-2 Big 12) joined Baylor in the early two-loss conference mark department.

In case you’re wondering, the leader for now is No. 9 Iowa State at 4-0 in the conference.

Texas committed a season-high 32 turnovers leading to 18 points by the visitors.

Aliyah Matharu nailed a three-ball with 1:07 left in regulation, ultimately good enough to provide the 59-59 deadlock that got the game into an extra period.

But Kansas drew first and permanent blood with a three from Zakiyah Franklin.

Joanne Allen-Taylor scored 19 for Texas, while DeYona Gaston scored 14, and Rori Harmon dealt seven assists and grabbed nine rebounds.

Kansas’ Holly Kersgieter scored 19, Aniya Thomas got 11 points, and Taiyanna Jackson grabbed eight rebounds and scored nine points.

West Virginia, ranked earlier in the season, and who dealt Baylor a rare home setback last season, is at Texas Saturday night at 8 p.m.

The Mountaineers beat Texas Tech 64-53 Wednesday in the Big 12, while TCU edged Oklahoma State 64-63.

UConn Roars Back to Life at Butler: Maybe it was ghostly echoes hanging around nearby in Indianapolis with the phrase national championship following Georgia’s win over Alabama at Lucas Oil Field.

Perhaps it was being called a Top 10 team again following a multi-decades residency as such in The Associated Press women’s poll until a recent two-weeks falling out.

Then again, the opposition was Butler served up by the Big East to the former 11-time national champs Wednesday night.

But after a month of struggles and injuries and covid-caused postponements, the Huskies put up a score that made them infamous in their previous stay in the American Athletics Conference. - 92-47.

Olivia Nelson-Ododa scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds, and dealt five assists, while freshman Caroline Ducharme had 18 points, Christyn Williams had 19 points and seven steals, five more than the two-per-game coach Geno Auriemma had challenged her to start obtaining with the Huskies (8-3, 3-0 Big East).

In a change to get more of the limited minutes for now out of Nika Muhl, she started and Erica Westbrook came off the bench to score 13 points, while Aliyah Edwards scored 12.

Celena Taborn scored 13 for the Bulldogs (1-12, 0-4), while Emilia Sexton scored 11.

It was Auriemma’s 1,127th victory, nine behind Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer’s NCAA Division I women’s record of 1,136. 

The Cardinal play at Colorado, the late unbeaten team in Division I in women’s hoops, Friday night, and UConn hosts Xavier on Saturday before going to Oregon on Monday.

Meanwhile, in another thriller of the night, Marquette beat DePaul 88-85 in overtime at home at the Al McGuire Center in Milwaukee.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team, coming off the Creighton loss and a very long layoff with Covid,” said Marquette coach Megan Duffy. “The end was very intense. The way we executed down the stretch, the way we sustained the runs. There were huge games for everybody.”

It looked like the game was won in regulation when Marquette’s Lauren Van Kluenen scored at the buzzer but a review caused the shot to be negated.

Danyel Middleton, a sophomore for Marquette (10-4, 3-2 Big East) had her first double double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Karissa McLaughlin, who had 11 of the 15 in overtime for the win finished with 24, and Van Kluenen had 20. Chloe Marotta scored 16.

Marquette hosts Georgetown on Friday at 8 p.m. before welcoming Villanova on Sunday.

DePaul freshman Aneesah Morrow had 21 points and 17 rebounds, while Lexi Held scored 18 for the Blue Demons (12-4, 4-1), Darrione Rogers had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Sonya Martin scored 13, and Deja Church scored 12.

The Blue Demons greet Villanova Friday night at 6:30 p.m. in Wintrust Arena in Chicago.

Nationally noted: Other results on the Guru’s advanced tracker showed Stony Brook with a 65-59 win over visiting Vermont in the America East; Liberty beat North Florida 61-50 in the ASun; in the MAC, the Buffalo-Ohio U and Bowling Green-Kent State games were postponed so Ohio U. played and beat visiting Kent 70-64; No. 24 South Florida won at Tulane in the American Athletic Conference;  Rhode Island won at George Washington 73-42 while Massachusetts won at VCU 72-60, both in the Atlantic 10; and in the Big Ten, Ohio State beat visiting Michigan State 89-83.

On Thursday, No. 1 South Carolina, whose Dawn Staley owns a notable string of wins already over Mulkey, Auriemma, and VanDerveer, can add another when the Gamecocks host the Gary Blair-coached Texas A&M squad in the Southeastern Conference at home in Columbia. No. 5Tennessee travels across the state to Vanderbilt; in the Big Ten Nebraska is at No. 6 Indiana.

In the PAC-12, the Arizona State-Oregon and California-Utah games are postponed but No. 4 Arizona travels to Oregon State, coming off a long pause.

In the Atlantic Coast Conference, Virginia Tech is at No. 18 Duke; Florida State is at No. 15 Georgia Tech; No. 20 Notre Dame is at Wake Forest; Syracuse is at No. 3 Louisville; No. 4 NC State is at Virginia.

Troy in the Sun Belt visits Louisiana; Missouri State is at Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley; and Charlotte is at UTEP in Conference-USA.

And that’s the national report.