OU women's basketball began during the 1974–75 academic year. In March 1990, Oklahoma officials released a statement saying that the women's basketball program was to be dropped, after many years of sub-par performance and low attendance. Many people voiced their complaints and eight days later, OU reinstated the program. At the time, the average attendance per game was 65 people. In 1996, Oklahoma hired former Norman High School women's basketball coach Sherri Coale to the same position at the university. The Sooner women's basketball team developed in years since to status as a leader in attendance across the nation. The Sooners averaged attendance of 6,851 in 2011–12 at home games, and the support for the sport led to Oklahoma hosting first and second-round games in the Women's NCAA Basketball Championships at Lloyd Noble Center in Norman. The Sooners also set a record on February 2, 2009, when they played host to the number 13Tennessee Lady Volunteers, led by coach Pat Summit, who was trying to get career victory 1,000, something that no other coach had done before. The attendance for that game, which was held at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City, was close to 13,000 as well as setting a record for the most watched women's basketball game in history. The Sooners led the Big 12 conference in attendance as well. As with the men's team, they call Lloyd Noble Center home. The program gained national prominence during the 2002 post-season when they advanced to the national title game and lost to the University of Connecticut Huskies. In the 2005–06 season, the Sooners were led by their coach Sherri Coale and the nationally known sophomore twins Courtney and Ashley Paris, daughters of former San Francisco 49ers offensive tackle Bubba Paris, to the third round of the national tournament. The team also won the Big 12 regular-season championship and the Big 12 Tournament. They became the first Big 12 women's basketball team to remain undefeated throughout conference play. In the 2008–09 season, the Sooners made it to the Final Four of the 2009 NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Tournament. They advanced through the Oklahoma City Regional, where they enjoyed considerable home court advantage, as Norman and Oklahoma City are separated by fewer than 20 miles. The 2010–11 and 2011–12 seasons failed to result in regional championships and NCAA Final Four appearances. Playing through rigorous non-conference schedules and a rugged Big 12 slate, the Sooners received No. 6 seeds each of the two years. The 10–11 team advanced through the Charlottesville, Virginia, first and second round site with a win over nearby James Madison University and an upset win over the University of Miami Hurricanes. The season came to an abrupt halt in Dayton, Ohio, in the Sweet Sixteen, with the team falling to No. 2 seed Notre Dame, which steamrolled to a national championship appearance that year. The 11–12 team failed to make it past the No. 3 seed St. John's Red Storm in a 74–70 defeat in front of several thousand Sooner fans in Norman, Oklahoma. St. Johns lost in the Sweet Sixteen to the Duke Blue Devils in Fresno, California. Oklahoma City hosted an NCAA regional in March 2013. The 2012–13 Sooners missed graduating senior Jelena Serena, but retained the rest of the team. Adding to the corps were two National Top 20 recruits, Maddie Manning and Nicole Kornet, and Sooners Jasmine Hartman and Lyndsey Cloman rejoined the active roster. Both Hartman and Cloman sat out the entire 2011–12 season with injuries.
Conferences
Oklahoma has played in the Big 8 and the Big 12 conferences. The Sooners joined the Big 12 in 1996 when the Big 8 merged with four former members of the defunct Southwest Conference.
Coaches
Sooners head women's basketball coach is Sherri Coale, who entered her 18th season at Oklahoma in 2013–14.
NCAA Tournament history
The Sooners reached the NCAA tournament and Sweet Sixteen for the first time in 1986. In 1995, Oklahoma made their second trip to the tourney, falling in the second round. After another break, the Sooners made their third appearance in the 1999–2000 season, and have become a mainstay in the tournament since then, entering the field of 64 every year since. In that time period, the Sooners have reached three Final Four appearances, which is tied for 9th in NCAA Women's Basketball History. Since 2002, the Sooners' first appearance, their three appearances ties them for fifth, behind Tennessee, Connecticut, Stanford and Louisiana State.
