The FGCU women’s basketball team carries a 23-game winning streak into the first round of March Madness as they hope to upset the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday, March 22, in Lloyd Noble Center.
After a successful conference play campaign in which the Eagles went 18-0, they were selected as one of four No. 14 seeds for the NCAA Tournament, getting matched up against the No. 3 seed Oklahoma Sooners for their first game. This is the lowest that the team has been seeded since the 2016-17 season, as every year since then, they have been ranked at least 12th.
This is also the rare case of a first-round tournament rematch, as FGCU gets the opportunity to avenge their 70-73 loss to Oklahoma in the first round of last year’s March Madness. If the tournament’s history has proven anything, it’s that upsets happen and Cinderella runs are certainly possible, but the Eagles will have their work cut out for them if they want to make a deep run. Oklahoma currently sits as a 2500-to-1 favorite and a 15.5-point spread, according to ESPN, with FGCU being a 1200-to-1 underdog.
“I think our conference season prepared us for this because we come in every night and we’re being hunted,” FGCU guard Lauryn Taylor said. “We kind of get to relax a little bit more, understand that we’re not the team that has a lot to lose. So if we come in and play our best game…we don’t have a lot to lose so we can lay it all out on the line.”
Stylistically, there are a few pros and cons to how these two teams match up. Oklahoma has struggled shooting the three-ball lately, as they haven’t shot above 35% from three-point range once in their last five games. FGCU is a team that not only likes to shoot from long range but has been on a hot streak lately.
Throughout their last five games, the Eagles have shot an average of 36.7% from long range, with multiple games going above 40. The key for them in this game is to not fall in love with the three, especially if they are not falling early. Where FGCU might face a lot of problems, however, is in the interior on defense and in the rebounding aspect. Oklahoma has five players on their roster who are listed as 6-foot-2 or taller and three more who are either 6-foot-0 or 6-foot-1. This creates a huge mismatch in the paint for the Eagles to deal with, as they only have two players on the entire roster who are listed as taller than 6-foot-0, with both of them being 6-foot-1. Oklahoma comes into this game already averaging 46.6 rebounds per game against SEC competition, so FGCU will need to make some additions to the game plan if they hope to contend down low.
Junior center Raegan Beers has had an All-American caliber season, averaging 17.5 points per game and leading the Sooners in points, rebounds and blocks. She was even ranked No. 19 overall by ESPN for the NCAA Tournament. The 6-foot-4 transfer from Oregon State has dominated down low and opened up the floor for the perimeter players on the team to excel, which has played a huge role in Oklahoma’s success this year.
However, in their most recent game against South Carolina, she was limited to just seven points and four turnovers in a 93-75 loss. If FGCU can replicate South Carolina’s game plan and get Beers out of her comfort zone, this game could be closer than the betting odds would suggest.
“I see an All-American, that’s a hard matchup. I see a challenge for not only myself as her matchup but also for my team,” Taylor said. “They’re really fast and we’re good at pace…so just seeing who wins the race pretty much. I’m pretty excited about the pace of the game and seeing what we can do on our side and seeing if we can benefit from controlling the pace.”
