OU women's basketball: Sooners earn a flurry of Big 12 season awards

After an unbelievable regular season that saw the Sooners win a Big 12 title, it was only natural that it would be rewarded with plenty of Big 12 regular-season awards.

That includes the two biggest individual awards.

Jennie Baranczyk was named as the Big 12 Coach of the Year after guiding the Sooners to a 15-3 record in conference play and a 21-8 overall record. Skylar Vann was named as the conference's co-player of the year alongside Texas' Madison Booker.

Baranczyk, in her third season at Oklahoma, led the Sooners to their second-consecutive Big 12 regular-season title and becomes the second OU women's coach to win the award, joining Sherri Coale. The Sooners defeated five teams ranked in the AP Top 25.

Vann becomes the fourth Sooner to earn Big 12 Player of the Year honors, joining Phylesha Whaley, Stacey Dales and Courtney Paris. Vann, who won Big 12 Sixth Player of the Year awards the past two seasons, averaged 15.0 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game during the regular season.

Joining Baranczyk and Vann is Payton Verhulst, who was named the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year. Verhulst, who averaged 12.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, transferred from Louisville during the offseason.

Vann and Verhulst were also named to the All-Big 12 First Team, as the Sooners tied Texas and Kansas State for the most first-team selections. Navaeh Tot and Sahara Williams were named as honorable mentions.

The 19th-ranked Sooners will be the top seed at the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City later this week. They'll play the winner of No. 8-seed Oklahoma State and No. 9-seed TCU at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.