NORMAN — One significant piece of Oklahoma’s women’s basketball team this season has yet to arrive in Norman.
Latricia Trammell, who has spent nearly a decade coaching in the WNBA including two seasons as a head coach, is set to join Jennie Baranczyk’s staff in the coming days.
Trammell joins the Sooners as associate head coach after the Seminole native spent last season as an assistant coach for the Chicago Sky.
When Pauline Love left Baranczyk’s staff to take over as Alabama’s head coach in the spring, Baranczyk thought about the search for a replacement in a different way.
“Everything’s changing. How do you restructure what you’re doing? My seat’s a little bit different than when I started,” Baranczyk said Thursday at Oklahoma’s women’s basketball media day. “Recruiting has changed. We have a GM now. There’s different ways that you’re trying to do things.”
Baranczyk didn’t rush to fill the spot, certainly not through the traditional avenues of finding an assistant coach.
“You’re trying to focus more on player development. You’re trying to really understand performance at a different level. Technology has changed,” Baranczyk said. “So when I started to look at all those things … I need to understand the world of the WNBA. I need to understand the language. I need to understand how do we really prepare our players to get there. We’re in a league that a lot of our players go to that league and are very successful. I want to make sure that players come to Oklahoma, they want to win championships, but they also want to continue to play. We’re going to put them in the best position to be able to do that.”
With the WNBA season running in the college offseason, Trammell has been a regular television analyst for collegiate broadcasts, especially in her home state.
Baranczyk was drawn to Trammell during those discussions about basketball in preparation for those broadcasts.
“She could be game changing for us,” Baranczyk said. “I hope she stays here forever. I really do. But I know that we’re going to get every piece of information that we can possibly get to make us better. That’s something that if I’m asking our players every day to get better, I need to find ways for myself to get better.
“So she’s going to be able to come in and she’s going to enhance a lot of the things we’re doing. She’s going to make us all better.”
Baranczyk wasn’t sure Trammell would be interested in the job.
“I’m just excited for the knowledge,” Baranczyk said. “I mean, who gets that opportunity? There’s not a lot of coaches, if ever. You need to look that up — has there ever been a coach that’s left the W to coach here (in college)? I don’t know. … It just was a no-brainer and really lucky she said yes.”
One of those players who has aspirations of playing in the WNBA is sophomore Aaliyah Chavez, who is looking forward to learning under Trammell.
“Obviously her being in the W and knowing the coaching style in the W is just going to be amazing for us,” Chavez said. “Obviously not everyone’s end goal is that but that’s definitely mine. Seeing the coaching style that she’s going to bring, I’m very excited to have her here.”
The Sooners play Southern Nazarene in an exhibition game Oct. 25 before opening their season in Paris against North Carolina on Nov. 2.
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