By JARED PURCELL

Sports Editor

If you haven’t been a follower of OU’s women’s basketball team, now is the time to start taking notice. In fact, the national polls should be closely eyeing the Golden Grizzlies.

The team currently has its best 20-game record in school history (16-4) and is on a seven-game winning streak. The streak includes a decisive 67-51 win over Summit League foe and current ESPN/USA Today No. 20 South Dakota State on Jan. 5. The win puts Oakland in control of its own destiny when it comes to the Summit League standings.

Depth perception

Oakland owes its success to its depth. Head coach Beckie Francis has used words like “sincerely deep” to describe this year’s team and it has showed. Francis has been blessed with a roster that she can tinker with at anytime and still get a winning result.

Since the Southern Utah loss, Oakland is 12-1 with its one loss suffered at the hand of Marquette, a respectable opponent who plays in the powerhouse Big East Conference. Even though losses are losses, Oakland has risen to a new level since the beginning of the season.

Senior guard Jessica Pike is living up to her pre-season Summit League player of the year status, leading the team with 15.3 points-per-game, shooting .442 from the field and shooting a golden .883 from the line.

The addition of freshman guard Sharise Calhoun this season has proved beneficial. Calhoun’s speed has her moving up and down the court with ease and helps her stick with her assignments. Plus, her ability to average 22.4 minutes a game can come in handy. In fact, she played 38 minutes in her most recent game against IUPUI. She might not be impressive on the score sheet yet but she can definitely play solid while others get to rest.

Senior guard April Kidd is athletic like Calhoun, but offers more experience on defense. Her 61 steals leads the team by far and provides a good role model for fleet-footed players like Calhoun.

Perhaps the greatest development is the play of sophomore center Brittany Carnago. Her triple-double performance (14 points, 11 blocks, 10 rebounds) against Centenary on Jan. 12 was the first triple double in the Summit League since December 2006. That was no fluke either.

Starting every game so far this season, Carnago has accounted for 61 of the team’s 101 blocks — only six other players in the nation have more. She is also third on the team in scoring along with averaging 10.6 points-per-game and 8.1 rebounds. Not bad for someone who only started one game and averaged 4.5 points per game with 25 blocks last season.

Here and now

At the beginning of the season, it was hard to see Oakland in its current position after losing two straight games to two ranked teams in Georgia and Purdue. After that, OU had an uncharacteristic one-point loss to Summit League bottom feeder Southern Utah.

Yet, if the poll masters focus on the teams current play and depth and discard the team’s early season disappointments, this team screams for national attention. Even if Oakland is getting some attention right now, if they keep rolling the way they are, the spotlight will come sooner than later.

Oakland will once again face SDSU in its next game on Feb. 3. If the Grizzlies manage a victory on SDSU’s home court — where SDSU hasn’t lost all season — the Grizzlies should without a doubt be recognized as a Top 25 team.