Jennie Baranczyk details Aaliyah Chavez recruiting process

Jennie Baranczyk has been recruiting Aaliyah Chavez since she became the Oklahoma head coach.

And for good reason, as Chavez is widely considered one of the best women’s basketball prospects in recent history.

“Her recruiting process started when I first got here,” Baranczyk said on Monday. “You try to develop relationships. And at the same time, it’s been a really long process. But it also feels like yesterday watching her before she was in high school.”

That long process paid off for Baranczyk and the Sooners, as they signed the No. 1 player in the country in Chavez. She’s the highest-rated recruit OU has signed in program history, picking the Sooners over Texas, South Carolina, LSU and others.

Early in Chavez’s recruitment, LSU was considered the heavy favorite. And late in her recruitment, experts thought she was going to be a Longhorn. All while OU remained steady and was able to get her on campus for its opening round game of the NCAA Tournament.

“It gives you a lot of faith in — they’re people of their word,” Baranczyk said of the recruitment process. “I’ve never had so many assumptions outside of what people think happened in a recruiting process than what actually did happen. At the end of the day, she picked our program because of the relationships she has with our coaches, our players. She really liked our team. And just a style of play that really fit. So that was kind of it.”

There was a lot of speculation about Chavez’s recruitment. Some believed she was being offered well over seven figures to attend certain schools. Baranczyk shut that down on Monday.

“There were so many rumors that we were paying her millions of dollars, and it’s just simply not true,” Baranczyk said. “That was something that was hard to navigate even in your own locker room. Because there are so many different things that people just say to say. As much as even what schools you’re recruiting against, there was so many opinions out there on who you’re recruiting against and how much they’re paying. Then the world of social media just kind of takes it where they want to take it.”

A 5-foot-11 five-star guard from Lubbock, Texas, Chavez averaged 34.9 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 3.7 steals per game her senior season. She finished her high school career with 4,796 points, 1,279 rebounds, 771 assists and 476 steals, hitting 636 3-pointers across 150 games. Chavez recorded nine 50-point games in her career and finished 14th on ESPN’s all-time scoring list.

Her ability to score from 3 and play at a fast pace makes her a perfect fit on Baranczyk’s Sooners.

“She wants to put herself in a position to help come in and be able to lead in a way. But also have really great leadership around her,” Baranczyk said. “So she’s just excited to be able to get in. So, of course, it’s about the pace of play and the style of play, but it’s also about making those reads. And they’re people that do their homework and they’re looking at, OK, where’s a place that she can get better? And so she wants to get better. She’s not a player who’s coming in with a lot of ego. She’s confident, but she also knows she has a lot of work to do.”