OU's Lexy Keys ready for other side of Bedlam: 'I have a team that has my back'

When Lexy Keys steps onto Eddie Sutton Court at Gallagher Iba Arena in Stillwater on Saturday, she knows not everyone will be happy to see her. 

The Oklahoma senior guard is familiar with this court, gym and fanbase. For the first three years of her collegiate career, she was a Cowgirl. But on Saturday, she’ll experience the other side of Bedlam as a Sooner. And she’s prepared for whatever is thrown her way Saturday. 

“It’s Bedlam. Like anything with Bedlam, it’s going to be intense,” Keys told SoonerScoop.com. “There’s tension. And there’s a lot of passion behind it and it’s always an amazing game. It’s always a very intense atmosphere. You know that going into it. I loved the community of Stillwater. I loved Oklahoma State and the community that they had there and the school atmosphere. Made a lot of life-long friends there. And I think going into it, there are going to be people who welcome me back and people who don’t welcome me back. 

“But I know while I’m here I have a team that has my back. And I know I’m going into a battle with people who support me. That’s really important to me. And I think that will calm me down a bit. Just taking it a game at a time and a possession at a time.” 

Keys always knew she wanted to play basketball in the state of Oklahoma. Growing up in Tahlequah, she was a Sooner fan. And she was a star at Tahlequah Sequoyah High School. Keys won the 2020 Jim Thorpe Award in basketball and won two 3A state titles. She totaled 1,806 points in her high school career.

But OU — which was still coached by Sherri Coale at the time — didn’t recruit Keys until the end of her time at Sequoyah. OSU wasn’t a part of the picture really, either. In fact, she originally signed with UT Arlington. But after a coaching change a couple of weeks into her first semester in Arlington, Keys transferred to OSU. 

And she was a star for the Cowgirls. She started 16 games as a true freshman, 23 as a sophomore and 32 as a junior. Keys averaged 9 points and 2 assists per game for the Cowgirls. 

But after graduating in three years with a degree in occupational therapy and going through another coaching change, from Jim Littell to Jacie Hoyt, Keys entered the transfer portal. 

“I had obviously gone through a coaching change and there were a lot of things that were important to me that I don’t think were super respected in the sense,” Keys said. “There were a lot of factors that played into it, but bottom line, God closed one door and opened a new one.”

When Keys entered the portal, she knew what she wanted in her next school. It needed to be close to home, have a good master’s program. A team that fit her style of plays and a coach who supported her on and off the court. 

She found that in Norman in Jennie Baranczyk, who was one of the first coaches to call Keys when she entered the portal. 

“I knew what I wanted in a program,” Keys said. “I knew I wanted to stay close to home because I was already going into my senior year and my family is super important to me. And I knew it was important to me to see a lot of hometown people come to my games because I was fortunate enough to have that at OSU. Whenever Jennie had called me, it was honestly a lot of honest conversations. And it was a lot of conversations that I truly appreciated during that time because I’m a really big relationship person. I love getting to know people from more than a coaching standpoint or a boss standpoint — kind of what makes them tick.

“She asked me questions that truly — she wanted to get to know me. She really never asked me questions about how I was as a player. It was more about getting to know my morals and who I was as a person.”

Transferring is one thing. Transferring to your school’s in-state rival is another. Keys knew this when she made the decision. And she’s not the first to do it. Trace Ford in football, Kale Davis in baseball and Kelly Maxwell in softball all used to play for OSU before crossing Bedlam lines. And each of them has faced backlash for the decision. 

But that never factored into Keys’ thought process. 

“I think me transferring, it’s so quick that you can’t really think about other people,” Keys said. “You have to think about what’s best for you. I think whenever I did transfer, being close to home was very important to me. I knew that coming to a system that had a very awesome culture, family-oriented. Like I said before, relationships are very important to me. I knew that I wanted to play for a program where the head coach had a relationship with their players. And obviously, I had played against the OU program, so I already knew their style and I loved it. That obviously played a huge factor. I just had some values that I was looking for in a program. And OU was the biggest factor in that. And they held true to all of those values.”

Keys has quickly become one of Oklahoma’s most valuable players. She’s started all 20 games for the Sooners, averaging 8.6 points and 2.9 assists per game. She’s especially been good during OU’s five-game winning streak, averaging 10.8 points per game and shooting 54.5% from behind the 3-point line. 

She will be a huge key down the stretch for the Sooners as they look to make a run this March, starting with Saturday’s game in Stillwater. And while she knows it will be one of the toughest games of her career, she also knows she has the right support system behind her. 

“Not everyone is going to be excited you leave, but you are going to have people who welcome you with open arms,” Keys said. “I don’t think you can look at the negative in that aspect because you know no matter what, even if I transferred somewhere else, there was going to be negativity. I knew with transferring and rivalries there was going to be a lot of negative with it, but I knew I didn’t need to focus on that. And I needed to do what was best for me in that situation.

“I don’t love change, but I don’t mind it. I’ve been very fortunate here at OU to have a coaching staff that is actually amazing. I know they have my back in any situation and they are for me in my personal life and they want the best for me. It’s been an amazing change.”