Great postgame presser. It was nice to get off the Zoom bullshit and see Coach Moser and his players in person interacting with humans.
I love what Porter Moser brings to the table. Even during the presser… he’s coaching his guys up.
I agree pretty much with what he’s saying, OU should be in the tournament given the schedule they’ve played and the fact this was a team which starting the season didn’t really have a two-way point guard.
When Porter Moser took the OU job after Lon Kruger’s retirement, he immediately lost two guards from the roster who would have made this team a pre-season top twenty team. Those being point guard Devion Harmon and hybrid guard Alondes Williams. Plus, Austin Reaves now plays for the LA Lakers.
Devion transferred to Oregon to play for Dana Altman who for a time was the favorite to get the OU job, while Alondes felt he needed a fresh start and transferred to Wake Forest where he had a breakout season.
So basically…this team had to evolve around Jordan Goldwire the defensive specialist from Duke and the true freshman Bijuan Cortez as far as the point guard position. It’s been a deliberate work in progress which will still need to get better for the Sooners to get past Texas Tech tonight in the Big 12 semis.
Bijuan, a true freshman who played his high school ball at 4A Kingfisher, didn’t see the floor against Baylor. It was basically Jordan Goldwire and Moj Gibson playing the point for the Sooners against the defending national champion Baylor Bears.
Moj and Jordan have turned themselves into real two-way hybrid guards game by game this season. They need to take their games even higher these next two games in Kansas City for the Sooners to be holding the trophy and chanting SEC, SEC!.
Given how much of that bullshit they’ve had to hear in places like Stillwater, Lubbock, and Lawrence this Big 12 hoops season…I think it would be a cool way to walk off the stage.
OU now has the Texas Tech Red-Raiders with coach Mark Adams and the nation’s best defensive group in front of them tonight in the Big 12 semi-finals.
I’ve had Texas Tech as my third line NCAA Tournament Cinderella for quite some time and I had Coach Adams as my Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Texas Tech plays ten guys. They’re balanced with six different players scoring around ten points a game. Tech plays three different guys at the point at various times during a game and you actually could see any of the three assuming the point at any time.
The Red Raiders are nothing glorious offensively. They work hard and hit the offensive boards with a vengeance. They try to turn you over and get out in transition. They kind of remind me of some of those Nolan Richardson teams at Arkansas playing Forty Minutes of Hell.
OU beat Tech by fifteen in Norman, then got bombed in Lubbock as they were trying to find their way without EJ Harkless.
I think that bridge has been crossed with the way Jacob Grove, Marvin Johnson, and Ethan Chagrois have evolved of late.
Obviously…for me tonight it’s three things for the Sooners, 1 take care of the damn ball and keep the turnovers below 11-13, 2 keep owning the defensive boards as they have of late, and 3 get Tanner Grove out of the gate early shooting the ball.
If OU does those three things, I think they have a chance to play in the Big 12 Finals on Saturday… and maybe even troll Bob Bowlsby a little with an SEC chant.
Let’s go, boys. It’s the goal achieving portion of the season. What happened last night is just that…last night. This is when you elevate your game as a group every game if you want to continue playing consequential basketball games.