It turns out the Committee was probably right in leaving OU out of March Madness this season. OU’s inaugural basketball season under Porter Moser came to an end on Sunday night with a heartbreaking last possession 70-68 loss to the St. Bonaventure Bonnies.
If you follow college basketball you knew this wasn’t going to be an easy game for the Sooners. This is a St. Bonaventure team which made the NCAA Tournament last season. It’s a team with four senior starters who’ve been together their entire college careers, plus a third year juco. These guys know each other basketball wise. They know who they are. None of the five seldom leave the floor. Four of them played forty minutes in Norman on Sunday night.
This was the Sooners’ eighth loss this season which came down to the last possession of the game. If the Sooners simply win four of those games their record this morning is 23-12 versus 19-16.
To me…this season was pretty much about one thing, point guard play in the last four minutes of close games. I’m not dissing Jordan Goldwire because he came to Norman through the portal from Duke as a situational defensive guard.
Jordan actually got better the last seven games of the season, but on Sunday night nursing a sore ankle, his play in the second half was not what Porter Moser will need looking into the future.
Three horrific turnovers at the just the wrong time sealed the Sooners fate as an NIT second round exit.
Moving forward…what Porter Moser will need to evolve in his OU program is some sort of continuity with his players.
Next season OU will return the Groves Brothers, Jalen Hill, EJ Harkless, and CJ Noland. That will mean five of the top nine Sooners will be returning to Norman.
Jordan Goldwire, Marvin Johnson, and Ethan Chargois are all super seniors moving on in life.
If Moj Gibson returns that would be a sixth Sooner returnee. I’m not sure what Moj will decide to do. I walked past him after the game in the tunnel and he quite frankly looked crushed.
Two of OU’s freshmen this season, Bijuan Cortez and Alston Mason, were not contributors once the Sooners got into the grind of the Big 12 regular season.
Porter Moser has three freshmen coming in who are all top ESPN Top 100 players.
Benny Schroder, a 6’7″ guard from Germany, Milos Uzan, a 6’4″ point guard from Las Vegas, and Otega Oweh, 6’6″ swing player from New Jersey.
These three all need to be the next nucleus in Norman which stays in Norman for a while.
This OU team had five transfer portal players. That’s just too many. I would say in the age of the portal in college basketball…you need to maybe just be adding two to three players via the portal in normal times.
OU will need a big to replace Etan Chargois and a Swiss Army knife type to replace Marvin Johnson.
If Bijuan Cortez stays in Norman, he could be a reliable backup point guard. From my perspective, if Moj Gibson stays, that means OU should be looking for either two or three players with specific needs roster wise.
For me…I had a blast this season following the Sooners. I think the future will be bright with Porter Moser. But he needs a point guard, and he needs to bring a sense of player continuity back to the program.
Watch Kelvin’s teams play in Houston. Those guys actually know each other. But then look at Mike Boynton’s team this year in Stillwater, and again, too many players on the roster who don’t really know each other.
Continuity in the age of the portal will be the challenge in Norman.
This is Milos Uzan, the Nevada high school player of the year. Milos per ESPN is the 55th ranked player in this year’s class. A true two-way point guard. To me, Milos is the starting point of Porter Moser’s rebuild in Norman. Visualize Milos at the point, Moj at the two, EJ at the three, Jalen Hill at the four, and Tanner Grove at the five.
Then as a freshman, Porter could bring Benny Schroder off the bench as the sixth man, Jacob Grove as the seven, CJ Noland as the eight, and Otega Owah at the nine. That would be a pretty nice basketball team. Plus…another big through the portal for interior rim protection.
Here’s Benny’s highlight mix from last August. As of September 2021, Benny was ESPN’s No. 1 international prospect in this season’s recruiting class.