This was only a matter of time as far as true freshman Bijuan Cortez. This was his moment to show the college basketball world he is capabale of playing in a Power 5 league like the Big 12.
The long hair, the still true freshman body which hasn’t been sculpted in the weight room, the fact he played his high school ball in sleepy Kingfisher, Oklahoma… weren’t hiding what Porter Moser knew was coming at some point for his basketball team.
That being, the moment in this OU basketball season when Bijuan Cortez would have to start playing meaningful minutes for the Sooners because he has the best vision coupled with the best innate passing ability on the team.
Call it fatedom if you will this happened on the same evening with Thunder nineteen year-old Josh Giddey in the building, but what this was in fact was a coming out party for Bijuan Cortez and how Porter Moser will delegate minutes moving forward at the point guard position between Bijuan and senior Duke transfer Jordan Goldwire moving forward.
In this game it was the freshman from Kingfisher and not the senior from Duke who put the Sooners’ season on a firmer trajectory.
In this game Jordan logged 24 minutes and struggled only scoring 4 points and going a team worse -10. Converserly…Bijuan changed the entire flow and pace of the game in the second half. Bijuan played 16 minutes. His line was 4 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists with a team best +20.
I still see Jordan Goldwire as the starting point guard, but what Bijuan did in this game was what OU didn’t do in the close losses to Utah State and Butler…he finished for the Sooners. He drove the Sooners home in the last ten minutes of this game and Porter Moser went stayed with him because he knew for his team to stay on a course to make it to the Big Dance… Bijuan Cortez may in fact have to be his closer.
So what I would see on the horizon is pretty much minutes wise based on this game would be Jordan getting more minutes overall, but Bijuan being there at the ready to come into the game and play regular rotational minutes.
This was a must win for the Sooners since they travel to Austin to play the Longhorns next. The key for OU in my mind in Big 12 play is to avoid two game losing streaks in the most loaded basketball conference in America. Win the home games, and slug out a couple of road wins if they can.
OU is built to be a tournament team . They shoot well from both the field and the line. They have enough punch from beyond the arc. They play tenacious defense. The bench is coming along. They have an inside-outside big man in Tanner Groves. The last piece is bringiing down the turnovers and finishing in the last six minutes of one or two possession games.
Scoring wise Moj Gibson led the Sooners with 20 points with Tanner Groves adding 16 points.
EJ Harkless and Jalen Hill didn’t have spectacular games stat wise, but make no mistake those two are the two guys who do all the blue collar work which gives this team a chance every game.
Next up… Chris Beard and his Longhorns in Austin on Tuesday night.
In closing, one other thing.. in this Big 12 Conference you have two coaches in Bill Self and Scott Drew who have won national championships. You have Chris Beard at Texas and Bruce Weber when he was at Illinois who have taken a team to the national championship game. And then you have Bob Huggins with two Final Four appearances and Porter Moser who took Loyola of Chicago to a Final Four.
There is not an off night in the Big 12.
It’s not just good players in the Big 12…it’s elite coaches as well.