Obviously… I’m an OU basketball homer. My heart to OU basketball is probably the size of Little Nick Gallo’s basketball heart as to the Thunder. I’ve lived thru Johnny Mac, Dave Bliss, Joe Ramsey, Billy Tubbs, Kelvin Sampson, Jeff Capel, Lon Kruger, and now Porter Moser in Year 5 in Mike J’s Year 68.
I love Porter. I want him to succeed and continue to be the Sooner head coach continuing the standard which these previous coaches established in Norman minus one during my time. That one was Jeff Capel, Coach K’s right hand man at Duke before he took the Sooner helm.
I loved Jeff Capel as well. His wife was a Duke educated lawyer and you know how I love lawyers given my honorary law degree. He took two of his Sooner teams to the NCAA Tournament. His best OU team with Blake Griffin made it to the Elite 8 before losing to the eventual NCAA champion North Carolina Tar Heels. That Carolina team Roy Williams had was loaded and OU just didn’t have the depth or overall size to hang with them in the second half. Reality can be tough in that regard.
Two years later…after a couple of highly sought recruits in Willie Warren and Tiny Gallon didn’t work out –Coach Capel was fired. Joe C at the time called it the toughest thing he had to do as the OU athletic director.
Why did Joe C have to make this decision? Because the Sooner fanbase stopped coming to the games. Sooner fans are generally spoiled is my unfortunate honest take. They don’t like the for better or for worse part of the relationship. Plus, basketball will always play second fiddle to football. Ask Kelvin Sampson about that dynamic.
Tuesday night while the Thunder were beating the Spurs in Bricktown, the Sooners were getting physically dominated in a near empty Lloyd Noble Arena which should have been sitting around 10,000 fans for an SEC conference game against the defending National champion Florida Gators.
The arena was empty pretty much. Florida is a horrible matchup for OU with their four athletic centers. This was the game more than any I dreaded as an OU fan given how small the Sooners have to play to get their five best players on the floor this season.
The Sooners… as they did versus the big Gonzaga team, the big Arizona State team, and now the Gators as well could not match up with them in the first half. This game was over at halftime. As OU did in the previous losses at Gonzaga and Arizona State—won the second half against Florida.
But you know what? Nobody gives a shit about moral victories when you’re blown out of the arena in the first half at home. You get blown out at home in a pivotal SEC game and Porter Moser’s tenure at OU would seem to me to be in a Capelesque position heading into this Alabama game today.
I’ll be at the game before noon in my seat near the students and the pep band. You know how I love being being near the students and the pep band. MJ is not one of those OU teasippers who bails on his coach. I didn’t bail on Coach BV and I’m not bailing on Porter either. I just hope his players feel as strongly about this as I do.
My advice to Porter is this…you can’t play this small in the SEC. Mo Wague cannot handle the paint just by himself because he’s getting in four trouble every game. Put the Russian and freshman Kai Rogers in there with Mo some and see what happens. You know–a high-low post with Mo low and the Russian high.. Play some junk zone here and there. Muck it up in the paint defensively and keep Mo out of four trouble.
Because what you’re doing is not working against teams with talented bigs in the SEC.
Good luck, Porter. I hope there’s some other people in the stands with me today given the OU women are sold out in Norman for tomorrow’s game versus LSU.
You need to win this game. This is a big one if your’re gonna make Year 6 in my Year 69. Know what I mean? This is doable today. Let’s find a way.
Mike J