Oklahoma Opens up the Brutal Big 12 Slate With Kansas State

Porter Moser's Sooners will make their conference debut at the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday night.

As the Sooners open Big 12 play, Porter Moser is solely focused on the Kansas State Wildcats.

The Big 12 has long been one of the toughest conferences in college basketball, but this year will be tough even by Big 12 standards.

Five schools in the conference are currently ranked in the AP top 25, and Oklahoma and West Virginia would be rated No. 27 and No. 28 based on the teams receiving votes just outside the top 25. That means 70 percent of the conference lies inside college basketball’s top 30, and they’re about to enter an 18-game gauntlet to cannibalize each other.

Moser hasn’t yet faced the Big 12 grind, and only three players return from last year with experience against the league, but Moser is just laser focused on taking things one game at a time.

“Every conference season is a grind, I know, I've been doing this 30 years,” Moser said during his weekly Zoom press conference on Friday. “I know conference races. Whatever conference you're in, it's a grind. It really is.

“… You want to play in the best and it is the best. It’s the best conference in the country. Not only does it pass the eye test with the best conferences in the country, the numbers prove it. That’s the thing about being able to play the best and being able to have opportunities to build your resume because you want to be there in March.”

Junior forward Jalen Hill is one of the three Sooners who have experienced the toll the Big 12 slate takes on a team, and he said he’s confident the experienced transfers on the team will be able to handle the magnitude of the road ahead.

“A lot of them have played, a lot of the transfers have played in big games,” Hill said during a Zoom press conference on Friday. “I think my message to them and to the freshmen is really just, we can’t sleep on any team. Any team can come in and beat you on any given night.

“We’ve just got to come in, fight and be ready to get our physicality and our defense into the game. Even if our offense isn’t working at the time, the time is going to come. You’ve just got to be ready every game.”

Freshman guard Bijan Cortes said the physicality of the league is what has been stressed to him by his teammates as he heads into his first conference game on Saturday night.

“They basically talk to me all the time about it,” Cortes said after Oklahoma’s last outing against Alcorn State. “… You’re gonna have to play strong, play physical. You can’t go out there being scared and you’ve got to basically just take every game and go as hard as you can.”

Up first, the Sooners will face off against one of the Big 12 teams not currently flirting with the top 25, the Kansas State Wildcats.

Bruce Weber’s squad enters the Lloyd Noble Center 8-3 on the year, sustaining losses to Arkansas and Illinois, both by a score of 72-64, and a one-point loss to Marquette.

Still, Moser said he’s been impressed with what he’s seen of Kansas State on film, and the Sooners will have to bring their defensive intensity to start 1-0 in Big 12 play.

“Got a lot of respect for Coach Weber,” Moser said. “Got a lot of respect for their Kansas State players and their program. They guard at a very high level. They run their motion, they run a lot of sets very, very good. Nijel Pack is elite, I recruited him out of high school, I remember him.

“So that's been our focus. That's been our conversations with (the team), not anything farther past Kansas State. It's just a lot of respect, everything has been about Kansas State.”

Moser and the Sooners will get their chance to open conference play with a victory at home on Saturday night.

The contest between OU and Kansas State is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.

Oklahoma is looking forward to the battle, as it marks another test in their preparations for a potential NCAA tournament run this spring, Moser said.

“Am I excited? I understand the obstacles,” Moser said. “Every single night, you are playing an outstanding team. Those are the obstacles. That’s what you want. You want to be able to have the opportunities to win, advance and prepare yourself for March.”

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