Column: Just Not Enough Time to Ask Hard Questions of Oklahoma Coach Porter

The Sooners finished in the NCAA Tournament, which AD Joe Castiglione said is "always one of our goals," but Moser says to be successful, he needs to "win in April and May."

Oklahoma coach Porter Moser / John E. Hoover / Sooners On SI

RALEIGH, NC — Like Oklahoma at times on Friday night, I was just a step slow.

Porter Moser’s formal postgame press conference ended abruptly, right at 12:30 in the morning, following the Sooners’ 67-59 loss to Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament.

I walked out of the press room with OU athletic director Joe Castiglione for all about about 60 steps in the underhalls of Lenovo Center but got off only one easy, can-opener question before we reached a “media-free zone” on his way to the OU bus.

Then Moser appeared almost out of nowhere to take a few more questions from a quartet of Oklahoma media in town to cover the game — two queries about star freshman Jeremiah Fears’ future and one about the direction of the program — before I finally started to ask the question everyone wants answered:

After an up-and-down season that finished with a first-round loss — but nonetheless finished in the first round (unlike Moser’s first three years in Norman) — how does Moser feel about his job security and his future at OU?

Frankly, that's a tough ask to a coach just minutes after elimination in the NCAA Tournament. But Moser's overall record is 74-59, and his conference record in four seasons in Norman is just 25-45, a .357 winning percentage.

And for Castiglione, what did he think of Moser’s fourth campaign and the way the team rallied around him down the stretch to essentially save the season?

But by the time Moser finished, Joe C. had gone to the bus. Moser quickly thanked us, turned and headed down the corridor.

We couldn’t even ask him about this week’s rumors about being a candidate for the Villanova job.

It’s never an ideal time to ask those questions, and right after a season-ending loss is, emotionally speaking, the toughest time of all.

But that’s when they have to be asked — when they demand to be asked.

Who knows when (if) we’ll get a chance to talk to Moser again? It was now or never.

But the big ones went unasked, and thus unanswered. Turns out, those are questions will have to wait.

Curse my slow bones.

Moser talked in the postgame press conference about how proud he was of the team for not folding — neither during the season, despite conference losing streaks of four games and five games — and not during Friday’s loss, when they fell behind by nine just minutes after the opening tip but found the resolve to take the lead in the second half against a team that has now won 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament games and back-to-back national championships.

Not long after Fears said he hadn’t really discussed any decision to return for his sophomore year or explore the NBA Draft (the feeling here and just about everywhere is that he'll be playing pro ball next season), Moser addressed Fears’ future with the appropriate respect.

“It's one thing to reclassify (Fears should be finishing his high school senior year), then you missed the whole summer — and you're so much of laying the groundwork in the summertime,” Moser said. “And I look back on just his youthfulness when he got here, you know, not having played at this level, and then just how he grew and grew and grew. And then I look at when the start of the SEC, seemed like everyone tried to come for his head. 

“And I look at, you know, his growth through that, fighting through hard — hard the way he started off. It wasn't easy for him. And he fought through that by getting in the gym more watching more film, being coached. And he’s just so not entitled. I can't tell you how much was thrown his way for a young man, and he's so not entitled. He's such a great teammate, and he was a joy to coach and watch his growth, especially in an older league like this.”

Then Moser was asked if he was happy about the direction of the program.

Two years ago, remember, the Sooners had a losing record. Last year, they were very much projected in the NCAA Tournament field late, but as automatic bids were usurped by one conference tournament upset after another, the Sooners became the last at-large team — literally the first team eliminated, the NCAA Selection Committee revealed. 

So yes, this season marked progress.

Who knows what the OU roster might have looked like if Moser could have retained players like Otega Oweh, who led  Kentucky at 16.2 points per game and twice killed his old team? Or Milos Uzan, who averaged 11.6 points and emerged as one of Kelvin Sampson’s best players for No. 1-seed Houston? Or Javian McCollum, who averaged 11.9 points a game this season at Georgia Tech?

Or what the roster might have looked like if Moser had brought in transfers like Sean Padulla or Brandon Garrison — homegrown talents who respectively burned the Sooners this season for Ole Miss and Kentucky?

“Well, I'll say this,” Moser started. “I mean, you know, to get your basketball program (where you want it), you have to win in April and May. You have to win in April and May with the NIL. How hard these guys are playing? 

“I mean, the narrative last year — this year, there were no bid steals. Someone was talking about the injuries. We had three major injuries down the stretch last year, and there were five bid steals. The narrative could be two straight. But for us, retention — we've got to win. You've got to win in April and May in the NIL (era) to do that.” 

Moser, then, sounded reasonably pleased with the direction of the program.

“I'm so proud of how these guys fought through — all four years we’ve been in the No. 1 basketball conference in the (country),” he said of his three seasons in the Big 12 and one in the SEC. “Our competition with the NIL, with what we have, I thought to be able to compete — the guys (were) resilient in this league. I'm so proud of how these guys fought through hard and (to) get to where we are, I'm excited for the future.”

Castiglione fielded my first question about the direction of the program with a patient smile, but the structure of the NCAA's postgame procedures and the expediency and finality of everyone trying to get back to the team hotel as the arena's cleaning crew was starting the overnight shift meant I just didn’t have time for a follow-up. 

“Well, making the tournament is always one of our goals,” Castiglione said. “And then once you're in the tournament, you're always trying to keep playing the games that you get to play. … But I think as coach said, you come into the (SEC), it happens to be historic quality. A number of quality teams, and battling through all of that.”

And that was everything the Sooners' AD had time to say. Unfortunately, there aren’t many lines to read between there.

Castiglione acknowledged the surge at the end of the season that led to the uptick in making the postseason. So that’s good for Moser. And he noted that the SEC’s historic season — a record 14 teams in the Big Dance, two teams ranked No. 1, one team ranked No. 2 (OU lost to all three) — made for a slaughterhouse the Sooners had to navigate twice a week.

But just like that, our brief interview was over. And some really important questions were not asked.

That’s on me. I’ll try to be quicker next time.

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