COLUMN: Oklahoma, Porter Moser Heading Into Must-Win Territory Amid Slide

After starting the 2024-25 season 13-0, the Sooners are now unranked and 0-3 in SEC play, quickly approaching must-win territory.
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The first half of the Sooners’ 2024-25 men’s basketball season likely draws far too many parallels to last year’s for fans.

Last year, Oklahoma opened the season on a 10-game winning streak before limping through Big 12 play and eventually missing out on the NCAA Tournament. This year, the Sooners went 13-0 in non-conference play before starting 0-3 in their first-ever SEC season.

With 15 games remaining, there’s still time for OU to turn it around and play the same winning basketball that they played earlier this season. 

But the Sooners are approaching must-win territory.

After spending more than a month ranked in the AP Top 25, Oklahoma is now unranked. The Sooners are also No. 47 in the NET rankings — a well-used NCAA Tournament selection metric — and far from the at-large berth comfort range.

Granted, even after the 13-0 start, it would’ve been hard to expect OU to win all three of its first SEC games. The Sooners opened with as hard of a draw as anyone, battling No. 5 Alabama on the road, No. 10 Texas A&M at home and Georgia, now No. 23, on the road.

OU Basketball: Oklahoma Drops Out of AP Top 25, Coaches Poll Amid Three-Game Skid

But fans would’ve liked to have seen one of those turn into a win.

The Sooners were never in it against Alabama, losing 107-79. They held an 18-point second-half lead against the Aggies but squandered it, falling 80-78. And at Georgia, OU overcame an early deficit to take a halftime lead, only to be outplayed in the second half and lose by 10.

The good news for Oklahoma is that it is approaching its stretch of winnable SEC games. But these games will be far from easy.

First on the slate is the first of the Red River Rivalry series against Texas at home on Wednesday.

Texas (11-5) is similarly 0-3 in SEC play after also facing a difficult opening draw. The Longhorns lost to Texas A&M, No. 2 (now No. 1) Auburn and No. 1 Tennessee, losing the latter of those two games by single digits.

The Longhorns are No. 39 in the NET, as their only two non-conference defeats came against Ohio State and UConn.

This game always matters. Oklahoma and Texas — longtime foes that joined the SEC in 2024 after decades together in the Big 12 — have played more than 100 times, with OU leading the series 57-48.

Both squads’ 0-3 starts in league play raises its importance. And Porter Moser’s rough history against the Longhorns makes it almost a must-win.

Moser is 0-6 against Texas since arriving in Norman ahead of the 2021-22 season.

“They've always been uber talented and uber length,” Moser said of OU’s losing streak to Texas. “To beat them tomorrow — they have some elite scorers. Defending, too. They're doing both.”

Oklahoma hasn’t defeated Texas stemming back to even before Moser’s hiring, with the Longhorns winning the last seven meetings. The Sooners’ last win over the Horns came in 2020-21, Lon Kruger’s last season at OU.

If Moser can’t string together at least one win against the Longhorns this season, Sooner fans will be even more impatient than they already are.

“They have the ability to make tough shots,” Moser said. “We've gotta continue to fight through and make it tough. They have a number of scoring options with it."

The Texas game begins a stretch of five where the Sooners should be able to win a handful.

Oklahoma hosts South Carolina, the lowest-ranked SEC team in the NET (No. 93), on Saturday before games against Arkansas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

None of these games are easy, as all 16 SEC members are ranked in the top 100 of the NET. But with four of the next five games coming against unranked foes — Texas A&M being the exception — this is a prime opportunity for the Sooners to pick up at least a handful of quality wins.

As it stands now, the Arkansas and Texas A&M games will be Quad 1 matchups, Texas and Vanderbilt will be Quad 2 games and the contest against South Carolina will be Quad 3.

Moser, his players and his assistants certainly deserve praise for what they have already achieved.

The Sooners took down several quality squads — Providence, Arizona, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Georgia Tech and Michigan — during their 13-game non-conference season where they never fell. And in that time, they collected three Quad 1 wins, one Quad 2 win and two Quad 3 wins, which is massive for OU’s resume.

But that can’t be the extent of the Sooners’ tournament resume. 

In ESPN bracketology expert Joe Lunardi’s latest field, OU is in — but barely. Lunardi currently has the Sooners as a No. 9 seed, slotted to play No. 8 seed Louisville in the first round.

After three seasons of Moser getting his team close to but not past the cutline, it will be easy for the fan base to get impatient if that’s the result again.

If nothing changes in the last 15 games, Sooners fans will believe that they’re in a never-ending, "Edge of Tomorrow" type cycle.


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Carson Field
CARSON FIELD

Carson Field has worked full-time in the sports media industry since 2020 in Colorado, Texas and Wyoming as well as nationally, and he has earned degrees from Arizona State University and Texas A&M University. When he isn’t covering the Sooners, he’s likely golfing, fishing or doing something else outdoors. Twitter: https://x.com/carsondfield