After Rough Shooting Night, Oklahoma's Tanner Groves Isn't Hurting for Confidence

The Sooners' senior forward had an otherwise strong game against South Alabama, and he and the team will need to continue their upward trend as they head to Florida.

NORMAN — Tanner Groves’ last time on the court was, he said, the “worst-best-game ever I ever had.”

Oklahoma’s senior forward almost flirted with a triple double, but also shot 0-for-10 from 3-point range.

This week, as the Sooners embark on three games at the ESPN Events Invitational in Kissimmee, FL, Groves isn’t hurting for a boost of confidence.

“I saw him yesterday, and it was just almost like joking about it,” OU coach Porter Moser said on Monday. “Like, you know, ‘That ain't gonna happen again.”

The Sooners (3-1) take on Nebraska (3-1) at 4 p.m. Thursday — yes, OU-Nebraska on Thanksgiving Day — at State Farm Field House.

Groves delivered 15 points, 11 rebounds and career-high six assists in the Sooners’ 64-60 win over South Alabama, but also struggled from the perimeter.

“Heck, I told him when he was 0-for-7, at one point I pulled him over, I said, ‘Man, if I ever missed my first five or six, I would talk to myself and just say, 'I'm about to get cooking. It's about to get going right now.’ I think you got to talk to yourself instead of listen to yourself.”

Moser explained why one of his best players putting up and 0-for-10 doesn’t concern him.

“Yesterday in practice, he had a great bounce,” Moser said. “Hit some shots in practice. So you know, we're going right back at him. I want him to shoot. Heck, I want him to shoot more than 10. He passed up another 10. If you really watch the tape, he passed up another 10. So it's what you do with shooters, you gotta keep shooting, gotta keep shooting. You can't go the other way. You can't have doubt can seep into it.”

OU might have had some doubts after losing to Sam Houston State at home in the season opener. A roster consisting basically of one-third returners, one-third transfers and one-third freshmen is already still in the early stages of building trust and team chemistry. Losing games can shatter those efforts.

Instead, Moser’s build continues under the umbrella of winning. The Sooners bounced back with wins over Arkansas-Pine Bluff, North Carolina-Wilmington and South Alabama. Two of the three were close victories.

Nothing builds chemistry quite like winning close games.

“We talked about how we were going to respond after that first gut-wrenching loss, because that can rock your confidence,” Moser said. “We talked about why it happened. The guys have been real receptive to getting better, building it. Two of the three after that have been somewhat tight. You had to make winning plays. You can really build on that chemistry and confidence down the stretch (of games).”

Moser said the team’s confidence surge was built on defense. In the opener, the Bearkats scored just 32 points in the opening 34 minutes. USA, on the other hand, didn’t make a field goal over the final five minutes.

“The confidence and the teaching point of, you cannot let up defending and rebounding,” Moser said. “In the last four minutes, you have to defend and rebound possession for possession. A lot of times you think it’s, ‘Oh, I missed this shot, oh, I missed this free throw.’ A lot of times, it’s like, you get stops. We got stops and found a way to win. A lot of teaching moments when you win close games.”

The OU-Nebraska winner advances to play the winner of Thursday's late game between Memphis and Seton Hall on Friday at 7 p.m. The losers of those games meet Friday at 4 p.m.

The other side of the bracket consists of Florida State, Siena, Ole Miss and Stanford. Day three of the tournament is set for Sunday.

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