All Sooners

Oklahoma Needs 'Gritty' Performance to Exorcise Allen Fieldhouse Demons

The No. 3-ranked Jayhawks and No. 9-ranked Sooners are both coming off losses as OU looks to break its 31-year losing skid in Oklahoma's final trip to Lawrence.

Ryan Chapman

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For over three decades, the warning “pay heed, all who enter” has sent chills down Oklahoma’s spine.

The banner that hangs from the rafters of Kansas’ Phog Allen Fieldhouse foreshadows many frustrating trips to Lawrence, but the Sooners haven’t notched a win inside the historic venue since 1993.

As OU departs to the Southeastern Conference, Saturday’s venture into the Phog will likely be the Sooners’ last shot.

Come 1 p.m., however, neither team will be focused on the years of heartbreak the crimson-clad visitors have suffered. Instead, the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks and the No. 9 Sooners will desperately try and rebound from road losses.

Wednesday night both teams fell, with Kansas (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) surrendered a 16-point first half lead to fall in Orlando to UCF in the Knights’ first victory in the conference. Then, OU (13-2, 1-1) turned the ball over 12 times in the first half alone against TCU, eventually dropping the contest 80-71 in Fort Worth.

Oklahoma steadied after halftime, ending the game with 14 total turnovers, but such carelessness with the basketball will only result in disaster in Lawrence.

“On the road you’ve got to understand you’ve got to be gritty,” OU coach Porter Moser said on Friday. “You’re not going to get reach-in fouls in this league.

“… When we looked at it, a lot of them were just ball toughness. We’ve really got to have ball toughness, especially on the road.”

Ball security was an issue for the Jayhawks, too, as Kansas turned the ball over 18 times in its defeat.

Historically, the Jayhawks win the turnover battle inside Allen Fieldhouse. This year, Kansas is built no different, turning opponents’ mistakes int 13.6 fast break points per game.

“Their transition offense is in a different gear in that building,” Moser said. “You have to be on their transition offense.

“… Hunter (Dickinson) can throw a 60-foot outlet pass… You better not let the guys get behind you in transition, because he has that in his bag.”

Tossing deep shots down the court is just one of the many ways the Michigan transfer has injected himself into the heart of this year’s Kansas squad.

He leads Bill Self’s team with 11.9 rebounds per game, and only trails Kevin McCullar Jr.’s scoring output (19.8 points per game), adding 18.9 points himself on average.

Dickinson is a matchup nightmare for any team, one the front court duo of Sam Godwin and John Hugley IV will have to corral for Oklahoma to snap its streak and score the massive upset.

“You talk to anybody that's played Kansas so far this year,” said Moser, “you start with, ‘What are you going to do with him? How are you gonna do oppose D, how do you do your ball screen coverages?’

“Those are big decisions you got to make right out of the gate. And it's no different for us. He is a definite key to the game. He draws a lot of attention. But what makes him so hard, is his IQ and his passing ability.”

Though containing Kansas’ offense led by McCullar and Dickinson is a tall task, it isn’t insurmountable for Oklahoma.

The Sooners are excellent defensively, entering the contest with the nation’s No. 29-rated field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot 39.2 percent from the floor.

But regardless of how OU’s defense holds up, Moser’s team will have to take care of the basketball and hit timely shots from deep when the game tips off at 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN+.

Javian McCollum, Oklahoma’s leading scorer, hit 5-of-9 shots from deep on Wednesday against TCU. The rest of the team couldn’t come close to matching his output, combining to shoot 2-of-16 from beyond the arc.

Moser’s faith in his team’s shooting was unwavering ahead of the trip to Lawrence, especially when key bench pieces the likes of Le’Tre Darthard are just one game removed from knocking down a trio of 3-pointers in OU’s Big 12 opener against Iowa State last weekend.

“He can shoot,” Moser said. “And it's my job to keep pouring confidence, get him good shots… Got total confidence in him.”

Moser’s Oklahoma teams have played well in Lawrence the last two years, with both games coming down to the wire.

Those performances will give the Sooners confidence this time around, but Moser said his team isn’t weighed down by OU’s history in the Phog. Instead, the focus is solely on taking care of the basketball, playing great defense and working to be in a position to steal a road game by the final buzzer.

“We need to be more gritty this upcoming game,” Moser said. “… It is not going to be easy anywhere to win on the road. It's not easy. So in life when things aren't easy, you've got to be tougher, you've got to be mentally tougher, physically tougher to fight through hard and that's what this road is in the Big 12. It's hard.”

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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is deputy editor at AllSooners and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK.