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OU Basketball: In Finale at Texas, Oklahoma Can 'Build On' Finding a Way to 'Grind It Out'

Sooners coach Porter Moser said the win over Cincinnati can be a microcosm as OU turns its attention to postseason play.

John E. Hoover

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Oklahoma and Texas finishing the college basketball regular season head-to-head in Norman or Austin is how it should be.

That Saturday’s 1 p.m. showdown deep in the heart of Texas also happens to be their final scheduled Big 12 Conference game?

“Yeah, you never know what diabolical minds try to figure that out,” OU coach Porter Moser joked on Friday. “ … I don't know if there's a story behind it, but is what it is.”

More germane to the discussion is OU’s 20-10 overall record going into Saturday’s game. The Sooners are 8-9 in Big 12 play and would seem to have guaranteed their NCAA Tournament reservation for the first time in Moser’s three seasons. Texas is 19-11 and also 8-9.

The Sooners should be free and clear. Their NET ranking after beating Cincinnati stood at No. 41 nationally. That's tournament material.

But a win at the Moody Center removes all doubt — and continues the good vibes.

“You want to play the right way and have an awareness to be playing well,” Moser said. “You have to beat any team in the Big 12 and you want that momentum going into the tournament.”

OU Basketball: Shorthanded Oklahoma Overcomes Cincinnati in Crucial Overtime Win

OU was bitten by the injury bug in February, and absences of Rivaldo Soares and John Hugley contributed to four losses in five games. But maybe that’s why the team responded so well Tuesday in an overtime victory over Cincinnati. Leading scorer Javian McCollum was a late scratch, but the Sooners persevered.

Moser said McCollum’s availability at Texas is a “game-time decision,” but also said the win over the Bearcats could be viewed as something of a microcosm for the season: the team faced sudden adversity, then fell behind by double digits, then came together and rallied to a dramatic win.

“It was such an emotional, physical, mental loss against Houston (last Saturday),” Moser said. “And then obviously we lost Javian — like, find out that day — and we just came out, just kind of shell shocked. And Cincinnati came out playing for their NCAA life. And to our credit, we just grinded it and turned it and just stayed with it, stayed believing. 

“And I think that's a big thing about tournament teams and teams that do well in February and March. They find ways to grind that out when they're not at their best. And we've been resilient. We've, you know, bounced back time and time again this year. You know, you lose a game or you lose two — we’ve never lost three in a row. But you come back and you bounce back. And so that could be a microcosm.

“I thought we got shell shocked for whatever reasons early. It became ugly. Then all of a sudden we were down personnel, and you found a way to grind it out. And I think that's a trait that you can build on — that you need to build on to be good in March.” 

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John E. Hoover
JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.