All Sooners

OU Basketball: Oklahoma's Porter Moser Confirms Hugley, Soares Status For Bedlam

The Sooners are monitoring Rivaldo Soares' progress ahead of Saturday's Big 12 match in Stillwater.

Bryce McKinnis

NORMAN — John Hugley IV is “definitely out” and Rivaldo Soares is questionable to play for Oklahoma’s road match at Oklahoma State on Saturday afternoon, coach Porter Moser confirmed Friday.

Hugley underwent surgery this week to repair a torn meniscus he suffered against Oklahoma State on Feb. 10 and missed games against Baylor and Kansas last week.

“At first, we were waiting to see if [Hugley] could recover without [surgery],” Sooners Moser said. “The decision was made to move forward. It went great. We don’t know the exact timetable. We’re hopeful about that, but there’s clarity. ... Opportunity for some other guys to step up. We have some guys that we really want to step up in his absence.”

That clarity extends to freshman forward Luke Northweather, whose minutes have increased substantially in Hugley’s absence.

“Luke’s a guy that our whole team pulls for,” Moser said. “He’s got a tremendous shot, but he can do some other things really well. He can pass. He had three assists in the last Oklahoma State game, so it’s just getting his confidence back. Now, knowing that, like, John’s definitely out. ... We’re going to need [Northweather] to play.”

Soares is day-to-day after an ankle sprain during the Baylor game.

“It was a bad sprain, like, we all saw it,” Moser said, “so we’re not going to do anything to jeopardize it. It’s hard, because you talk to ‘Valdo, he’s like ‘Uhm, I’m playing.’ He said that at the last game.

“We miss him. He was playing great on both ends, but we’ll see. He’s day-by-day. We still got today and tomorrow. We’ll see,” Moser said.

The Sooners (18-8, 6-7 Big 12) play OSU (12-14, 4-9) at 3 p.m. Saturday in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Published
Bryce McKinnis
BRYCE MCKINNIS

Bryce is a contributor for AllSooners and has been featured in several publications, including the Associated Press, the Tulsa World and the Norman Transcript. A Tishomingo native, Bryce’s sports writing career began at 17 years old when he filed his first story for the Daily Ardmoreite. As a student at the University of Central Oklahoma, he worked on several award-winning projects, including The Vista’s coverage of the 2021 UCO cheer hazing scandal. After graduating in 2021, Bryce took his first job covering University of Tulsa and Oral Roberts University sports for the Tulsa World before accepting a role as managing editor of VYPE Magazine in 2022. - UCO Mass Communications/Sports Feature (2019) - UCO Mass Communications/Investigative Reporting (2021) - UCO College of Liberal Arts/Academic presentation, presidential politics and ideology (2021) - OBEA/Multimedia reporting (2021) - Beat Writer, The Tulsa World (2021-2022) - Managing Editor, VYPE Magazine (2022-2023)