Porter Moser Bringing Intensity to Oklahoma Basketball Practice, But He Wants More

Players are learning that the Sooners' new coach wants to run for 40 minutes, and when he says "run," he doesn't mean "jog."

Porter Moser talks to the press Tuesday :: John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

NORMAN — New Oklahoma basketball coach Porter Moser opened the Lloyd Noble Center doors on Tuesday afternoon.

It was officially Moser’s second open practice, and it lasted nearly four hours.

He should have charged admission.

Although the crowd was sparse — five media and two fans (and both fans left early) — the competition on the floor was boiling over with intensity.

Tanner Groves, Jalen Hill, Rick Issanza and C.J. Noland :: John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

Players chased loose balls and took charges and dove for rebounds and communicated on defense. And when they didn’t, Moser and his coaching staff raised the volume, and players responded by raising the tempo.

Still, Porter said he wanted to see more as this team loaded with newcomers continues to search for an identity and find its chemistry.

“Yeah, so we need to be more consistent with the intensity,” Moser said. “ … We want to play a certain way, and you've got to be in certain condition to play the way we want to play for 40 minutes. We want to guard possession by possession. We're guarding well, at times. We've had some great defensive possessions. Do I think we’re guarding possession by possession? No. We're not there yet. But we will be.”

On Wednesday, Moser heads to his first Big 12 Conference Media Days in Kansas City. He said the thing he’s looking forward to most about it is returning home and hitting the practice floor.

If Moser sounds a little confident for a team with a rebuilt roster and a seventh-place forecasted finish in this year’s conference race, just spend a couple minutes talking to him.

His confidence is infectious. The team will get to where he wants, he said, and he explained why.

“We will be because you've got to be not only in great physical condition, but you've got to be in great mental condition to play as hard as we want to play for 40 minutes,” he said. “You got to stack good practices. You need leadership. You got to keep watching film. Showing them where those breakdowns are. Showing them where the little things add up. It's an accumulation of a lot of little things that adds up to getting to play defense, play offense.

Porter Moser conducts practice Tuesday :: John E. Hoover / SI Sooners

“The funny thing about it is, I see it every day in recruiting. Everybody wants to run. Coaches kind of joke about this. Everybody in recruiting, the question you say is style of play — ‘we want to run, we want to run,’ and then we get there, the guys, the conditioning, they’re jogging the wings. You got to be in great condition to play as fast as we want to play. We really want to play faster.

“You know, we want to win the first three steps. We want to get the ball up the court, and you got to be in great shape to do that. We're getting there. We're getting there. We're moving towards there. But I just have a high expectation for what I think intensity is.

“Some people have come to practices and they're like, ‘Man, it's been intense,’ and I feel like we can take it up a notch, consistently. Not just for a five-minute segment, you know? My goal is to get to that intensity that it's a 40-minute game. We're gonna get there. We will get there.”