'We literally just stood and froze' – Oklahoma Sooners' Porter Moser reacts to monumental moment in program history
Saturday night against LSU was one of the more monumental moments in program history for the Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team. And wait, before you start saying that's a dramatic stance and claim to take, just listen and hear me out. The Sooners started the season undefeated before they got to conference play. They were […]
Saturday night against LSU was one of the more monumental moments in program history for the Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team. And wait, before you start saying that's a dramatic stance and claim to take, just listen and hear me out.
The Sooners started the season undefeated before they got to conference play. They were quite literally one of the best teams in the country and one of three undefeated teams remaining. But, conference play hit or the gauntlet of the SEC hit, I should say, and the Sooners just completely forgot how to play basketball, it feels like.
They are now on the outside of the tournament likely staring in, with no key to unlock the door to get inside — all window-watching from here on out. This was a monumental loss to LSU, not only did you lose to the second-worst team in the conference who hadn't won a game in a month, and had just one SEC win on the year, but you blew a five-point lead with 20 seconds left.
With that five-point lead, the Sooners had over 90% win probability to win the game. From there on out, everything went downhill, way too fast.
"For us being disorganized? That’s on me," head coach Porter Moser said after the game. "We talked about it the last two days. Eventually, that’s what I told everybody, if right there, we got it in, Jalon was 8-for-8 from the foul line. We have to cut, cut, and get space to have passing options. We literally just froze and stood. Three guys almost on top of each other just looking at Jalon.
“Very, very tough loss. My faith has always been the foundation. Sometimes you don’t know why the good Lord puts you in these positions. The only thing I know how to do is to pour into these young men and teach them and show them how to be better and close out these tough games. You get in a rut like that, you almost play not to lose. We did some things—the fouling of four 3-point shooters. We missed a layup up seven, like a point-blank earlier. It was a six-point swing. We missed the layup, and we fouled a 3-point shooter."
This was one of the worst-coached games in crunch time you will see. And, we all love Porter Moser the guy, but these lackadaisical moments cannot keep happening, and they likely won't under Moser.
The other reason this game was so monumental — that likely could have been the last game Moser coached in Crimson and Cream, for all we know. We still will have to wait and see what happens, but I wouldn't be surprised either if they fired him after the year. This game alone was a firable offense.
The Sooners have to get back to their winning ways. Moser may not be the guy to get them there.
Oklahoma Sooners somehow managed to do the impossible vs. LSU but not in a good way
The Sooners have to do something.
