Porter Moser reveals cause of Oklahoma's turnover issues

After an impressive upset win over Alabama, Oklahoma has suffered four straight losses, most recently a brutal loss at home Saturday when they were defeated by Kansas 78-55. The scoreboard was lopsided for the Sooners, but so was the turnover battle, turning the ball over 24 times compared to the Jayhawks’ 16. Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser spoke after the game about what exactly went wrong with his team’s decision making.

“You know what, I thought it started with us. We had a two on one and we just fundamentally threw it, what they made us play poorly of is we had to fundamentally when you drive it they were flooding it and just waiting to block the shot. And that’s when you’ve got to play off two feet, kick it, one more it; we just kept on doing the same thing. Going in and either taking an off-balanced shot, or getting it blocked, or turning it over,” Moser explained.

Moser elaborated on the effectiveness of the Jayhawks’ defense in the paint combined with the Sooners not making the right passes and decisions compounded to their disparity in the turnover department, thus the final score.

“They were converging, they did a really good job of that, converging, getting hits and then it just kept on being more converging because we weren’t kicking it,” Moser said. “No matter how much we talked about it, we started talking about it at halftime, you guys get to the paint and it converges you gotta kick. And then we weren’t kicking than everyone was just standing around, and they make you pay for mistakes.”

The turnovers were just one of many problems for Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon, as the Jayhawks seemed nearly unstoppable shooting the ball. The Jayhawks ended the night shooting 55% from the field and 50% from three-point range, as they leaned on their veteran players to make veteran, winning plays.

“Jalen Wilson, (Kevin) McCullar, those guys are veteran guys, Dajuan Harris, KJ Adams had some big blocks. We got him in foul trouble early, it’s what we wanted, and couldn’t capitalize on that and I thought we really came out both halves ready to play and then the turnovers,” Moser said.

Adams only had one of the Jayhawks’ four blocks on the night, but their 16 steals combined with the Sooners’ troubles passing the ball was a recipe for disaster for Oklahoma.

“When you have five assists that just shows you you’re not kicking the ball and I’m going to continue to address it. You’re gonna live with some young mistakes with some young guys, we’re going through that I get it, but we gotta learn from it, we gotta learn from it,” Moser said.

Moser and Sooners will have to learn fast, as all but one of their final six games are against ranked, conference opponents.