Porter Moser addresses challenging moments at home, problem with mentality

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Porter Moser and the Oklahoma Sooners, and the losses are starting to pile up.

One of the worst of the bunch came over the weekend, when Oklahoma completely collapsed late at home to lose a fourth consecutive game in conference play against the LSU Tigers.

The Sooners were up as much as 13 in the second half, before the Tigers closed on a 49-33 run. That included seven points in a dozen seconds for Cam Carter, as he converted a four-point play, and the and-one in the final moments of the game to turn a five-point deficit into a two-point lead.

That gave Carter a total of 29 points, a game-high, and got LSU out of Norman with their first win in over a month and just their second in the league. Afterwards, Moser took his team to task for their play at the end of the game, during his postgame press conference.

“We played in that last 24 seconds like we were hoping not to lose,” Moser told the media, frustrated with the Sooners. “Coming out of a time out, you need a stop. Get a stop, at least you’re in a no-jump situation. You can’t foul. We fouled the three-point shooter, and he made it. Gotta give him credit. Kid made it. But you know, so many times, getting the ball inbounds — I mean, I look back earlier in the year, Providence, Arizona, all were pressing down the stretch. We never had any problems. If you look back at some of those close games, never had a problem. Got it in, make the free throws, close out the game.

“When you go through what we’re going through, we had two freshmen on the court, and I thought they made some plays. They made their free throws. They made some plays. But, you know, it just seemed like we kind of stood around, rather than earlier in the year when you’re confident in everything. We just kind of stood and looked, and that is that did feel different.”

It’s certainly an unenviable position for Moser and company at the moment, as they find themselves at 16-10 on the season, after they followed their loss to LSU with another to Florida on Tuesday evening. They’ve not lost six straight, seven of their last eight, and ten out of 13 total in league play.

It’s going to take a Herculean effort to turn things around for Oklahoma, but they have a bevy of opportunities on their schedule to prove their worth. Porter Moser will be hoping to shock a couple conference foes over the next few weeks, beginning with the Sooners’ next game, which will come Saturday against Mississippi State.

— On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.