Porter Moser credits growth of Milos Uzan

We are smack dab in the middle of the college basketball season, and the Oklahoma Sooners have been keeping pace in the gauntlet known as the Big 12 conference. Oklahoma sits at 11-8 on the season and is 2-5 in the conference. Sooners head coach Porter Moser credits his team for continuing to fight, down to the wire in most games, in the Big 12. He also took time to highlight the growth of guard Milos Uzan.

“The thing about sometimes when you’re young, or you’re starting off at this level, you feel like you gotta score to prove that you can play at this level. He’s doing so many other things,” said Moser. “He makes such good passes out of ball screens because he’s seen all the ball screen coverages. He’s seen a double team, a trap, an ice; he’s seen a switch. And you could just see how he plays at a pace where he’s seen it all and doesn’t feel like, I gotta (score).

“He obviously scoring at a great clip, but I just think he’s letting a lot of it come to him. But he’s also making the right passes out of different ball screen coverages. That whole team its the same starting five as a team that was right there to beat Arizona to go to the Sweet 16. Their older veteran, they’ve been through it; they’ve been in the program. And that’s I think they’re one of the many teams in our league that could win this thing, the whole thing.”

Uzan, a true freshman guard from Las Vegas, NV, has been holding his own on the court this season. Although his stats do not tell the whole story, Uzan has been a driving force and the Sooners’ game plans. And look for that trend to continue on Tuesday when Oklahoma travels to Fort Worth to take on TCU.

Moser critical of Oklahoma’s rebounding effort

Oklahoma‘s rebounding has not been great in recent games and head coach Porter Moser is not happy about it.

“There’s a lot of areas of the game I can help them with: helping them make different reads off of ball screens, help them with set up actions, maybe run some plays to get them open,” Moser said after Monday’s practice. “Defensively, giving them schemes. Rebounding? You got to block out and you got to go get it.”

In their most recent game against Baylor, the Sooners were outrebounded 39 to 30. The Bears also secured 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 30 second chance points. Oklahoma lost the game 62-60.

“You got to block out and you gotta go get it,” Moser said. “We’ve only had one or two missed blockouts. They’re blocking out, but then they gotta release and go get it. My mind goes to that Seinfeld episode. It’s not the reservation, it’s holding the reservation. It’s not the blackout. It’s the release and go get it.”