Porter Moser discusses the toll, value that close games have

As Oklahoma men’s basketball squad prepared for their Wednesday night matchup against in-state rival Oklahoma State, Sooners head coach Porter Moser met with the media. As the Oklahoma head man discussed all things Bedlam, he took some time to discuss the toll close games have on his Sooners and the value of those games.

“The more you go through things in life, you build up armor. And the more you go through experiences of close games, you gather experience,” said Moser. “So yeah, it’s got to be building up resilience, building up experience, building up knowledge of what to do, what not to do; what you don’t want to do, what you do want to do. So, of course, I think it does.

“And does it take a toll mentally? I mean, it’s fun to win by 25. Trust me; I’m feeling great when we’re winning by 25. It just doesn’t happen early. I’m looking at, talking to, some fans; I know that’s probably wearing on them too. Our fans look like they’ve aged a bunch too. During these games, I’ve had a bunch of people tell me I can’t handle another close one. I’m like, well, strap it on. Guess what? There’s going to be a lot of ones in this league.”

Oklahoma and Moser were able to narrowly survive at home in their previous game against West Virginia. The Sooners narrowly escaped with a 77-76 win increasing their record to 11-6 on the year and 2-3 in conference play. Oklahoma has made it a theme and conference play, letting their games come down to the wire. All five of the Sooners Big 12 games have been decided by five points or fewer.

Moser tells great story about Oklahoma State fans tying back to Lincoln Riley, SEC move

Moser knows what to expect from the fans when he heads to Gallagher-Iba Arena on Wednesday for a Bedlam matchup against Oklahoma State. After coaching his first Bedlam game last season, Moser saw firsthand just how rowdy the Cowboys crowd can be.

OSU students had extra fuel to troll the Cowboys last year thanks to both OU leaving the Big 12 for the SEC and the recent departure of football coach Lincoln Riley. As Moser thought back on the atmosphere from a year ago, that was what stuck out to him.

“Last year, it was all about the SEC and coach Riley,” he said. “I mean, they were killing us. They had newspapers. Everything was about the SEC and coach Riley leaving. I think that’s died down, so we’ll see.”

Porter Moser went on to comment on how close the Oklahoma State student section is to the court, say he has never experienced a venue like that before. The coach complimented the Cowboys fans for their sportsmanship in his last visit, but also said he knows they’re still going to do everything they can to make things difficult on the Sooners.