Porter Moser reveals how Jeremiah Fears unlocked his game, returned to form

Jeremiah Fears had the best game of his freshman season this weekend with everything continuing to come together for him.

Porter Moser explained the play from Fears in a career-best game in the 93-87 win for Oklahoma over No. 21 Mississippi State on Saturday. He said he felt like they’ve come a long way in helping Fears understand the game better and letting it come to him as he has improved his reads out on the court.

“So, when, you know, when you feel, um – when you want it as bad as he does? And, everyone, we all – just of think of it, like, we start to press. ‘God, I want it so bad’. When you’re not having success, you just press harder. When you’re older, you kind of know how to fight through that and what to do to get through it. I think he’s figuring it out,” Moser said. “Like, um, we’ve really showed just so much film with him, talking him through it about, uh, the attention he’s garnering that, when you give it up and you start hitting the rolls, hitting the rolls, you’re skipping it for threes? He had, he had ten assists but I think he could have had fifteen or sixteen tonight.”

“I think he’s – the correlation of understanding, ‘Hey, they’re going to double me. I’ve got to get it out of that trap-fest’ and we’re playing four-on-three,” added Moser. “I thought he played such a better floor game and it’s been a process of teaching, tons of film work with him, situational stuff.”

Fears had a career-best in assists with ten against the Bulldogs. That accounted for 33 points for the Sooners.

However, Fears also scored a game-best of 27 points (58.3% FG) for his highest-scoring game in conference play and second-best point total of the season.

“It’s the most he’s set up guys and it’s the most points he’s had in a while, you know,” Moser noted. “He also was confident scoring. He’s always been confident. He’s never not been confident scoring. But I think some things are freeing up for him because he’s setting up other guys and now they can’t just load up on him.”

Add it all up and Fears accounted for 64.5% of the points in a must-have game that they won at OU.

Fears hadn’t been as impactful over the last month and a half in the SEC. Still, with almost 25 collegiate starts now to his name, including 15 in the league, Fears is developing more and more with it leading to his best outing yet for the Sooners.

“I thought, you know, he did a lot of good things,” said Moser. “We’ll keep getting better but I thought he did a lot of good things.”