Is OU basketball ready or not? Here comes the SEC

Déjà vu for OU basketball and head coach Porter Moser. Win a multi-team tournament? Check. Surpass preseason expectations during the non-conference? Yep, did that again.

Get ready for the grinds of all grinds coming in conference play? Uh huh. Except, of course, we’re not talking the Big 12 anymore. This is all about the SEC.

A conference that as it stands? Offers OU 16 opportunities for Quad 1 victories in the next two months. The other remaining two games? Just ‘lowly’ Quad 2 contests.

It’s about to get real, you know, real fast. What did Moser and staff learn from last year to use this year? It’s a one game mentality. Sounds cliché, tired, but it’s oh-so true.

“Literally, have to take your schedule and put something over it and slowly look at the one in front of you and not let your peripheral vision see the rest of it because it is, it’s daunting,” Moser said. “It’s opportunity, when we’re playing the best of the best. It’s unprecedented what the SEC has done. Unprecedented. And like I told you guys the last time we were sitting here, after the game, and I feel like I’ve said that three years in a row. But here we go again, saying it. It is truly unprecedented what the SEC has done. Every night is going to be high Quad 1 games.

“You gotta be ready. You’re going to have to have some mental toughness and resolve to go through what you’re going to go through. Like Alabama’s 35-2 the last 2½ years at home. One of the best home teams in the country. There’s a lot of venues we’re going to play at that are not easy to win at, but you gotta find ways to win. You gotta find ways to win. You gotta piece together, and believe, and stay together. And I think that’s where you need a close locker room. Doesn’t get fractured easily. And we’ve spent months, the guys, of putting together a foundation of culture with the guys that doesn’t get fractured as you head through this gauntlet.”

Scouting Alabama

It all starts with Mark Sears. The Crimson Tide are ready, a year removed from the Final Four. OU is not sneaking up on anybody.

“There’s a number of challenges. One is there transition’s so elite. They play so fast. They have one of the best point guards in the country in Mark Sears, who’s been to the Final Four. He’s done it. Older. Veteran. (They have) extreme length. I think the first thing you talk about is when they shoot 55 3s that you have to take away the three.

“The silent killer is their offensive rebounding. They get like 41 percent of their shots back. They start three 6-11 guys. That’s the silent killer. You have to rebound. They can get to the rim and rebound as good as anybody. You think about their pace and think about their threes. But their two killers are getting to the rim and getting fouled. They are elite, elite at those things. We have to be ready to get on the glass, get into their legs and block out.”

Final word

“Everyone was talking about how physical and old the Big 12 had been. I think they’ve always… you look at the number of players drafted the last few years, the SEC almost doubles the number of players drafted. SEC blows away everybody. The Big 12… their philosophy in the portal seemed to be to stay old. All of the sudden you’re facing teams that were average age of 23. There’s really not going to be an adjustment.

“I’ve watched the SEC get old. You watch the SEC combine with some of the best freshmen in the country. Older guards in the country. Some guys have been around three or four years that are elite. Incredible physicalness. Only Sam, Jalon and Luke got minutes in the Big 12 for us. It really is a new team, you can’t reference it. You have to get ready for how physical they are. You can talk about the now, the present, and that’s all you can do.” – how the SEC is different this season