Jalon Moore left it all on the court for OU

RALEIGH, N.C. – That was not how Jalon Moore was going to write his final chapter at OU. Moore, the unquestioned heart and soul of the Sooners, and finally playing in the NCAA Tournament, had to breathe.

His first half performance was two points, just two free throws and one rebound. No, that was not going to be his final impression. He responded in the second half, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough.

Not for Moore or for the Sooners.

Moore has played his final game as a Sooner as OU was bounced from the tournament by UConn, 67-59, late Friday night.

His final line – 13 points, seven rebounds, one block in 33 minutes. There was a sense of finality in that closing minute. OU just couldn’t hit an outside shot to make things interesting, going just 3-for-17 from 3-point territory.

Slow walks across the floor for UConn to shoot free throws. Moore realizing his time with OU is up, but leaving a pretty big legacy. Especially in this age of the transfer portal and NIL, what Moore did for the Sooners the last two seasons won’t be and shouldn’t be forgotten. Two seasons, but did he ever make them count.

“First of all, I want to thank God for giving me the opportunity to play the game I love,” Moore told SoonerScoop after the game. “I want to thank Coach Moser for taking a chance on a kid from Birmingham and developing my game and believing in me. I want to thank my teammates because they became my brothers. They had my back every step of the way.

“These two years in Norman, man, were special. I’ve grown as a person and as a player, and I think I’m going to leave here a better man. I just want to thank Sooner Nation.”

Nobody really knew who Moore was when he transferred from Georgia Tech and picked OU two summers ago. Um, he had his insane athletic ability, could jump out of the gym. But what else was he going to bring? He averaged a mere four points per game and couldn’t shoot.

Head coach Porter Moser helped bring the best out of him, and Moore put in the time and the work to be in the position he’s in now.

Moore and Moser might be connected for a long time to come. They’re never going to forget being dubbed the First Team Out during the 2023-24 season. It absolutely made last Sunday that much sweeter in hearing their name selected, but it remains the gut-punch that fueled everything.

“I remember sitting with Jalon at a luncheon in Miami and talking to him about staying and coming back,” Moser said. “From his first year coming from Georgia Tech and buying into the skill development, you look at how much he got better from year one to two, and then his jump again.

“To us, the thing I’ll remember about Jalon is he takes every loss so hard, and every day we would come back, we say fall seven, rise eight. Keep coming back up. He was the one that would just look you in the eye and believe, and every time I was just like there’s a path, there’s a path.”

Moore decided to return for this final season. He made it count. He took the strides on the court, but especially off the court as the leader, captain.

Moore averaged 15.9 points and 5.8 rebounds this season, shooting just over 38 percent from 3-point territory.

But he was more than just numbers. Moser always stayed positive after all those gut-wrenching losses. It never would have mattered, however, if Moore didn’t rally the troops, too. If Moore didn’t believe, it was never going to work.

“I told each one of them, someday you’re going to tell your own kid about this team, about the resilience you had when the paths just kept on closing,” Moser said. “But you kept on finding a path no matter what someone else believed. We believed, and Jalon was the leader of that believing.

“I love Jalon so much, and I’ll have a lifelong relationship with him. I can’t wait to see his next step, but I’ll be forever grateful that he believed and he just kept on getting better.”

Just like he did in the second half against the Huskies. During this late run, OU had been picked up by its offense. The Sooners didn’t have that Friday. But did they ever lock in defensively, and Moser’s not wrong in saying Moore’s defensive effort was the best it has ever been.

He took that deep breath and kept pushing, remembering the words from assistant coach Brock Morris.

“Coach Brock used this phrase, forget about me, I love you,” Moore told SoonerScoop. “I think my teammates did a great job of continuing to pick me up. It was all about the team coming into this. We wanted to win this game, and that’s all that matters.”

Moore’s next step will be getting ready for the NBA Draft. No testing the waters this time, as he did last spring.

It’s real, and it’s attainable. He has put himself in position to be in position. And he certainly left his mark in Norman. He just wished it could have went at least one more game.

“I’ll always think of Jalon of fighting through hard because he wanted it so bad this year,” Moser told SoonerScoop. “And there was a moment this year where it was easy for everyone to quit, getting gut-punched, and we just – life lesson, staying with it, persistence, faith, resiliency, fighting through hard.

“That’s what I’ll remember.”