Lessons learned for OU basketball? Back to the road

You don’t know what you don’t know, and now OU basketball knows. Well, at least that’s what we’re going to find out.

When you go on the road in the Big 12 conference, you better bring your hard hat. You better bring your defense, and you better bring your mental toughness.

It’s not a given that even if the Sooners did play better last week at TCU and Kansas that they would have won. The Frogs and Jayhawks are, clearly, two very good teams.

But if OU plays the rest of its road games like it did last week? Then good luck trying to steal some of those oh-so important road wins.

How to watch

No. 15 OU (14-3, 2-2) at Cincinnati (13-4, 2-2)
When: Noon on Saturday
TV: ESPN+.

“Every game is a dogfight on the road in the Big 12,” sophomore captain Milos Uzan said. “I feel like, as a team, we now realize that and I think now we’ll be coming in more prepared and more ready to fight now.”

The Sooners get their first chance to show what lessons they learned when they travel to Cincinnati. It’s going to be another tough, tough environment. And the NET says not much differentiates these teams. OU is No. 26, UC is No. 28.

The Bearcats have already earned ranked victories in conference at BYU and earlier this week at home vs. TCU. And their two conference losses are by a combined four points.

In other words, just another afternoon in the Big 12.

“Going into Cincinnati, they’re super physical. They’re deep. They got a lot of different matchups,” head coach Porter Moser said. “They’ll play two 6-11 guys at the same time. They have an extremely quick, physical point guard, and then they got physical, old wings.

“They’re very good. I mean, they’re really good. They’re as physical a team—that TCU-Cincinnati game was as physical as you’ll see in college basketball, anywhere. You got to be ready for that. I thought we played physical defense without fouling. That was a key for us against West Virginia.”

McCollum’s adjustment

You can see guys like Uzan who have been through the Big 12 grind understand what it’s going to take. But for players like Javian McCollum, fresh to the Big 12 grind, it is an adjustment.

It’s not a dramatic drop from his non-conference numbers. But you can see how the Big 12 has altered, just a bit, what McCollum can do.

“Getting better. He’s got to—like all of the newcomers, you just got to—there’s literally nothing like it in the Big 12. We’re four games in,” Moser said. “You just keep getting better. He sees it. I thought his mentality, his attitude was great. He’s getting better every game, and you just got to keep doing that. I thought he really was trying defensively, which was really good.”

McCollum and Uzan remain the one-two combination that drives the OU bus. You see what happens when they’re taking care of the ball and facilitating. And you see what happens when they don’t.

Northweather earning the time

Just one more player, and you see how different OU can look. An eight-man rotation turning into a nine because of Luke Northweather.

It will be about matchups the rest of the way, and UC presents a chance for Northweather. Moser was happy with Northweather’s outing Wednesday. And the message remains – hey, keep your head up and stay ready.

“Absolutely. The thing with Luke is, he can play some four to do some things defensively,” Moser said. “He’s getting so much better. I thought he moved his feet great against West Virginia. So, he’s a guy that we can maneuver around.  I just want to keep staying confident with him.

“And that’s what hard — this is hard for any player — to stay ready. You know your name hasn’t been called a lot, but we’re asking you to stay ready. It’s a challenging balance. I think Luke sees the last two games, he’s gotten in when it mattered. My job is to keep him confident, to let him know, ‘Hey if it’s seven minutes, make it a great seven minutes because you can help us.’ And he can help us.”