OU basketball back in the top 25, ranked No. 25
It was a week OU basketball had to have. But that hasn’t meant the Sooners had been able to deliver in the last couple of seasons.
This time, though, OU did. Two games at home featuring very different challenges. Check and check for Porter Moser and crew.
BYU came to town and is ranked in the top 10 of the NET rankings. The Sooners had one of their best second halves of the season in taking down the Cougars.
Then came the Bedlam challenge. Trying to handle success and defeat a desperate Cowboys team. You won’t remember much from that one, but a 14-6 run to close the show is exactly what OU fans needed to see in the 66-62 victory.
And what the pollsters needed to see as well. After leaving the AP top 25 last week, the Sooners are right back in it. OU re-enters at No. 25 this week.
Big 12 Team of the Week
Let’s keep our crimson-colored glasses on here. OU, Houston and Iowa State all went 2-0 last week. You can tell that everybody is believing ISU and Houston are for real. So even though each team won once on the road, there’s just this belief that’s what the Cougars and Cyclones can do.
After losing three of four, some felt OU was about to fall off a cliff. Instead, it’s 6-5 in conference play and already has more Big 12 victories this season than it did last year.
And Moser is quick to credit to Milos Uzan.
“Even ‘Los — here’s the thing with Milos,” Moser said. “His voice in the huddles was elite. So you may not look at this and say — no one’s even asked me about Los. But coming out of the huddles, you heard his voice every single time.
“Every time I saw the guys walking on the court, he was like that (gestures to putting arms around them). It’s so important for teams to look at somebody and be like, ‘We’re winning this.’ I thought they looked at a couple of guys, they felt that.”
Up next
We talk the Big 12 grind, and we mean it every week. But this? This is the real grind. About as a rough of a two-game week as you can get. And about as big of opportunities as you can get. It begins at Baylor on Tuesday in the only matchup of the season vs. the Bears. Then Kansas comes to the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday. Moser has not defeated the Jayhawks during his time at OU.
