OU basketball 'fought through hard' and came out the other side

Hand up, how many people actually thought OU basketball could make the NCAA Tournament after that dreadful LSU loss?

There weren’t many. It was the opposite, actually. A very popular social media term was ‘Fire Porter Moser.’ OU fans were ready to throw in the towel.

And if you look at the attendance the rest of the way? A lot of them did. By the time some of the fans regained belief in the Sooners, well, the days at Lloyd Noble Center were over.

Just like so many believed the OU season was over after a shocking home defeat to LSU. The one unexplainable blemish on the record.

You know the one. OU up 79-74 with 24 seconds left, only to lose 82-79 in regulation. Not even overtime, but in regulation. A four-point play, turnover, traditional three-point play, and a missed chance at overtime.

Stunned silence.

SoonerScoop wasn’t calling for Moser’s job, but the truth was simple. How could OU bounce back? Not could they, but how? Those are the types of gut-punches you do not recover from. The hourglass was running low for Moser’s tenure in Norman.

Yet somehow? Um, the Sooners did. It’s all part of the story now. The 13-0 start, the backbreaking losses, the rising up when it counted the most. You can’t tell the narrative of this season without mentioning that fateful Saturday afternoon against the Tigers.

“What’s special is just keeping your faith in each other, in God, knowing that you got to fight through hard times,” Porter Moser told SoonerScoop. “The thing that I can say is unequivocally, these players and these coaches never stopped believing in each other. We believed in our room. We believed in each other, and to fight through some low points, and that’s what happens when you get gut-punched in some of these games. But we’ve come out on this end, and this will be something they carry the rest of their lives, that, man, remember we put ourselves in some of those spots, but the path we chose.

“I kept telling them there was a path, and the path we chose was to keep fighting. The path they chose was to keep believing, and I’m happy for them that they have this day, but like I told them, we’re not done. We’re not done. This isn’t our destination. This is what’s part of our journey, to get into this tournament. Now, let’s go compete.”

Don’t get it twisted, the turnaround didn’t occur overnight. OU got spanked at Gainesville 72 hours. Funny enough, if OU can get by No. 8 Connecticut on Friday night in Raleigh, N.C., the top-seeded Gators most likely await the winner.

Worry about that Friday night and beyond, though. First things first – here come the Huskies. But also? Here comes Jalon Moore.

He has waited his whole career for this moment. And this moment is occurring in large part because of a leader who simply would not flinch.

A captain who followed his head coach’s lead and rallied the troops together every single time.

“Being connected. Knowing that there are going to be ups and downs,” Moore told SoonerScoop. “We have to be resilient. Through it all, we have to stay connected. The most connected team always wins. That’s what we were able to do the last weeks of the season.”

As Moore has led, others have found their place, too. Just look at freshman guard Jeremiah Fears or center Mo Wague. Everybody has a role, and everybody is playing it to their maximum potential.

That long walk up the LNC tunnel after becoming 16-9 and on a four-game losing streak is a thing of the past.

The present is now. And OU is ready to make its charge.

“A lot,” said Fears about sticking together. “Our chemistry, we started bonding and we’ve been riding high and our chemistry is really high, as of right now. Just carrying that momentum into the next few games. Really looking forward to it.”