OU basketball hoping the 'fun' doesn't end against UConn

RALEIGH, N.C. — No, nobody is sitting here saying gut-punch loss after another is or was fun for OU basketball. The team saw enough heartbreak to last several seasons.

But to fight through it? And still be standing? That’s the fun. That’s the message from head coach Porter Moser as OU enters the NCAA Tournament for the first time in his four seasons in Norman.

Fun probably won’t be the operative word here, but OU will try to have some fun against the two-time defending national champions, UConn, on Friday night in the NCAA Tournament.

The same words were used by Moser on Thursday to describe this OU season. Perseverance. Resilience. Fighting through hard.

But then threw out a new one – fun.

“Every coach in their career will go through moments maybe almost every year, where you have some players, if you go through a tough time, you might have a young man not playing or this, and you say — they say to themselves I’m not having any fun,” Moser said. “Every coach will relate with that statement, I’m not having any fun.

“What reminds me of this team is, when we were in the SEC Tournament and we beat Georgia and we were preparing for Kentucky. We had a late night, and the next morning they were on the terrace eating breakfast together, talking about the game, talking about that, and I stopped them. I said, this is what’s fun — competing, going through hard, and winning.”

There are steps to fun, though. It doesn’t happen automatically. And sometimes? It doesn’t happen at all. Sometimes you have to fall, have to fail. Because it’s in the journey and the grind that you can appreciate the good, the wins, and ultimately, the fun.

It might not happen when you want it or feel you need it. You’re not promised instant gratification.

The Sooners know that all too well. But they’re OK with it. Time to do it again.

“The grind to compete and win isn’t fun,” Moser said. “It’s very hard to compete and grind. The fun is that, enjoying that success together. The fun, we talked about it, was after Selection Sunday, the pure joy of watching their face see it come up.

“Then why I know they’re such high character is walking them come to practice the next day and turn it on, turn that competitive nature. We went after it one of the hardest couple practices in the next days.

“But that’s what’s fun. Fun is fighting through hard in life, fun is fighting through tough times with a group of people you love, and not just — some people want it the other way around. You want the fun first. This group fought through hard, and what it was like to see players I love learn that and go through that and have that fun together and have them get rewarded because they kept on fighting and fighting.”

They said it…

“Just seeing hard ass games, I mean, just seeing hard games. That league this year, it’s just a total monster. It was like the whole league was NCAA caliber, like literally 18 NCAA Tournament games.

“You go back, you watch their nonconference, how well they played in the Bahamas, how well they played to beat Michigan. Obviously, the Arizona game in the Bahamas, you see what they’re capable of.

“When Fears is dynamic and able to get wherever he wants to go on the court, he triggers a lot of things offensively for them with Moore and Miles. They’ve just got a lot of depth and a lot of weapons, especially at the guard spots with Elvis. They’ve got a lot of fire power. They’re a really, really good offensive team.” – UConn head coach Dan Hurley