OU basketball looks to build off Battle 4 Atlantis championship

That was a week for OU basketball and head coach Porter Moser. Not expected to be in the Battle 4 Atlantis championship yet alone winning it, here we are.

The Sooners getting the praise after running the table in the Bahamas and now find themselves ranked No. 21 in the AP poll.

OU returns to Norman to take on Georgia Tech at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Former OU guard Javian McCollum will not be playing for the Georgia Tech, missing his second straight game.

For OU? It’s about riding the positive wave. Battle 4 Atlantis cannot be the high point for this team, obviously.

“One of the things I’ve liked about how this team’s evolving is the togetherness, the lack of entitlement with the guys,” Moser said. “So I’ve seen that with them, and you can just see them prepare. Because there’s a lot of, you go to game to game to game, and just the preparation, the want to prepare to win. And it was a really connected group. Found out that (there are) some things we’ve gotta do better and just saw a lot of resiliency with this group.”

Injury updates

OU continues to do all this without being close to full strength. Moser gave updates to Jeff Nwankwo (Achilles) and Jadon Jones (back) on Monday.

Nwankwo:

“He’s doing full individual workouts. I mean, he’s running, jumping, shooting. Nothing live contact yet. But his progression has been amazing. But he is doing live, full five on zero workouts — or, not five, one on zero workouts. Dribbling, ball handling, shooting, running, jumping. But there’s no definite timetable when that return is yet. But there’s a confidence issue when you come back with your Achilles, because it’s such… To push off and jump and to cut with that Achilles. So there’s one thing doing these workouts, and another thing is doing the live workouts. So we’ll just, we’re just gonna keep the progression going. I’m listening to the doctors and (team athletic trainer Seth Tisdale). But he’s been progressing great.

Jones:

“Jadon, he hasn’t practiced yet and everything, but he’s feeling better and I think that’s… The back is just always tricky ’cause if you’re… it’s no use doing, like, one on zero workouts if your back is still bad. Like, you can push through an ankle, you can push through some things, but backs are tricky. So he’s still not back.”

Fears earns honor

OU guard Jeremiah Fears was named SEC Freshman of the Week for his performances. And what is impressing Moser most? Fears’ willingness to learn with each game.

“I saw a passion to win. You can just see, it wasn’t about that stage and him doing well,” Moser said. “He was in the moment to win. The thing that I also saw was an attention to clean up mistakes. He had an attention to detail. He saw I think he had eight turnovers in the first one, and we know he’s gonna have some because of the aggression and the pace he plays with, but then to cut that in half against Arizona, that was really a big part.”

Moore against his old team

Jalon Moore started his career with Georgia Tech. Now at OU, will it be tough to try to handle all those emotions?

“There’s very few players that you’re trying to turn the temperature down on,” Moser said. “And Jalon, I love him and I don’t want to harness it. We’ve got to be smart with it and let him know it’s just another game. But his energy he brings, man, it’s — I love coaching his energy. Intense. If we’ve got to coach him a couple of times to settle down, we’ve got enough of a relationship that we can talk like that. But I love that he’s hyped to play. I love that the guys love him and that he’s bringing them along to play. And so not a concern for me.”