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OU basketball trying to get back on 'the path' once again

Bob Przybyloby:Bob Przybylo•02/17/25•

BPrzybylo

OK, OU fans had 48 hours to digest it all. Now? You move on. You have to, no other choice. No, it doesn’t get any easier for Porter Moser and company.

But that’s life in this year’s SEC. LSU was supposed to be the breather. Five games before? All against ranked opponents. Five games after? Yep, all against ranked opponents.

That next stretch begins at No. 2 Florida at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Moser is 3-0 against the Gators, including 2-0 with the Sooners. But this feels like a different animal.

After an excruciating, how type of loss against LSU, the mental toughness will be tested like never before. And it has been tested a bunch this season, with very mixed results.

Message? Get back on the horse. Try to figure it out and keep fighting.

“Opportunity. I mean, I know I keep saying that, but there is still opportunities and a lot to play for,” said Moser after Saturday’s loss. “We need to get back in the winning column for confidence, for a lot of reasons. But that’s the message. And again, in life, sometimes you don’t know why you got put in those positions. This was a very, very tough loss for these young men.

“And the only thing I know how to do is continue to teach with them, continue to fight, show a picture, show a path. We have a path. It’s a hard path, but it’s an attainable path, and that’s the belief. Leadership’s a transfer of belief. Our belief, our confidence right now, is cracked, and we gotta get it back. And I thought these last couple days, they prepared, they did all the things that you want. We got into that tight situation, and we had a complete meltdown with that.”

There are opportunities. Moser is not wrong about that. Heck, OU’s final three home games will all be against ranked opponents: No. 21 Mississippi State on Saturday, Kentucky next Wednesday and Missouri the following week.

Bubble watch, crazy enough, still has OU on the right side of it. Seriously. That’s what November and December wins can do – keep you in the hunt. Now it’s time for February and March victories to stamp it. If, well, there is anything left in the mental tank.

And we’ll have a great idea of the mindset, the fight in Gainesville.  A win would be perplexing and incredible, obviously. More than anything? Just battle. As Moser has said, just fight through the hard.

Get Jalon Moore and Jeremiah Fears feeling good about themselves again. It’s not the end of the world at 16-9 (3-9 SEC), but the change? You got it, after all, needs to start now.

“But the message is, yes, there are some Top 25 games,” Moser said. “We gotta play better, gotta play better winning basketball. We didn’t play winning basketball the last 24 seconds. And it’ll start with me. I will not stop trying to get us to play winning basketball.”

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