OU makes strides in Year No. 3 under Porter Moser but must finish the job

It’s hard to reconcile right now for the OU basketball program and for some of the fans. After feeling all season like you’ve done everything right, then to be told sorry at the last possible second.

That kind of hurt doesn’t just go away and head coach Porter Moser attempted to explain that Tuesday morning.

During a 29-minute press conference, he mentioned what the program went through on Selection Sunday. And then why OU decided to decline the NIT invitation.

OU went from 15-17 last season to 20-12 this time around. It had done enough for every day of the season until the one it mattered most.

The insanity of the final weekend of conference tournament, of course, as we now know, meant OU was deemed the First Team Out.

Tough pill to swallow, absolutely. Moser said the only thing you can do is get back to work. And see how you can be better and get that one more basket, one more win.

All the emotions, what did this year mean?

“I will always start with where could we have been better? I’ll always start with that. But these guys played hard every night. They competed. They showed resiliency. Won 20 games and put themselves in a position of being an NCAA Tournament team. The reality is we’re not. And I know that’ll fuel me and the guys.

“I thought anybody who got to know our guys, the guys that represented Oklahoma, they’re five-star human beings. I thought they played. They represented. We went +10 in a season in the No. 1 conference in the country. I’m hurting so much for the guys, ‘cause I felt they were competing against the best of the best to get in, to get the opportunity to advance and compete. That’s what I take. I’m just hurting for these guys.”

No bigger than hurt than the seniors. And you could hear in Moser’s voice when talking about guys like Le’Tre Darthard and Rivaldo Soares.

Their last chance at making the Tournament, and it just didn’t happen.

The seniors impact and buy-in?

“The resiliency of this group sticks out to me. You know, guys like Le’Tre Darthard and Rivaldo Soares. The absolute passion and urgency to make the tournament on an everyday basis. You just felt it. You felt it in the film sessions. And then, Rivaldo, turning it to where, for an eight-game stretch, all of a sudden, was playing at a all-conference clip, and then in the Baylor game, to go down with his ankle and he never really was right again. What we didn’t talk about was when you took his sock off and it looked like a big snow ball, every single day, even the games he fought back and played.”

There is this absurd belief of OU holding its players out for the Big 12 tournament last week. Not even close to the truth with Soares’ ankle, John Hugley’s meniscus and Javian McCollum’s shoulder.

Bizarre narrative that has absolutely no legs to it.

The final week of the season?

“To be going into the tournament, all of a sudden find out Javian couldn’t play. We found out that morning. That happened two different times. And the guys’ belief of coming together, and that’s what you want when you’re building teams is a togetherness. There wasn’t in-fighting. There wasn’t jealousy. Wasn’t a lot of outside factors with this group. It was about Oklahoma and about being the best we could be to put ourselves in the position to be in the tournament and advance.”

Moser is going to keep fighting. It’s what he knows, what he does. And he closed with some words from an OU legend as to how it’s going to get done.

Final word

“My good friend that I’ve really developed a great friendship in the last three years and a friend to everybody here, Bob Stoops. He uses the term OUDNA a lot. We’ve talked about it. The OUDNA just doesn’t talk about at the top of the hill. The OUDNA is really strong as you’re climbing the hill. That’s where this staff, these players, this program is going to rely on that OUDNA to fight through this adversity.

“The leadership at this school, the two Joes, Joe Harroz and Joe Castiglione. Marcus Bowman, my administrator. That OUDNA never has to be more relevant – it’s almost more important on the way up than it is at the top. That’s what we’re going to lean on moving forward.”