OU seniors hoping, needing one final moment at Lloyd Noble Center

There has been a fair share of heartbreak for OU basketball at Lloyd Noble Center. Not just this season, but in the last few.

Something that seniors Jalon Moore and Sam Godwin understand all too well. But they’re still standing. Physically, mentally, emotionally. The two key pieces that chose to return to Norman after last season are hoping to anchor one last charge.

A charge that can put them in the NCAA Tournament.

So yea, senior night is going to be emotional for Moore and Godwin and the rest of them Wednesday against No. 15 Missouri. But more than anything? It’s a game the Sooners have to have.

Bank another Quad 1 victory, get to 18 wins and put yourself in the right frame of mind and right side of the bubble.

Emotional, sure, but get back to work.

“It’s gonna be exciting to have all of my family and stuff here, my last game at Lloyd Noble,” Moore told SoonerScoop. “It’s gonna be bittersweet, but I’m ready to play and ready to get this dub.”

Godwin brought a little humor into the equation.

“This is my second senior night. I finessed it,” Godwin told SoonerScoop. “Dude, last year, I wanted the Big 12 jersey frame and the SEC jersey frame, so I had to finesse two senior nights, so for me this is nothing new.”

The two remember the feeling last March of being labeled the First Team Out of the NCAA Tournament. A feeling they never want to go through again.

There have been gut-punches galore this season, including last week. Playing incredibly high-level basketball for nearly 80 minutes just to go 0-2 and lose by a combined four points against Kentucky (83-82) and at Ole Miss (87-84).

Down for a day and get back up. No other option.

Godwin was a transfer from Wofford and was a walk-on his initial year at OU. Moore averaged just four points at Georgia Tech before coming to the Sooners.

Their journey has been fun to watch, and both have been tremendous representatives of what Sooner basketball is all about.

“It’s why you coach. It’s why retention is everything, especially the way I feel,” head coach Porter Moser said. “The way we do things is getting him better. I look at Jalon, the two guys that have been here the most. Sam, he’s really turning it. Don’t know if there’s a lot of players who have made 15 of their last 16 shots in this league. He’s turning it.

“Jalon Moore, to come in here—what, four (points) a game at Georgia Tech and the percentages he had, to being top-12 in minutes, top-12, one of the league’s leading scorers, big impact. That’s the beauty of having guys in the program two to three—don’t even think about four years in the program right now—but those are awesome things for Jalon. Then just his love for the game is infectious. I love him as a young man. He’s someone that is why you coach.”

So the stage is set. One final game at the LNC. A chance for, on paper, the best ranked victory of the season against the Tigers.

Can’t think of a better way to go out.

“There’s definitely a path. There’s an urgency to this path, and we’ve had two gut punches in a row, but it doesn’t mean there’s not a path. We understand the urgency of the path, and we understand that the only way you’re going to fight adversity, the only way you’re going to fight things not going your way is to keep fighting. That’s what this team has done over and over and over.

“We got that path tomorrow to be able to create a high-level win for us. There’s things we have to do to beat a team as old, as veteran as well-coached and as good as Missouri, but our guys know we can do it. We have to get some of those things in the game, because they’re very, very good.”

The senior honorees will be Kobe Elvis, Sam Godwin, Brycen Goodine, Yaya Keita, Duke Miles, Jalon Moore, Jake Moser and Glenn Taylor Jr.

Moser senior day family event

“When you said Jake, I got chills. It’s been a heck of a journey having him with me. You know, his impact isn’t points, rebounds or anything, but it’s a joy of a lifetime to share a journey. I’ve been doing this journey 30-something years, and all of a sudden you get to share it with one of your kids, ups and downs. We’ll talk on the phone, talk about practice, talk about different things. On the road trips, to see him. Giving him a hug before every starting lineup, it’s been the joy of a lifetime to share that with him.

“I credit all the teammates too, because sometimes it’s not always easy to have your coach’s son on the team. The last four years, every teammate has been nothing but a five-star human being to my son, and he’s given the same thing back to the program. It’ll be tough with it being his last game—last home game.” – Moser on celebrating senior night with his son, Jake