Refreshed, recharged, back to work for OU basketball

Nobody is in the business of making excuses, but for OU basketball? It’s back to work and nice to be at home to back to the hardwood.

It was the worst outing of the season for the Sooners in the 75-60 home loss to Texas on Tuesday. But no point in dwelling on it. Time to move on, especially with first-place Texas Tech coming to the Lloyd Noble Center on Saturday.

How to watch

No. 20 Texas Tech (15-3, 4-1) at No. 11 OU (15-4, 3-3)
When: 1 p.m. Saturday
TV: ESPN+.

You cannot blow a two-game week at home. It has been weird this Big 12 schedule with teams playing two games at home or two on the road in the same week.

You lost one with Texas. Regroup, recharge and hit the ground running against the Red Raiders.

“They went nine straight days, three games,” head coach Porter Moser said. “So saw what we could have done better. Saw the disappointing things that happened in that game. And I thought it was really, really healthy. That game, we told them, that game doesn’t have to define you. In basketball, January, February, March, there’s a lot of games. A lot of opportunities. Obviously that one stings. 

“But for us, that game doesn’t have to define us. But it needs to change us and get us better. Tougher in those situations. Things we could have done better defensively. And then I thought in the second half of the day we came back an introduced Texas Tech and practiced and I thought we had a great practice. That shows me they care because we told them a lot of truths in that film session and how they responded was everything you’d want in how to respond.”

Texas Tech did not play a mid-week game and is the only team in the conference with just one Big 12 loss.

Godwin wake-up call

Talking about being tougher, it starts with OU center Sam Godwin. After a great non-conference season, Godwin has slumped in league play.

He has more fouls than points in the last three games. That can’t last. But Moser isn’t ready to make a change or lose trust in Godwin.

“I’ve just got a good feeling about Sam right now,” Moser said. “I think he’s going to come out and have a great game Saturday. I just do. For me, he was putting so much pressure on himself, and I think he’s just taking a deep breath on his day off. He came back, had a great practice yesterday. He was bouncing, he was dunking, he was all over. 

“Sometimes when you’re in your head about foul trouble, you foul more. That’s what happened. He went after a rebound, didn’t get it and just kind of shoved the guy out of bounds.I was like, ‘Sam?’ He was like, ‘I don’t know.’ (Shrugs). Now he’s just getting back to playing. And if you get in foul trouble, you get in foul trouble. You’ve just gotta be smarter with it. But I want him to be aggressive.”

Defending Pop

If you thought chasing Texas’ Max Abmas was tough, get ready for Pop Isaacs and another round of following for 40 minutes.

“Absolutely. That’s exactly what we talked about. That’s exactly what we said yesterday. I said, ‘Pop (Isaacs) is the leading scorer in this league. He works really hard for the ball, just like Max did. Can shoot from anywhere. No range.’

“If you think you’re far enough out on him, get farther out. You’re not far enough to guys like Pop and Max. I think they’re really good. Obviously, they’re No. 1 in our conference, but we did—to guard a guy like Pop, he never stops working for the ball. He can score a variety of ways. He’s really quick; he can get to the rim. But absolutely, it’s a chance to guard another elite scorer like that.”

We’ll see what defensive lessons OU has learned from playing Abmas with Isaacs coming to town.

Final word

“Every single game is a Quad 1 game. Every single game it seems like you’re playing a top 20, top 30 team. So you can’t be too high, you can’t stay too low. So those guys… But I will say this: After Tuesday’s loss, there was a little bit more energy. And that’s why I love how the guys responded. And that’s how you gotta respond on a game like that.” – Moser