Time for OU basketball to dig deep, find the 'toughness'

One rough week in the Big 12 won’t be the end for OU basketball. Well, as long as it responds the right way moving forward.

There is a lot of respect for what the conference has done. Losing two games only meant OU dropped from No. 9 to No. 15 in the AP poll. That’s respect. There are now a whopping eight teams in the top 25 – that’s respect.

But this matchup Wednesday? Not against one of those seven other teams. West Virginia coming to town means OU needs to go back to taking care of business.

How to watch

West Virginia (6-10, 1-2) at No. 15 OU (13-3, 1-2)
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday
TV: ESPN+.

And the way to take care of business is to bring your hard hat, bring the toughness.

“It was a tough week,” head coach Porter Moser said. “The outcome was not what we wanted so you’ve got to ask yourself why. You have to ask why you won, why you lost and address it and get better. I think we know it was two tough games but we expected to win and we didn’t. So our guys, they’re confident. We’ve just got to dig down deeper.

“Dig down deeper, find ways to get better. But we don’t have any lack of confidence in our ability or what kind of team we are by losing this week. We want to fix it. Want to get better. Want to get back in the win column. And that’s the way we worked yesterday. We approached it, everything was positive, energetic with a little edge. You have to have a little edge. Whether you win or lose you’ve got to maintain that edge in this league. It’s just insanity with eight of us ranked in the top 25.” 

There’s a physical toughness and a mental toughness. There’s being strong with the ball. For Moser, though, toughness means defense. Means if you’re not hitting your shots, big deal, play some defense.

It’s going to be hard to produce an offense when you’re struggling on defense.

“The thing about the toughness is almost a mentality of, you can’t let your offense dictate your defense. And that’s what I think — toughness is that. Toughness is not, you know, ‘Hey,’ you miss a couple shots, or your teammate misses you on a one-more pass. You can’t let that affect your defense. Nothing can affect your defense. Nothing. That’s toughness. We’ve got to maintain an intensity possession by possessions, no matter what happens on the offensive end. And we’ve proven that has been able to help us win games.”

WVU a new team

WVU enters at 6-10, very meh by Big 12 standards. But look at it again. WVU got a lot of players eligible in recent weeks and looks like a Big 12 team again.

Took KSU down to the wire last week before upsetting Texas on Saturday. The Mountaineers aren’t in the class of the Big 12, but OU has to be ready. Any sort of letdown could easily see a third straight loss.

“Very good players,” Moser said. “Farrakhan and Battle are two upper-level Big 12 players that just got eligible the last six-seven games. Battle’s averaging 20, Farrakhan’s averaging 12. Absolutely are bucket getters. They can get a basket. Can go off the dribble. They can both shoot the 3. Really impressed. They’re very, very good.

“I think they’re really tough. Slazinski, they’re all tough. Their guards, I think Kriisa gives you a playmaking guard. You can’t fall asleep. He’s throwing dimes all over the court. But they combine a toughness, and these two guys they’ve added late here — Farrakhan and Battle — are just offensive, they can really go get it. They’re high-level scores and we’ve gotta be on our best defensively.”

A confident Northweather

It’s easy to point out the two 3-pointers by Luke Northweather on Saturday. But what stood out most to Moser was the comfort level.

If you’re not overwhelmed at Allen Fieldhouse, you’re going to be OK the rest of the way. And that’s really what Moser learned about Northweather at KU.

“What I liked is even in the first half, he looked comfortable. He looked like the moment wasn’t, wasn’t afraid of the moment and that was the sign that I saw. And I thought he embraced the moment. He caught, he dribbled, he went uphill on a DHO, passed it, snapped it and he just looked like he was ready mentally.

“And I always say, ‘When your mind’s right, your game’s right.’ And when you’re aggressive, and then he popped up and hit two shots. So we felt good in the first half. We said at halftime, ‘Oh, Luke looked comfortable in that first half.’ And then sure as heck, came in and hit two nice shots for us. So we can build on it.”

Final word

“I’m really excited that the students are back. Sometimes you’re playing three games during Christmas Break without the students. I can’t wait to see the student body in that student section and all the fans. I hope they come out. It’s a huge game for us. They make a difference.

“We’ve had some of the biggest student crowds of the year, Providence game, Iowa State, no students here being a sellout, it’s going in the right direction. They make a difference and you’ve just got to keep going. I try to control what I can control. I got hit on social media that there wasn’t enough beer stands so there’s going to be more beer stands at the game tomorrow so people don’t have to worry about $2 beers having to wait in line — hopefully. Always trying to do what we can do to get the big crowds into Lloyd Noble.” – Moser about first game back with students