OU Basketball: Oklahoma Comes Into Finale at Texas With a Clear Goal: Just Win

There are still games ahead in the Southeastern Conference Tournament next week, but OU faced a similar situation last season, when Porter Moser’s squad matched up in the Big 12 Tournament against TCU.

The Horned Frogs — who went 9-9 in Big 12 play, while OU went 8-10 — won that second-round game against the Sooners before losing the next night to Houston.

When the committee made its selections, OU and its NET ranking of 50 was not in the field, while TCU, with a NET ranking of 74, was in.

To continue the comparison, OU is just 5-12 in SEC play this year, while Texas is 6-11. Comparing records against Quad 1 opponents, OU is 5-10, Texas is 5-9.

Bracket projections this season have suggested a 7-11 SEC record might be good enough to get into this year’s field, but a 6-12 record is probably pushing it. 

So Texas, at 7-11 and with a current NET ranking of 40, gets in with a win over the Sooners.

Oklahoma on the other hand, definitely needs a win Saturday at Moody Coliseum, and then might need another one (maybe two) at the SEC Tournament, depending on how other NCAA bubble teams perform.

Regardless of what happens next Wednesday in Nashville, Oklahoma has stated its postseason case. 

After Missouri lost 96-84 on Wednesday night in Lloyd Noble Center, Tigers coach Dennis Gates said, “I truly believe Oklahoma is an NCAA Tournament team.” And after Kentucky pulled out an 83-82 win over the Sooners on Feb. 26 in Norman, Wildcats coach Mark Pope sounded equally impressed with the Sooners.

“What a great effort by Oklahoma,” Pope said. “They're scratching and clawing and just coming off a really big win for them (a 93-87 win over No. 21 Mississippi State). They played really, really hard.”

Moser isn’t focusing on his team’s potential future. He’s not looking at whether OU’s body of work will finally break the program out of its postseason funk and land the Sooners an NCAA Tournament berth for the first time in his four years.

He’s got other things on his mind. Like Texas.

Moser is 0-7 against the Longhorns since his arrival in Norman. That includes a tough one in Norman back on Jan. 15, when Texas raced out to a 53-30 lead early in the second half. The Sooners came nearly all the way back with a sudden 23-3 run as senior Jalon Moore scored 26 of his career-high 29 points in the second half.

But Texas prevailed 77-73.

That game was much like Oklahoma’s conference season: back and forth, with extremes in either direction. It happened again versus Missouri, when the Sooners lost most of a big lead but regrouped and found the grit to not just hang on but rebuild it to a comfortable finish. 

Moser likened it to a tug-o-war.

“The flag is going back and forth,” said. “You got to have that. You got to have that resistance, pull back when the other team’s pulling. And we have that. We've regained that, that resistance, that persistence when things don't go our way. And that's life. 

“That's why I keep, you know, every day coming in practice with these guys (saying) ‘You gotta (have) energy, belief — even after gut punches. You put a Quad 1 (win) in the bank.’ And … I'm really happy for the guys, and happy (about) the guys’ last home court (win) right there. And now we gotta go chase Texas tomorrow.”