OU Basketball: Why Oklahoma is 'Ready to Win Friday' Against UConn

The tournament is already underway at regionals around the country, but for the Sooners — who have been waiting three years, and were made to wait through the announcement of three regionals ahead of them during Sunday’s selection show — they’ll have to be patient.

Oklahoma has turned a sour conference stretch — four straight losses in January, five straight in February — into a closing stretch where they won three in a row and four of their last six before a heartbreaking loss to Kentucky in the SEC Tournament. The two losses in that stretch were a one-point loss to the Wildcats in Norman and a three-point loss at Ole Miss.

Oklahoma is playing its best basketball of the year heading into the NCAA Tournament. Momentum seems to have turned in OU’s favor.

“A lot,” said freshman guard Jeremiah Fears. “Our chemistry, we started bonding and we've been riding high and our chemistry is really high, as of right now. Just carrying that momentum into the next few games. Really looking forward to it.”

For coach Porter Moser, it probably doesn’t feel like redemption — not after missing the tournament in each of his first three seasons in Norman.

Maybe it just feels like something has been set right — like this is where Oklahoma basketball is supposed to be every March.

Moser reflected back on a moment he had with Moore in Miami, when Moore had entered his name for the NBA Draft and was working out for scouts — but then had a revelation.

“We sat there and he said, ‘Coach, I’m coming back — but we’ve got to get into the NCAA Tournament,’ ” Moser recalled. “I’m like, ‘Amen. Amen.’ And I said, ‘We’re gonna do it.’ We just both said, ‘We’re gonna do it.’ And … I told the guys, it had to feel like Groundhog Day because I was coming in the locker room after tough losses and I’m like, ‘You guys, there’s still a path. There’s still a path. We’ve just got to keep fighting and play better basketball. 

“And these guys believed and we’re playing our best basketball. We’re playing our best basketball. We’re playing the right way. And excited to go compete in this tournament.”