OU vs UMKC, 7 pm, ESPN+.
Porter Moser
Ending of Nova?
The message to our guys is these high-level games are going to be possession by possession. It comes down to a lot of little things. Where can we get better? I thought our guys played hard. They went in there in an awesome environment. Weren’t afraid, didn’t let the crowd get to them. There were confident. We did a lot of good things. Daniels hit some big shots. You hit pause, and Jalen Hill couldn’t be contesting him more without fouling him. But we have to find ways to win. It comes down to a lot of little things. Two points here, three points there, that you could have avoided if you would have done this or that. That’s what a lot of these games are. The high-level games, you start to get into conference and the little things matter. The little things matter. It came down to some little things in that game.
I have nothing pressing, how’s about NET rankings? SHSU being No. 7?
It’s too early to really be so focused in on that because it’s going to fluctuate. I know when we get into the meat of our schedule, the NET, the strength of schedule will start to go through the roof when you go each game. We have to control what we can control. We thought Sam Houston was good when we played them. The human part is you do root for teams you beat or lost to them because you want them to do well because of how the NET is factored in. It’s so early. You’ll drive yourself completely crazy – it’s like social media. If you’re spending so much time analyzing the NET for so long every day because it’s going to change. You have to spend more time preparing your time and controlling what you can control. Spent a lot of time in last 48 hours working on UMKC, their strengths and what they do well. I would be lying if I said I didn’t look at it. I saw it. Looked at it, breezed over everything, but that’s about the extent of it.
I ask about C.J.’s early-season funk?
“CJ’s going to be a big piece for us. He’ll be the first one to tell you, he wants to play better. He’s been amazing staying with it, like in the film sessions he’s on top of everything. I couldn’t ask him to be more attentive. He’s hanging on every word. He’s coachable. His attitude’s great. We’ve got a handful of guys like that, it’s not just CJ. Those are guys that want to get better, and I’ve got to help them through. They’ve got to help themselves through it.
“As a player, do it in practice. Seeing the ball going through in practice, getting extra shots up, getting excited about the little things. I always say this: you can’t put all your eggs in your shooting question. And what I always bean by that is you can’t let your offense or that shot going dictate the rest of the game. He’s not doing that, but you can get yourself hyped up — he had a really nice steal on the second possession of the game. He actually came down, it was after a nice ball screen, he came down, deflected it and saved it in bounds.
“Just trying to show them there’s value in a lot of different ways. I think CJ’s got big room to take a leap. He’s one of the guys that I think can take a leap.”
UMKC?
“Their guards. (Rayquawndis Mitchell), the UIC transfer. He had 35 against Toledo. They’re long and athletic. They’re rebounding. I feel like I’m at basketball camp sometimes, I don't want to butcher their name. But god, he’s so strong. He's a mismatch guys. He’ll get down and post you up. But they all…the two brothers — Promise and Precious (Idiaru) — are so long and athletic. They’re gonna be really good players. They just crash the glass. I'm impressed with how hard they crash the glass. I'm impressed with their one-on-one ability. They have remind me of Doss from Pine Bluff who I thought could really go one-on-one. They're gonna press you. They’re going to zone you. They're gonna change defenses. I've known Marvin (Menzies) for many years at UMKC. He was with Rick Pitino back at Louisville before he became the head coach at New Mexico State. He's one that had Pascal Siakam at New Mexico State. So he's got some guys in that mold. Long. Athletic. In his first year he brought in a lot of new guys. So I'm impressed with the rebounding. How hard they draw foul because they go downhill, they'll drive you. We’ve been good against really good rebounding teams. I think that's been a strength of ours because I always say to our guts, you don't have to be the biggest, longest, athletic, but8 can be the best blockout team. And I think we block out. We've done really well on the glass this year. And we got to continue to do that against this team.”
Next steps?
One, I’m always thinking there are so many answers to that question. I feel like we can get better offensively doing different things. Defensively, there are so many things. I think we have to get deeper. I think we have some guys not playing to their capabilities. I want to help them with that. I want them to help themselves with that. We have to get deeper as we head into this and getting more production from some guys. That’s a big thing as we head into this thing. You need all hands-on deck. We need to be deep. We have the potential to be deep, but we need to get guys playing better than they are. I need to help them with that.
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