Welp, here we go. ESPN+ this time around, too.
“First and foremost we are all hurting for Elijah,” said Oklahoma men’s basketball head coach Porter Moser. “He is such a competitor and his spirit is such an integral part of our team. It is hard for any athlete to have their season to come to an abrupt end. We will be praying for a speedy recovery.”
***
Porter Moser (before Harkless news)
I ask about the balance between rest/practice time during stretches like this?
Challenging. We need to practice. Even just those fundamental passes into the post. The action was wide open, but we sailed the pass. You need to do some breakdown drills. Jordan to get the right angle to go downhill. It’s hard to balance. They’re giving everything they’ve got mentally and physically in every game and you have to give them some rest. You need to be fresh. That’s part of it, too. I feel like we need some practice time to go over some stuff. NCAA-wise, I had to give them the day off. I couldn’t even watch film with them yesterday. So I did one-on-one today, now we’re about to practice. Those three teams in seven days, what it says to us is we’ve progressed. We’re way better than we were a month ago. We played three of the top teams in the country, especially defensively and right there to win all three. We only won one, gut-punch, that’s the reality. But man, our confidence in knowing we’re getting better. Those are a tough three teams. Both times we had a shot to win it. If the shot falls, either way, we’re 3-0. But we’re not, we’re 1-2 in those games. We have to keep building and getting better. That’s our message every single day, and I’m coming with that same mentality in practice.
End of game situations?
Jordan and I watched that last play together, everything including the angle of that ghost screen. He came from the middle to go to the side to go down. You want to be in that slot to go downhill. We watched that play together, one-on-one, him and I today, and talked about different things that you can look at. I talked about the Kansas play with Tanner one-on-one. I said ‘Tanner, look at this. He knows if they switch, he has to get out of there. He’s got to roll to open it up. He picked-and-popped and jammed it up. There are learning curves. You cheat with what you emphasize. You can’t skip steps. There’s a process to it. I’ve watched those close situations with both of those guys. It’s continuing to understand what the situation was.
We’ll talk to Ethan. I was going to meet with Ethan. He got that pick-and-pop. It’s unfair to him because there’s not a shot clock. But he caught it with 3.9 seconds and no one between him and the basket. If he drove … he could have drove. Jalen Hill was on a middle cut and we were going downhill. But to his unfairness, the worst thing that could have happened is the clock going off and him not getting a shot off. It’s unfair. He heard the countdown, the announcer was counting down. I don’t want to blame him for that. If you got a normal shot clock, you have four seconds, you can still go downhill and go to the basket and draw a foul. He did have a good look.
You want to constantly talk situations. No matter how much your practice it, there’s nothing like veterans knowing what you want and being through those moments together in your system.
Loyola culture?
It definitely took a couple of years. When you come in, you want the younger guys to come in and see the older guys and know exactly how things are done. It takes a couple of recruiting classes to get that going. I remember at Loyola, the Final Four team, when those seniors were freshmen, our first recruiting class were seniors. They were everything we were about.
We got invited to the CBI. That was their first postseason tournament in 30 years. We not only got in it, we won the whole damn thing. We won the CBI. Those freshmen ended up being the seniors. My first recruiting class, when guys came into the program, it took some time for them to get rolling. By the time my first recruiting class were seniors, man. This is how we did things in the off-season.
This off-season was so new. No one knew anything. No one knew terminology, much less still trying to find out way. So different, it takes a minute, it takes a couple of classes to get that established. Because your culture is when you walk into a program, the older guys is this is how it’s done – not the coaches. Because they are around the guys a lot more than they are the coaches. Whether it’s in the locker room, whether it’s off the floor, whether it’s in pickup games, whether it’s in summer workouts, whether it’s in the strength room, it’s how things are done.
Those seniors, when those guys were seniors, they went to the Final Four. And the freshman that year, when we were at the Final Four, they were freshmen last year when we went to the Sweet 16. It’s just a process. That’s why it takes some time to get that culture going. Because the young guys have to see how it’s done but how the older guys set examples.
“First and foremost we are all hurting for Elijah,” said Oklahoma men’s basketball head coach Porter Moser. “He is such a competitor and his spirit is such an integral part of our team. It is hard for any athlete to have their season to come to an abrupt end. We will be praying for a speedy recovery.”
***
Porter Moser (before Harkless news)
I ask about the balance between rest/practice time during stretches like this?
Challenging. We need to practice. Even just those fundamental passes into the post. The action was wide open, but we sailed the pass. You need to do some breakdown drills. Jordan to get the right angle to go downhill. It’s hard to balance. They’re giving everything they’ve got mentally and physically in every game and you have to give them some rest. You need to be fresh. That’s part of it, too. I feel like we need some practice time to go over some stuff. NCAA-wise, I had to give them the day off. I couldn’t even watch film with them yesterday. So I did one-on-one today, now we’re about to practice. Those three teams in seven days, what it says to us is we’ve progressed. We’re way better than we were a month ago. We played three of the top teams in the country, especially defensively and right there to win all three. We only won one, gut-punch, that’s the reality. But man, our confidence in knowing we’re getting better. Those are a tough three teams. Both times we had a shot to win it. If the shot falls, either way, we’re 3-0. But we’re not, we’re 1-2 in those games. We have to keep building and getting better. That’s our message every single day, and I’m coming with that same mentality in practice.
End of game situations?
Jordan and I watched that last play together, everything including the angle of that ghost screen. He came from the middle to go to the side to go down. You want to be in that slot to go downhill. We watched that play together, one-on-one, him and I today, and talked about different things that you can look at. I talked about the Kansas play with Tanner one-on-one. I said ‘Tanner, look at this. He knows if they switch, he has to get out of there. He’s got to roll to open it up. He picked-and-popped and jammed it up. There are learning curves. You cheat with what you emphasize. You can’t skip steps. There’s a process to it. I’ve watched those close situations with both of those guys. It’s continuing to understand what the situation was.
We’ll talk to Ethan. I was going to meet with Ethan. He got that pick-and-pop. It’s unfair to him because there’s not a shot clock. But he caught it with 3.9 seconds and no one between him and the basket. If he drove … he could have drove. Jalen Hill was on a middle cut and we were going downhill. But to his unfairness, the worst thing that could have happened is the clock going off and him not getting a shot off. It’s unfair. He heard the countdown, the announcer was counting down. I don’t want to blame him for that. If you got a normal shot clock, you have four seconds, you can still go downhill and go to the basket and draw a foul. He did have a good look.
You want to constantly talk situations. No matter how much your practice it, there’s nothing like veterans knowing what you want and being through those moments together in your system.
Loyola culture?
It definitely took a couple of years. When you come in, you want the younger guys to come in and see the older guys and know exactly how things are done. It takes a couple of recruiting classes to get that going. I remember at Loyola, the Final Four team, when those seniors were freshmen, our first recruiting class were seniors. They were everything we were about.
We got invited to the CBI. That was their first postseason tournament in 30 years. We not only got in it, we won the whole damn thing. We won the CBI. Those freshmen ended up being the seniors. My first recruiting class, when guys came into the program, it took some time for them to get rolling. By the time my first recruiting class were seniors, man. This is how we did things in the off-season.
This off-season was so new. No one knew anything. No one knew terminology, much less still trying to find out way. So different, it takes a minute, it takes a couple of classes to get that established. Because your culture is when you walk into a program, the older guys is this is how it’s done – not the coaches. Because they are around the guys a lot more than they are the coaches. Whether it’s in the locker room, whether it’s off the floor, whether it’s in pickup games, whether it’s in summer workouts, whether it’s in the strength room, it’s how things are done.
Those seniors, when those guys were seniors, they went to the Final Four. And the freshman that year, when we were at the Final Four, they were freshmen last year when we went to the Sweet 16. It’s just a process. That’s why it takes some time to get that culture going. Because the young guys have to see how it’s done but how the older guys set examples.
