And of course, the exhibition vs. Rogers State is 7 p.m. Monday.
This weekend wasn't about 2022 or 2023, but the Sooners were working on 2024. Yep, this is where Porter Moser wants to be. Caught up with 2022 with the three commitments. Feels good about early standing with 2023.
But you can tell Moser knows you hit the top young kids as fast as you can. This will be the class where he first feels like he's at an even level playing field.
St. Rita is Boneman territory. My older brothers grew up playing vs. St. Rita at St. Laurence before we moved away from the Chicago area. Sadly, none of my family is even in the Chicagoland area anymore, so no family visit is planned
***
Here is some of the best of the best from Moser's Zoom last Thursday.
Recruiting challenges? Portal? 2022?
It would have been like it was when I first got the job. We had to sign nine without bringing them to campus. That was as difficult a recruiting situation that I’ve ever been in was getting here and having so many guys already in the portal when Coach Kruger had retired and trying to sign nine to build a Big 12 team. To answer your first part as to what it’s been like in recruiting, because when we got here, just think about from that moment, we had nine spots. I had to build a staff, hire a staff. I’m doing all the things you need to do. I was trying to work out those four guys who were returning. We were so swamped with trying to complete the roster for this year’s team, much less trying to dive into the Class of ’22. At this level, a lot of those guys in the Class of ’22 have been recruited for a year already. Much less even thinking about the Class of ’23. At this level, you’re recruiting the Class of ‘23 that early. It was – there wasn’t enough time in the day. It was non-stop, trying to build relationships, trying to recruit. Then when we were finally able to get guys on campus. That was in June. I think we had somebody on campus every single day during the month of June. I think every day in the month of June either I was gone for the NCAA recruiting period going out. Or if I was home, we had someone on campus. Then July hit, and we were non-stop in July. We were able to see some guys with our own eyes. We were out everywhere. Evaluating, not only talent but character and getting to know guys. And that’s what recruiting is all about, building relationships. It’s been non-stop, thought our staff did a great job basically playing catch-up with the Class of ‘22. We’ll be able to comment more about the ’22 class after Nov. 10 on signing day.
CJ Noland?
It’s been an upward trajectory since he’s gotten here. He’s not alone – that happens to a lot of true freshmen. They don’t know what to expect. They don’t come in the shape that some of the other college athletes are in or that he will be in moving forward. When you’re a sophomore, junior, senior – you know you have to come in great shape. A lot of times freshmen coming from high school don’t know what that is. But there’s always an anxiety with young freshmen. They’re eager, wanna do well. They don’t know what to expect. When you have all those emotions, anxiety and nervousness becomes one of them and you start to overthink and trying to survive. I have to get through this, have to survive. Then there comes a tipping point where survival mode turns into competing mode. And when C.J. Noland got into that competing mode and got into better shape, he has a great way about himself on the floor. What I mean by that is he listens and tries to carry over everything we’re teaching, and that’s refreshing as a coach. He’s hanging onto everything, film sessions, on the court. You know when guys are good listeners when you’re talking to one player, and he’s locked in trying to listen so he doesn’t make that mistake or how he can benefit from that. That’s been C.J. Noland. He’s took a lot of time on his shot. He’s getting in better shape, competing more. He’s getting his athleticism into the game. That’s the biggest difference from the summer. He’s athletic and powerful, but he wasn’t really getting that into the game in the live work, whether it was conditioning or trying to survive and not compete. Now? He’s competing. He’s getting his power and speed into the game. He is having what I would say is a natural progression. I’m glad he’s getting himself into that competing mode because he’s worked himself into someone we’re really going to count on.
Rotations?
We’re still trying to figure that out. These games are to help with that. We are still figuring it out. What have I’ve seen? I’ve seen improvement. We got a ways to go. We have to figure out end of the game lineups as well as beginning of the game lineups. That’s a process for a coach and a staff, to figure out who you are going to have at the end of the game and the last four minutes of the game. We’ve been doing a lot of situations, teaching guys what we want to do at this point, versus the press, whether we’re up or we’re down, all of the sudden they throw something different at us, can we handle changing defenses after a media timeout, all those things you have to throw in your mind.
We’re getting better. I see a willingness to get better. Like I’ve talked to a lot of my peers in the profession, everyone is just at that point where we just really … we feel like we’re not ready, as coaches, you never feel like you are ready for your first game, but we are mentally ready. We just want to start competing and getting better. You learn a lot from your team. When you start going through the real games, you start learning a lot. We’re at that mode as well.
How many guys do you want to play?
The rotations, that’s always the tricky question. Early on, I’d say you are trying to play nine. It’s hard to play 10, 11 or 12. Nine is something … you might play a 10th guy or five or six here. Sometimes late, as you get later in the year and in late conference or NCAA Tournament, sometimes it’s eight. Early on, you will see nine. You may see more in the exhibition game because we’re still trying to sort some things out. When you really start setting your rotation and decide this is it, it’s usually nine for us.
Jalen Hill?
Jalen is an A-plus-plus human being. I love Jalen. He’s one of those guys that you can hang with him off the floor. He’s really starting to get a personality on the floor of it’s OK to be the nicest guy off the floor, but on the floor you have to compete. He’s doing that more consistently. I think he can be an elite level defender. He really picks up stuff defensively. He gets defense. He gets using his length. He’s one of our best rebounders, out to in. He’s a great out to in rebounder. That’s a skill. Sometimes guards on the perimeter, they don’t crash down and rebound down. Jalen crashes down rebounding. He’s getting more confidence off the dribble and getting more confidence to shoot that shot. And we need him to. My vision is to have him a much bigger scoring role as he’s had in the past. The thing I want every day for him – day in and day out – is he has to have his hard hat on and ready to compete and get his physicality. Body-wise, he’s got a high level of body and athleticism. He’s every bit of 6-6, strong, jumps through the roof. He’s got to get that athleticism and presence felt. He has to get his presence felt every time he gets on the floor. And he’s doing that. I’m seeing it more and more every day. He’s a big part of what we’re doing.
Meshing as a team?
You take over a job, sometimes you are inheriting … sometimes you’re not inheriting a full roster. But sometimes it’s nine guys and pretty much a big core. At least those guys know each other. With us having four guys – and one of the four really hasn’t played, Rick hadn’t played so it wasn’t like they had a feel for them on the floor. And then to bring nine new ones in from different backgrounds and places, that’s been the hardest thing. The challenging thing is to continue to bring them together and that takes time. I think we’re doing as good as we can do. We’re spending time off the floor. We’re doing things on the floor. We’re constantly relationship building.
What really brings the team close together is when they have to go through adversity together. Not just the good times, but the tough times – a loss, a tough game. Tough practices. We had a boot camp for that reason, to have them sharing some adversity. That’s when you become closer. And spending time to know each other. I think a team pulling for each other, that culture, is a competitive advantage.
As the year goes on, you get closer and closer together, but that’s a big part of the challenge that we’ve had is not only getting everybody together and playing together, but they haven’t played together. So that’s why we’re excited to play somebody different, too, because we’re gonna start growing and learning as they go.
I can just hear my mentor Rick Majerus — when I took over Loyola, he wrote me a handwritten letter and I still have it, I’ve reviewed it. He goes, ‘Porter, take this. You’re obsessed with the process of it.’ He goes, ‘You’re trying to build a program, not a team. Don’t go too fast.’ And I keep thinking about that because first-year coaches, you want to get everything in by the first day. You want to have everything right and set by the first opening tipoff, and it’s unrealistic.
You’ve got to stay the course and do what you know how to do to build the whole program for the long haul. That’s what we’ve been doing and it’s been a challenge because of so many new guys, new staff, too. I feel like we’ve come a long way, I really have. To think back on our late nights here in the office — they’re still late nights — but the time spent getting here without our families in April and May and just trying to get this all together to where we are now. We’ve come a long way.
I’m excited to take that next step when the games start coming, because you really do take — you better take a giant step forward. That’s the key. You’ll see a handful of teams going backwards when the games come. We want to take a huge step forward of the learning curve, getting together with each other curve as we move forward.
Exhibition game thoughts?
The first part of the question, as we head into the exhibition game, what are we expecting? You’re expecting carry over. You want to see the stuff that you’ve worked on. Is it going to be carrying over? Defensively, Are we playing five guys stopping the ball? Sometimes, all of a sudden the lights come on and everybody’s individual defense. Everything that our defense is based on is five guys trying to stop the ball, everybody has a job. So we’re looking forward to that part of it.
Expecting some nervous energy. First time you’re playing in front of fans. Some nervous energy, to see how much their focus stays on task. Because as you start to get experience, your blinders come on when the surroundings come. But early in the year, you’ve been in practice with nobody there, and all of a sudden you’re smelling the popcorn and people are in the stands. You’ve got to keep your focus. I’m looking for that to see who’s staying on task and what our job is. We’re probably gonna play a bunch of guys in that scrimmage, or the exhibition game, just to continue to see where we’re at. Nothing’s been decided for our opener yet.
Jacob Groves?
one of the things I liked about Jacob is, Jacob has an edge to himself. He’s got an edge that I think fans are gonna really like. The way he competes, his energy. He had a dunk in practice yesterday, it was semi on a player and semi on me. I was standing on the baseline. You thought he was Lorenzo Charles dunking it for the national championship at North Carolina State. That’s how excited he got. I love that passion. I connect and relate with that kind of passion.
But I think Jacob is getting bigger and bigger, he’s darn close to 6’9. He’s a wing, he’s different than Tanner position wise. I think you’re gonna see a guy that’s gonna play a lot in the mix for us and that we’re gonna count on.
This weekend wasn't about 2022 or 2023, but the Sooners were working on 2024. Yep, this is where Porter Moser wants to be. Caught up with 2022 with the three commitments. Feels good about early standing with 2023.
But you can tell Moser knows you hit the top young kids as fast as you can. This will be the class where he first feels like he's at an even level playing field.
St. Rita is Boneman territory. My older brothers grew up playing vs. St. Rita at St. Laurence before we moved away from the Chicago area. Sadly, none of my family is even in the Chicagoland area anymore, so no family visit is planned
***
Here is some of the best of the best from Moser's Zoom last Thursday.
Recruiting challenges? Portal? 2022?
It would have been like it was when I first got the job. We had to sign nine without bringing them to campus. That was as difficult a recruiting situation that I’ve ever been in was getting here and having so many guys already in the portal when Coach Kruger had retired and trying to sign nine to build a Big 12 team. To answer your first part as to what it’s been like in recruiting, because when we got here, just think about from that moment, we had nine spots. I had to build a staff, hire a staff. I’m doing all the things you need to do. I was trying to work out those four guys who were returning. We were so swamped with trying to complete the roster for this year’s team, much less trying to dive into the Class of ’22. At this level, a lot of those guys in the Class of ’22 have been recruited for a year already. Much less even thinking about the Class of ’23. At this level, you’re recruiting the Class of ‘23 that early. It was – there wasn’t enough time in the day. It was non-stop, trying to build relationships, trying to recruit. Then when we were finally able to get guys on campus. That was in June. I think we had somebody on campus every single day during the month of June. I think every day in the month of June either I was gone for the NCAA recruiting period going out. Or if I was home, we had someone on campus. Then July hit, and we were non-stop in July. We were able to see some guys with our own eyes. We were out everywhere. Evaluating, not only talent but character and getting to know guys. And that’s what recruiting is all about, building relationships. It’s been non-stop, thought our staff did a great job basically playing catch-up with the Class of ‘22. We’ll be able to comment more about the ’22 class after Nov. 10 on signing day.
CJ Noland?
It’s been an upward trajectory since he’s gotten here. He’s not alone – that happens to a lot of true freshmen. They don’t know what to expect. They don’t come in the shape that some of the other college athletes are in or that he will be in moving forward. When you’re a sophomore, junior, senior – you know you have to come in great shape. A lot of times freshmen coming from high school don’t know what that is. But there’s always an anxiety with young freshmen. They’re eager, wanna do well. They don’t know what to expect. When you have all those emotions, anxiety and nervousness becomes one of them and you start to overthink and trying to survive. I have to get through this, have to survive. Then there comes a tipping point where survival mode turns into competing mode. And when C.J. Noland got into that competing mode and got into better shape, he has a great way about himself on the floor. What I mean by that is he listens and tries to carry over everything we’re teaching, and that’s refreshing as a coach. He’s hanging onto everything, film sessions, on the court. You know when guys are good listeners when you’re talking to one player, and he’s locked in trying to listen so he doesn’t make that mistake or how he can benefit from that. That’s been C.J. Noland. He’s took a lot of time on his shot. He’s getting in better shape, competing more. He’s getting his athleticism into the game. That’s the biggest difference from the summer. He’s athletic and powerful, but he wasn’t really getting that into the game in the live work, whether it was conditioning or trying to survive and not compete. Now? He’s competing. He’s getting his power and speed into the game. He is having what I would say is a natural progression. I’m glad he’s getting himself into that competing mode because he’s worked himself into someone we’re really going to count on.
Rotations?
We’re still trying to figure that out. These games are to help with that. We are still figuring it out. What have I’ve seen? I’ve seen improvement. We got a ways to go. We have to figure out end of the game lineups as well as beginning of the game lineups. That’s a process for a coach and a staff, to figure out who you are going to have at the end of the game and the last four minutes of the game. We’ve been doing a lot of situations, teaching guys what we want to do at this point, versus the press, whether we’re up or we’re down, all of the sudden they throw something different at us, can we handle changing defenses after a media timeout, all those things you have to throw in your mind.
We’re getting better. I see a willingness to get better. Like I’ve talked to a lot of my peers in the profession, everyone is just at that point where we just really … we feel like we’re not ready, as coaches, you never feel like you are ready for your first game, but we are mentally ready. We just want to start competing and getting better. You learn a lot from your team. When you start going through the real games, you start learning a lot. We’re at that mode as well.
How many guys do you want to play?
The rotations, that’s always the tricky question. Early on, I’d say you are trying to play nine. It’s hard to play 10, 11 or 12. Nine is something … you might play a 10th guy or five or six here. Sometimes late, as you get later in the year and in late conference or NCAA Tournament, sometimes it’s eight. Early on, you will see nine. You may see more in the exhibition game because we’re still trying to sort some things out. When you really start setting your rotation and decide this is it, it’s usually nine for us.
Jalen Hill?
Jalen is an A-plus-plus human being. I love Jalen. He’s one of those guys that you can hang with him off the floor. He’s really starting to get a personality on the floor of it’s OK to be the nicest guy off the floor, but on the floor you have to compete. He’s doing that more consistently. I think he can be an elite level defender. He really picks up stuff defensively. He gets defense. He gets using his length. He’s one of our best rebounders, out to in. He’s a great out to in rebounder. That’s a skill. Sometimes guards on the perimeter, they don’t crash down and rebound down. Jalen crashes down rebounding. He’s getting more confidence off the dribble and getting more confidence to shoot that shot. And we need him to. My vision is to have him a much bigger scoring role as he’s had in the past. The thing I want every day for him – day in and day out – is he has to have his hard hat on and ready to compete and get his physicality. Body-wise, he’s got a high level of body and athleticism. He’s every bit of 6-6, strong, jumps through the roof. He’s got to get that athleticism and presence felt. He has to get his presence felt every time he gets on the floor. And he’s doing that. I’m seeing it more and more every day. He’s a big part of what we’re doing.
Meshing as a team?
You take over a job, sometimes you are inheriting … sometimes you’re not inheriting a full roster. But sometimes it’s nine guys and pretty much a big core. At least those guys know each other. With us having four guys – and one of the four really hasn’t played, Rick hadn’t played so it wasn’t like they had a feel for them on the floor. And then to bring nine new ones in from different backgrounds and places, that’s been the hardest thing. The challenging thing is to continue to bring them together and that takes time. I think we’re doing as good as we can do. We’re spending time off the floor. We’re doing things on the floor. We’re constantly relationship building.
What really brings the team close together is when they have to go through adversity together. Not just the good times, but the tough times – a loss, a tough game. Tough practices. We had a boot camp for that reason, to have them sharing some adversity. That’s when you become closer. And spending time to know each other. I think a team pulling for each other, that culture, is a competitive advantage.
As the year goes on, you get closer and closer together, but that’s a big part of the challenge that we’ve had is not only getting everybody together and playing together, but they haven’t played together. So that’s why we’re excited to play somebody different, too, because we’re gonna start growing and learning as they go.
I can just hear my mentor Rick Majerus — when I took over Loyola, he wrote me a handwritten letter and I still have it, I’ve reviewed it. He goes, ‘Porter, take this. You’re obsessed with the process of it.’ He goes, ‘You’re trying to build a program, not a team. Don’t go too fast.’ And I keep thinking about that because first-year coaches, you want to get everything in by the first day. You want to have everything right and set by the first opening tipoff, and it’s unrealistic.
You’ve got to stay the course and do what you know how to do to build the whole program for the long haul. That’s what we’ve been doing and it’s been a challenge because of so many new guys, new staff, too. I feel like we’ve come a long way, I really have. To think back on our late nights here in the office — they’re still late nights — but the time spent getting here without our families in April and May and just trying to get this all together to where we are now. We’ve come a long way.
I’m excited to take that next step when the games start coming, because you really do take — you better take a giant step forward. That’s the key. You’ll see a handful of teams going backwards when the games come. We want to take a huge step forward of the learning curve, getting together with each other curve as we move forward.
Exhibition game thoughts?
The first part of the question, as we head into the exhibition game, what are we expecting? You’re expecting carry over. You want to see the stuff that you’ve worked on. Is it going to be carrying over? Defensively, Are we playing five guys stopping the ball? Sometimes, all of a sudden the lights come on and everybody’s individual defense. Everything that our defense is based on is five guys trying to stop the ball, everybody has a job. So we’re looking forward to that part of it.
Expecting some nervous energy. First time you’re playing in front of fans. Some nervous energy, to see how much their focus stays on task. Because as you start to get experience, your blinders come on when the surroundings come. But early in the year, you’ve been in practice with nobody there, and all of a sudden you’re smelling the popcorn and people are in the stands. You’ve got to keep your focus. I’m looking for that to see who’s staying on task and what our job is. We’re probably gonna play a bunch of guys in that scrimmage, or the exhibition game, just to continue to see where we’re at. Nothing’s been decided for our opener yet.
Jacob Groves?
one of the things I liked about Jacob is, Jacob has an edge to himself. He’s got an edge that I think fans are gonna really like. The way he competes, his energy. He had a dunk in practice yesterday, it was semi on a player and semi on me. I was standing on the baseline. You thought he was Lorenzo Charles dunking it for the national championship at North Carolina State. That’s how excited he got. I love that passion. I connect and relate with that kind of passion.
But I think Jacob is getting bigger and bigger, he’s darn close to 6’9. He’s a wing, he’s different than Tanner position wise. I think you’re gonna see a guy that’s gonna play a lot in the mix for us and that we’re gonna count on.
