OUInsider - Moser says OU is home
Oklahoma basketball head coach Porter Moser denied having any interest in the Notre Dame head coaching position,
oklahoma.rivals.com
Gotta win to stay out of last.
OU vs. No. 12 KSU, 8 p.m., ESPNU.
Grant Sherfield talked about a team meeting post-KU that sounds like maybe the quiet things were getting said out loud and clearing the air. Maybe?
Porter Moser
I ask why Alabama didn't become a springboard?
"I think we had a lot of guys who played well in that game. We haven't had the consistency across the board. I feel that...I think one of you guys mentioned after the game the other day it seems like one game it's rebounding, one game...last game was the turnovers. We're searching and grinding the guys to find consistency on this team. We're trying to find consistency on guys playing well in terms of together off the bench. Guys off the bench being consistent. That's what we're just trying to grind for. Being more consistent."
Team meeting?
"Just that we've still got to take it one game at a time and we got to put some things together. One of the things that's seemed to happen for us recently is I thought we came out really ready to jump all over Kansas. I think they had four points in the first nine or 10 minutes. And we were up 10-4. But I felt it should have been 16 or 18-4. We call them four-point swings. We had a chance to have a two-on-one and we botched it. It should have just been an easy handoff. We tried for a lob that got blocked. They came back down and score two. That's a four-point swing. We had a lay-up where we could hit Tanner. We drove and took an acrobatic shot and missed. Bad shot. Came down, they scored a lay-up. Those are four-point swings. We counted like six four-point swings. We've got to do better when things aren't going our way. We've seen it snowball on us three games now recently. West Virginia. TCU. And this one. It just kind of snowballed. And we can't be at the 10-minute mark up 10-4 and go in down 13 at the half. We be - at WVU - with four minutes to go in the half be down 26. We've had large runs go against us. We got to be better. I've got to be better about calming them down. I gotta be better at possession by possession, let's not all of a sudden have the huge, quick runs stumble against us. And I felt that way against Kansas. To the point, I thought we regrouped, got to halftime, came out and made them call the timeout in the first two minutes. We cut a 13 point lead to maybe four or five? And then they ended up going on another big run. We've got to really guard against that and just be if the other team's doing well, alright, good possessions. Tight defense. Strong with the ball. You don't need a gamble when another team's on the run. You don't need a bad shot when another team's on a run. That's when you need to have a good possession. Gotta be better at that and I gotta help them get better at that."
KSU?
Lots of shades of Baylor, but he's also put his own flare on what they're doing. They've got two all-league players who are playing really well. Then they've got really good other players who are playing very well. I think they've been really consistent. That's what really sticks out to me is how consistent they've been à la Baylor. Baylor seems to usually be a team that's an older program. They've got it, being consistent. Keyontae Johnson could be up for National Player of the Year, not just Conference Player of the Year. I've seen him when I'm scouting other teams that he has played against. But now that I've locked in on them, he's so powerful. He can shoot it, can post you up, can iso drive you. Just phenomenal, that addition. And they got it late. He's really good. And then Markquis Nowell, a returner to average 20 and seven. He's just so good at distributing the ball, but he can score. He's consistently getting 20 a game and seven assists. Desi Sills is a transfer portal guy who has done really well off the bench. He's got four or five straight double-figure guys. They've got some size and length that are really playing their roles. I think he's got guys playing their roles. I just think Kansas State has been really, really consistent. He does such a nice job, and he's got two – Could be National Player of the Year, could be two Most Improved Player of the Year with Nowell, two first-team all-leaguers. Those two guys, along with how their other guys, are so consistent.
Moser's role in keeping team steady?
I want them looking at me every single day and saying, 'Man, Coach believes we can win every single game we walk into.' Because I do. I really do. Every bone in my body. I prepare like it. My staff prepares like it. Yesterday, we came in and we met yesterday. I walked into that locker room. Everything was what do we need to do better from the Kansas game? What could we have done better? And this is what we have to do to beat Kansas State. It’s not fake. It’s authentic. I really go into every single game and believe it with this group. They walk in and know that my preparation, staff’s preparation. Every belief is 100 percent that we can win. That’s what they have to see out of me every day. We have to help them be more consistent. We have to guard consistently. It starts with me. We’ll continue to push forward.
ND? Losing fan base? (a throwaway part I didn’t really need as it turned out)
I hope not (losing the fans), but I’ll comment on the first thing you said.
I’m a Catholic kid from Chicago. We had a lot of success in the Chicago area with that. I have a lot of respect for that university. With that said, I have no interest. I’ve not pursued it, nor do I have any interest. Oklahoma is my home. The Sooners are my home.
I’m in the beginning process of turning a program around in an era of the transfer portal, of NIL and the Big 12 being in unprecedented territory. Those three and then the COVID extra years. All those colliding and having to rebuild a roster. I’m so committed. I’m home. This place means a lot to me, the people here, the fan base. I’ve spent so much time with the student body, the fan base. So, no, I don’t.
Of course, everywhere you go, you’re going to have people talking. I know that. There is nothing that can be said to me that is not stopping me from my vision and my passion of where I want to go and how I want to look at building this program and winning here. There is nobody who wants to win more than my staff and I. This place – I believe the people here are so special.
I can’t control what reports. I can’t control what is said about rumors about jobs. But I can say, unequivocally, that’s a false report saying I pursued it. Unequivocally. And nor do I want to. I’m home. I’m home. I left home to be at home. Does anybody want to win and wish the results were faster? Of course, I do. But they’re going to come. They’re going to come.
We’re in unprecedented territory trying to build this with all those four things I identified. There’s nothing that has wavered on the vision of where I want to go with this program.
I hope that’s clear.
