Since it's been in my head all day, now it's in yours, ha.
OU at West Virginia, 7 p.m., Saturday, ESPN News/ESPN2.
Porter Moser
I ask about what's the key to keeping dudes fired up?
Belief. Life blood. Every game is a Quad I game from here on out, or almost every game. What we’re trying to play for. But we have to start stacking a couple of wins here. We know that. You play to compete, to move up this time of year. We’re still in the hunt. There are a lot of teams out there that don’t have a shot. We have to play well. We’ve played well. We’ve played poorly. We’ve been on the two ends of the spectrum the last two games. We have to be focused on what we need to do to play on the high end of that spectrum.
Can you pull from last year when made that late run?
"I haven't talked to them about that. In my own mind, though, what I want to talk to them about is I think they start talking like the bubble watch in like November now. The guys read stuff like that. You can't read it. There's gonna be teams right now that aren't in the mix that all of a sudden, four or five wins, they stack up and you're in the mix. And that's the message. Don't read about that. Take care of ourselves. Take care of what's in front of us.
“We really talked about that last year is just trying to win games. Just take care of it - win. Don't listen to any outside noise. What are we doing to get better? And that's been the thrust of what we got to do Obviously our challenge with the schedule. What lies ahead. But with that comes opportunity. You know, every one of these wins will be considered a great resume win. Every one. There's some people out there like they got one shot at a good resume win left and all the eggs are in that basket. And if they lose one of the other ones, it's done. We're not in that boat.
“We got like a brutal schedule. But it's opportunity. It's opportunity. We just have to focus in on ourselves and get better and get better and play well. We're capable of it. We've seen it. We've got to be consistent. That starts with me getting this locker room to believe that."
Jacob Groves, man, what can you do? Five points in last four games?
“It’s funny, I literally just met with him before I walked in here. My message to Jacob was I don’t know if anyone cares more than Jacob. He’s everything you want in a program. He cares about winning. But when you press, it’s human nature. It doesn’t mean he’s selfish. He’s pressing. I’ve gone through that when I played at Creighton. When shooting is one of your No. 1 qualities — he’s got way more qualities than I had. That was like one of my only qualities — you can’t put all of your eggs in the shooting basket. Impact winning in any other ways. Make energy plays. Get a defensive stop, a rebound. Make some other plays and then talk to yourself.
“I think he’s pressing. Man he’s had some big games for us. We need him. Just like anyone, I’ve got to help him try to get out of it. How you do that is get excited about winning plays, not just making shots. How things work is when you start focusing on those, then you make shots. That’s what I want to focus on with Jacob. He wants to win more than anybody in the locker room, and we’ve got to get him playing better and I’ve got to help him through that.”
It's not just Jacob, I ask about how the team falters completely if not hitting shots early?
"I feel that with this group. Every group is different. You coach different. I feel that with this group a lot. There’s a couple of us I’ve got to help with. If they’re not making shots, they’re not being complete. We’ve got to be complete players. Coach Majerus used to call it ‘running down hill.’ It’s easier to run downhill, it’s harder to run uphill. You can’t just be playing defense, doing this/that when you’re running downhill when you’re making shots.
“When you're running uphill, maybe you're struggling with you shot or you're struggling with this, you've still gotta defend. You've still gotta lead. You've still gotta communicate. You've still gotta do all those other things. So to answer you're question, I'm having to coach that more than I have before. I'm coaching some guys like, 'Hey, if your shot is not falling, everything else like your spirit, your defense and your leadership has gotta be there.' And Jalen Hill is a great example of it. Jalen was 0-for-6 last game, but he was still doing some things. His shot was falling against Alabama, but it wasn't (against OSU). He was 0-for-6. But man, you couldn't tell that with Jalen.”
Handling a Thurs practice after bad game Wed night but knowing you have a quick turnaround coming Sat?
Normally, you play Wednesday, then Thursday, you have to practice. But I usually don't have a physical practice. We watch film and we walk through. We got after it yesterday. I wasn't pleased. I wanted to get a better feeling in myself of grit, of our standards and of the way we do things. So we had a physical practice. It wasn't like it was super long, but we went live yesterday defending. I thought it was great. I thought the guys didn't pout. They understood the message. They understood our performance. Now we'll have another good one before we head to West Virginia later today.
OU at West Virginia, 7 p.m., Saturday, ESPN News/ESPN2.
Porter Moser
I ask about what's the key to keeping dudes fired up?
Belief. Life blood. Every game is a Quad I game from here on out, or almost every game. What we’re trying to play for. But we have to start stacking a couple of wins here. We know that. You play to compete, to move up this time of year. We’re still in the hunt. There are a lot of teams out there that don’t have a shot. We have to play well. We’ve played well. We’ve played poorly. We’ve been on the two ends of the spectrum the last two games. We have to be focused on what we need to do to play on the high end of that spectrum.
Can you pull from last year when made that late run?
"I haven't talked to them about that. In my own mind, though, what I want to talk to them about is I think they start talking like the bubble watch in like November now. The guys read stuff like that. You can't read it. There's gonna be teams right now that aren't in the mix that all of a sudden, four or five wins, they stack up and you're in the mix. And that's the message. Don't read about that. Take care of ourselves. Take care of what's in front of us.
“We really talked about that last year is just trying to win games. Just take care of it - win. Don't listen to any outside noise. What are we doing to get better? And that's been the thrust of what we got to do Obviously our challenge with the schedule. What lies ahead. But with that comes opportunity. You know, every one of these wins will be considered a great resume win. Every one. There's some people out there like they got one shot at a good resume win left and all the eggs are in that basket. And if they lose one of the other ones, it's done. We're not in that boat.
“We got like a brutal schedule. But it's opportunity. It's opportunity. We just have to focus in on ourselves and get better and get better and play well. We're capable of it. We've seen it. We've got to be consistent. That starts with me getting this locker room to believe that."
Jacob Groves, man, what can you do? Five points in last four games?
“It’s funny, I literally just met with him before I walked in here. My message to Jacob was I don’t know if anyone cares more than Jacob. He’s everything you want in a program. He cares about winning. But when you press, it’s human nature. It doesn’t mean he’s selfish. He’s pressing. I’ve gone through that when I played at Creighton. When shooting is one of your No. 1 qualities — he’s got way more qualities than I had. That was like one of my only qualities — you can’t put all of your eggs in the shooting basket. Impact winning in any other ways. Make energy plays. Get a defensive stop, a rebound. Make some other plays and then talk to yourself.
“I think he’s pressing. Man he’s had some big games for us. We need him. Just like anyone, I’ve got to help him try to get out of it. How you do that is get excited about winning plays, not just making shots. How things work is when you start focusing on those, then you make shots. That’s what I want to focus on with Jacob. He wants to win more than anybody in the locker room, and we’ve got to get him playing better and I’ve got to help him through that.”
It's not just Jacob, I ask about how the team falters completely if not hitting shots early?
"I feel that with this group. Every group is different. You coach different. I feel that with this group a lot. There’s a couple of us I’ve got to help with. If they’re not making shots, they’re not being complete. We’ve got to be complete players. Coach Majerus used to call it ‘running down hill.’ It’s easier to run downhill, it’s harder to run uphill. You can’t just be playing defense, doing this/that when you’re running downhill when you’re making shots.
“When you're running uphill, maybe you're struggling with you shot or you're struggling with this, you've still gotta defend. You've still gotta lead. You've still gotta communicate. You've still gotta do all those other things. So to answer you're question, I'm having to coach that more than I have before. I'm coaching some guys like, 'Hey, if your shot is not falling, everything else like your spirit, your defense and your leadership has gotta be there.' And Jalen Hill is a great example of it. Jalen was 0-for-6 last game, but he was still doing some things. His shot was falling against Alabama, but it wasn't (against OSU). He was 0-for-6. But man, you couldn't tell that with Jalen.”
Handling a Thurs practice after bad game Wed night but knowing you have a quick turnaround coming Sat?
Normally, you play Wednesday, then Thursday, you have to practice. But I usually don't have a physical practice. We watch film and we walk through. We got after it yesterday. I wasn't pleased. I wanted to get a better feeling in myself of grit, of our standards and of the way we do things. So we had a physical practice. It wasn't like it was super long, but we went live yesterday defending. I thought it was great. I thought the guys didn't pout. They understood the message. They understood our performance. Now we'll have another good one before we head to West Virginia later today.
