Oklahoma men’s basketball has some major issues…….

Porter Moser better get it done or he is toast

“The time table is not long and the seat could become a hot one in a short time”

What does a major college men’s basketball program do when the team is not winning enough; the facilities are below standards in comparison with other schools of the league and national status; and the current head coach is not recruiting enough talent to win and those that are good move on to another program after a year or two?  Will the program improve or continue to stagnate? Or will it get worse? Maybe rock bottom is the state of the program today?  Just take a gander at the Big 12 standings.  These questions will need to be addressed by the Oklahoma athletic director Joe Castiglione once the last dribble of this inconsistent season has been taken in a few weeks.

Let us take a hard look at head coach Porter Moser.  With a very successful run at Loyola Chicago, Moser took the Sooner job two years ago.  Now in his second season in Norman  going 31-27,  along with a 9-19 conference record going to play Texas in Austin Saturday, that is not good.  Is it good enough for Castiglione to want him back in 2023-2024, the 2nd to last year for OU in the Big 12 conference?  It is ironic that for basketball, Moser’s team will have have a more difficult season next year in the final year of the Big 12 than when OU joins the SEC in 2024-2025.  The Big 12 is the top conference in the country. Is Moser the top coach OU can get to lead the program?  The wins next year will be just as difficult to come by as the transition will take place for the SEC. Can Moser have the Sooners going in a positive direction quickly, or will if continue to be on the path that has consumed the team the past two years?   Moser, if not now, will be skating on slick hardwood in the Lloyd Noble if things do not improve.  Survival is not a given for this coach. The time table is not long and the seat could become a hot one in a short time.

Moser has had issues with players.  With former coach Lonnie Kruger’s best players leaving the program when he became coach, the exodus continued after his first year.  Can anyone say it will be any different after this season?  I cannot.  With the fact the the players recruited to play for Moser are not of the highest level, the team is near or on the bottom of the conference.  Talent and standings are totally related. No one questions Mosers coaching abilities.  But as we know, coaching skills and game planning is not all there is to having a winning team or program  Does Moser really  know what it will take to move OU up the ranking ladder?  Maybe not. 

With his style of team play, it takes more than months to develop his game play and a turn over of players every year is not a winning formula.  At Loyola he has a senior team when he went to the Final Four, something that cannot and will not be done at a place like Oklahoma.  Oklahoma basketball is big league and Loyola is not.  What Moser is trying to do at OU is a losing proposition.  It just will not work for the Sooners.  At the Big 12 level, and the SEC level, freshmen, the best ones, play one season, two at most before then move on to the NBA. I am not saying that OU has that quality of player on campus, but I guarantee that the better players on roster still have aspirations of a professional career and they will do anything to achieve that goal, even if it requires to enter the portal and move elsewhere.  That is what the is happening under Moser.

With the old Lloyd Noble Center as the home hardwood, OU will not bring the top recruits to play for Moser either.  Not a dump, but nowhere close to being a “better” venue in the league, the LNC  was never a basketball first venue.  That has to change. The house that Adam built, the LNC has seen it’s days. 

With the fact that the Athletic Department at OU not emphasizing the need for a new place to play and without the funds to build a new facility, OU’s basketball men’s team is in a losing situation.  Dispute it or not, the standards of the Sooners in this important sport are not as high as they should be and the fact that OU is still a football only school, the success of softball and some minor sports are just a side note in the financial support of Sooner athletics. (Still waiting for that new softball facility and the baseball park is a dump).  The lack of support for OU’s athletic department has not been advantageous to Porter Moser.  (I still wonder if the coach from West Texas felt that lack of support in the finality of his move.)

My feeling is that OU will keep Porter Moser for at least the next two seasons and without a major climb for the Sooners in their conference win/loss record, this coach will not be around for the Sooners 2025-2026 season.

That is what I think sports fans.

Feature photo:  Syndication: The Oklahoman…….Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser smiles at referees in the second half during a basketball game between The Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and Kansas State Wildcats at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Okla., Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023. Ou Vs Kstate