How Bedlam win has OU basketball 'back to chasing' with road game at Iowa State
NORMAN — Complacency isn’t hard to come by in college basketball.
It’d be easy for OU, which closed the Big 12 Bedlam chapter last Saturday on the road with a buzzer beater in overtime, to over celebrate and lose sight of its bigger goals. But head coach Porter Moser has coached teams that have made NCAA Tournament runs and knows what it takes to build momentum and stay on track in February and March.
“The guys were pretty excited,” Moser said Tuesday. “But we had a day off and we really talked yesterday about putting the foot on the gas pedal and being hungrier and not letting complacency and satisfaction slip in. I thought we had a great practice yesterday. But we were intentional with talking about it and that, man, that was a much-needed great win in a great environment against a team that was playing really well in a rivalry game.
“So there were so many things that the guys were feeling great about and they should. I don't want to ever take joy out of winning. … (It’s) back to chasing and we’ve got to prepare for Iowa State.”
More: How did Javian McCollum win Bedlam for OU? With 'patented move' his old coach saw coming
The Sooners defeated the Cyclones 71-63 on Jan. 6 in Norman, but T.J. Otzelberger’s No. 8-ranked group has looked different of late. Iowa State is 10-3 since that meeting with wins over then-No. 2 Houston and then-No. 7 Kansas.
The Cyclones have allowed just 66.5 points per game in conference play and are forcing 16.6 turnovers per game, which leads the Big 12. Iowa State is also 16-0 at Hilton Coliseum this season.
While Moser preaches not getting too high or too low after wins and losses, sometimes wins like the one OU pulled away with in Stillwater ignite runs down the stretch. A buzzword in the Sooners’ locker room all season has been resiliency, which Moser is seeing translate to comeback wins and turn into confidence.
OU trailed Oklahoma State for over 34 minutes and was down as much as 11 before storming back.
“Sometimes it's always hindsight to say that kickstarted but I can tell you this, big wins in February launch confidence,” Moser said. “We all know you need to log some wins and logging that win was really big for our conference race, for everything and for a lot of reasons. There's no doubt that winning and finding ways to win (launches confidence).”
There are no weeks off playing in what is widely regarded as the strongest league top to bottom nationally. In ESPN insider Joe Lunardi’s latest bracketology Tuesday, he picked nine Big 12 teams to make March Madness.
The Sooners were a No. 8 seed.
Following Clemson coach Brad Brownell’s comments Monday about the Big 12 being able to “manipulate” the NET rankings due to a weak nonconference schedule, Moser doubled down on the strength of the league.
“We're competing against the best in the country,” Moser said. “In our own conference, out of conference, we played (North) Carolina. In conference we're playing all the time, you know, I don't know if anybody in the country has a five game stretch like we do. I mean, I'm looking at all these bubble-watching (teams). … The guys have a confidence that if we're guarding and doing the things we can do, we can compete against the best in the country.
“Your eyes don't lie. The numbers don't lie. It's not even close. This league is unbelievable.”
The Sooners (19-8, 7-7 Big 12) will need to use both their confidence coming off a big win and the intentionality Moser speaks about against the No. 8 Cyclones (21-6, 10-4) at 7 p.m. Wednesday on the road on ESPN+.
More: How OU basketball aimed to 'get fresh' in week off leading into Bedlam vs. Oklahoma State
Porter Moser wants court storming to stop
After a collision involving Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark on Jan. 21, Moser insisted something had to be done regarding court storming and the safety of players.
Now following another incident which left Duke’s Kyle Filipowski injured during a court storming after Duke’s loss to Wake Forest last Saturday, Moser has shifted gears.
“I'm seeing it too often. It's got to stop,” Moser said. “You see some of the entitlement of what the people that storm the court can do. Poking at them and it's just, there's no room for it. I mean, what makes the sport great is that it's right on top of you but there's got to be a boundary now. There's got to be a boundary and I think you'll see steps being taken now.
“A couple of months ago, I was like, how can we make this work? I think I’ve changed my tune. I think we’re just going to have to eliminate them.”
OU at No. 8 Iowa State
TIPOFF: 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa (ESPN+)
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OU men's basketball shifts focus from Bedlam win to Iowa State
