OU Basketball: Oklahoma Coach Porter Moser Set for Return to College Station

Long before arriving in Norman, Porter Moser learned the art of saying “Gig’em.”

Moser, Oklahoma’s coach since 2021, began his coaching career at Texas A&M in 1991. He spent four seasons there as a graduate assistant before spending one year at Milwaukee, ultimately returning to College Station in 1996 and spending two more seasons there.

But Texas A&M was more than just his first coaching gig. It’s where his family life started.

Moser met his wife, Megan, in College Station. Megan worked at The Tap, a well-known bar in the town right across the street from where Moser lived.

One night, Moser stepped into the bar and met his future wife.

“Met the old fashioned way,” Moser said. “We didn’t have Match.com or whatever the hell it’s called. Real romantic story, but that’s what it was.”

Though Moser’s a Midwest guy, originally from Naperville, IL, the coach remembers his time in the Brazos Valley fondly.

In addition to meeting his wife, Moser said he and Megan made several lifelong friends in College Station. They also found several restaurants that they became regulars at, Moser citing Wings N’ More and Koppe Bridge Bar & Grill as his favorites.

On the court, Moser was part of a staff that led Texas A&M to the National Invitational Tournament in 1994, breaking the Aggies’ seven-year postseason drought.

"Yeah, fond memories there," Moser said. "I spent seven years there and met a lot of friends that actually have reached out and are coming to the game."

But as fondly as Moser remembers his time in College Station, his mind is focused elsewhere: on beating his old squad.

“My mind's been on the Texas A&M basketball team and the last game we played and things we're gonna do this game,” Moser said.

The Aggies are OU’s first repeat opponent of the 2024-25 season.

In the first meeting, in Norman, the Sooners collapsed. After holding an 18-point lead in the second half, they allowed Texas A&M to storm back and ultimately win 80-78.

OU committed 18 turnovers in the loss, and the Aggies notched 30 points off of those miscues.

Moser believes he learned much about the Aggies — and his own team — in their first meeting.

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“(Coach) Buzz (Williams)’s teams, and we saw it firsthand, his culture of how physical they play,” Moser said. “They do just a really good job at it. They rotate. They scramble. They play so hard, and then they rebound.”

That loss to A&M was OU’s second in a four-game slide to begin conference play. The Sooners (15-4, 2-4 SEC) have won two games in a row, though, beating South Carolina and Arkansas.

Though not perfect outings, Moser stressed that his team’s efforts were more complete, particularly OU’s 65-62 win against the Razorbacks in Fayetteville.

“To fight back in that atmosphere, down six, those are the kind of things you have to do,” Moser said. “I thought there were contributions from everybody, and I thought we played better winning basketball.”

Though any trip back to College Station is special for Moser, he’s done his best to block those memories out — a win against the Aggies would be monumental.

No. 13 A&M is 15-5 and 4-3 in league play. The Aggies are ranked No. 12 in the NET rankings, so a win in College Station would go down as an upper Quad 1 victory.

“We have to put some of these in the bank,” Moser said. “They’re physical, grown men, and then they play that way. They get strength into their game.”

Tuesday's game will begin at 8 p.m.