Familiar Foe Lies In Oklahoma's Way as Porter Moser Looks to Recapture Tournament Magic
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It’s officially do or die for Porter Moser’s Oklahoma Sooners.
Tough sledding in Big 12 play has the Sooners well off the NCAA Tournament bubble.
OU beat TCU in its season finale to end the regular season 15-16 overall and 5-13 in Big 12 play.
Crucially, the Sooners are 6-12 in Quadrant 1 games, the sport’s lifeblood according to NCAA Tournament bracketologists.
Realistically there’s one path forward for OU — win the Big 12 Tournament.
Standing in Oklahoma’s way is a rivalry matchup with Oklahoma State.
Mike Boynton’s Cowboys dominated the Sooners across two regular season games, winning the two meetings by a combined 26 points.
OSU big men Kalib Boone and Moussa Cisse were a major headache for Oklahoma, taking advantage of the size advantage down low.
Boone was especially good, scoring 33 points on 15-of-21 shooting against OU in the regular season, and he’s primed to be a problem again for Tanner Groves and Sam Godwin.
“They’ve got some length and athleticism in there,” Moser said on Monday. “They’ve played very well. Those guys have had great years. Cisse, when he’s been in there, has been really good. Boone, an all-league player.
“… Their length and athleticism has been a big part of them. I really think that’s a big strength of theirs. We’ve got to combat it.”
But Groves will enter the contest with plenty of confidence, coming off one of his best performances of the season.
On Senior Day, Groves paced the Sooners with 23 points, 10 rebounds and a block this past Saturday against TCU.
Oklahoma will hope Groves can carry momentum into Wednesday from the weekend, as OU will need him to upend the Cowboys and live to see another day.
“Cisse and Boone are really great players, and we respect them,” OU forward Jalen Hill said. “But at the end of the day, we know we've got to come to compete. And the last two times that me and Tanner played them, we had to play to our best of our games.
“I feel like if we can get Tanner to play how he played last game, I think we have a great chance.”
As dominant as Oklahoma State’s bigs were against Oklahoma in the regular season, the Cowboys will be missing a key piece on Wednesday night in Kansas City.
Avery Anderson, OSU’s defensive stopper, won’t take the floor inside the T-Mobile Center after his season was cut short due to an injury.
Boynton deployed Anderson on Grant Sherfield in the regular season, helping to bottle up OU’s leading scorer.
Across the two games, Sherfield scored 29 points on a dismal 9-of-25 shooting, including connecting on just 4-of-14 shots from 3-point range.
The absence of Anderson will make life easier on Sherfield, but Moser is still wary of the defensive challenge the Cowboys pose.
"I just think defensively they just play so hard. They're long. He's recruited to the athleticism and length to it,” Moser said. “… OSU gets their athletic ability and length into the game. They got three guys in the top five shot blockers in the league. They got all defensive team players. They really do a good job and they get that into the game."
Oklahoma will likely need to bottle up Bryce Thompson as well to quell the Cowboy threat.
The former 5-star recruit exploded for 19 points in OSU’s second half onslaught when the two teams met for the first time this season in Stillwater, and Thompson’s only become a more central piece to the Oklahoma State offense since Anderson went down.
“Bryce has taken his game to a new level,” Moser said. “That's what you hope to do. You hope your other players when you have an injury, step up their game and I've really seen Bryce step his game up.”
A win on Wednesday would set up a matchup with Texas, but Oklahoma can only afford to take things one game at a time.
Bedlam Round 3 is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Kansas City, and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.
“It's March, so anything can happen now,” Hill said. “Hopefully we can make a run and get our name in the conversation.
“Hopefully we can get in the tournament somehow.”
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