Oklahoma coach Porter Moser eager to face off with the Big 12's coaching giants
Coaching basketball in the Big 12 Conference can be a daunting proposition.
Two members of the fraternity are already immortalized in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. One of those is in the elite 900-win club. The other has a national championship, and three Final Fours.
All told, Big 12 coaches have won 3,942 games as head coaches, with an aggregate winning percentage of .658. They’ve coached in 93 NCAA Tournaments, advanced to 39 Sweet Sixteens, eight Final Fours five National Championship Games and own two NCAA Championships.
They’ve also won two NITs, a CBI, finished runner-up in the NAIA and own a junior college national championship.
That’s what new Oklahoma coach Porter Moser signed up for when he left Loyola Chicago and joined the Big 12.
“I look forward to it,” Moser said, “because I’ve been on that stage, too. And I’m not going to take a backseat — and I think there are some of the best coaches in this league, top to bottom.”
Moser definitely need not shy away from the fact that his Ramblers unexpectedly made it to the Final Four in 2018, to the Sweet Sixteen this year and even own a trophy earned in the College Basketball Invitational.
But as impressive as that is, it’s actually on the low end of the resumes submitted by other Big 12 coaches.
Baylor’s Scott Drew just won a national championship, joining Kansas’ Bill Self as Big 12 coaches with national titles. West Virginia’s Bob Huggins’ most recent win was his 900th, making him just the sixth Division I coach to reach that milestone alongside Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun, Roy Williams and Bobby Knight.
Every current Big 12 head coach has a winning record in his career — even new Texas Tech head man Mark Adams, who’s only been a Division I assistant since 2015 but had outrageous success as a head coach in the NAIA, Division II and junior college ranks.
New Texas coach Chris Beard coached in a national title game (at Texas Tech). So did Kansas State’s Bruce Weber (at Illinois). Within the last 10 years, Drew and TCU’s Jamie Dixon led their teams to titles in the NIT.
“Some of the best coaches,” Moser said. “And we’re going to have to build it. We’re going to have to get in here and finish out the roster. We have to develop the players that are coming back, continue to develop the players that are coming back.
“But no question about the challenge, no question about how good the Big 12 is. Some established programs — as we just saw one win a national championship. But that’s the fun of it. That’s the fun of it. That’s what’s drawn me to be here, to play at the highest level and win the right way.”
Moser said he removed the notion — within his own locker room, at least — that Loyola Chicago was “punching above its weight” with its Cinderella NCAA Tournament runs.
“We didn’t feel that way,” Moser said. “You know, we felt we could beat anybody in the country. But that took time.”
Moser emphasized that restocking the OU roster is the immediate task, but he said now that he’s coaching against some of the game’s giants in the Big 12, he wants the Sooners to feel like they belong.
“It’s about building that same culture and belief in your locker room,” he said, “that you don’t feel like you’re punching above the weight.”
“You know, the Big 12 is — it just won the National Championship — the best conference in the country. Seven out of 10 went to the tournament. I mean, it’s a standard of excellence. So we’ve got to be ready to punch that weight, and we’ve got to develop that roster, and we will do that.”
