Oklahoma Must Correct Turnover Issues to Upset Iowa State

The Sooners will have a great chance to rebound from their first Big 12 loss of the season when OU hosts the No. 11 Cyclones on Saturday.

Oklahoma returns home with a chance to rebound, but the road ahead doesn’t get any easier.

Fresh off their first Big 12 loss of the season, Porter Moser’s Sooners (11-3, 1-1 Big 12) will host the No. 11-ranked Iowa State Cyclones (12-1, 1-1).

OU has fallen twice before this season, but Moser said he’s been pleased with the response of the team both times.

On Saturday afternoon, the Sooners will again have to do a good job of internalizing what exactly went wrong against the Baylor Bears, as one of the biggest surprises in all of college basketball walks into the Lloyd Noble Center in Iowa State.

“This league… We’re going to have setbacks,” Moser said during a Zoom press conference on Friday. “You’ve got to respond, you’ve got to get better. That’s the main message is to know the why.

“We’ve got to take care of the ball, we’ve got to rebound better. I’ve been notorious, my teams, at taking care of the ball. We have high assists, low turnovers. A little bit of it is we’re trying so hard. Guys want to do well and they’re just forcing a couple things.”

This season, however, Moser’s squad is struggling to take care of the basketball.

After surrendering 17 turnovers on Tuesday night to Baylor, OU is now coughing the ball up 14.4 times per game, tied for No. 270 in the country.

The Cyclones will provide a tough test for the Sooners, as Iowa State currently ranks 12th in the country in turnovers forced per game, forcing opponents into 18.4 mistakes each contest.

“They put tremendous ball pressure … they make every catch hard,” Moser said. “You have to fundamentally set up your catches, set up your handoffs. You have to fundamentally know how to attack a ball screen. They are elite.

“… If you drive it, they are flooding the ball. You have to be really disciplined to kick it, space it, get them moving. They are well scouted, they are well coached, they play tremendous defense. They check a lot of boxes defensively.”

Thankfully for the Sooners, they just got done with another one of the best defenses in the country in Baylor, something veteran guard Jordan Goldwire said should make things a bit easier to digest against the Cyclones.

“They try to deny passing lanes and try to make it difficult for you to run your offense,” Goldwire said during a Zoom press conference on Friday. “We just played a game at Baylor where they tried to do the same thing, so I think that game kind of helped us prepare for this one.

“I’m trying to just get into our offense and, like I said, take what the defense gives me. I'm trying not to get too sped up and just stay poised. I think that's going to be the key to the game, try to limit our turnovers."

But even if there are tough stretches for Oklahoma on Saturday, the Sooners showed plenty of fight in Waco.

Despite trailing by double-digits at one point in both the first and the second halves against Baylor, OU never panicked.

The Sooners continued to run their offense, chipping away at the Bears’ lead and OU was ultimately able to pull within five points with just under a minute left in the game.

Moser said the poise showed during the worst stretched of play against Baylor will help give the Sooners an extra level of confidence as the Sooners continue to battle through the Big 12 slate.

“(It) gives you confidence in doing the right thing,” Moser said. “If there’s 10 minutes, that’s a world of time. There are no 10-point shots. It’s about good possessions and getting stops.

“I thought we did that, with the exception of the turnovers…. But it gives you confidence to just stay with it.”

If Oklahoma can rebound on Saturday afternoon, the Sooners will notch their third ranked win of the season, a fantastic start to the Moser era in Norman.

OU will get their first crack at Iowa State inside the Lloyd Noble Center at 5 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on ESPNU.


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Ryan Chapman
RYAN CHAPMAN

Ryan is managing editor at Sooners On SI and covers a number of sports in and around Norman and Oklahoma City. Working both as a journalist and a sports talk radio host, Ryan has covered the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma City Thunder, the United States Men’s National Soccer Team, the Oklahoma City Energy and more. Since 2019, Ryan has simultaneously pursued a career as both a writer and a sports talk radio host, working for the Flagship for Oklahoma sports, 107.7 The Franchise, as well as AllSooners.com. Ryan serves as a contributor to The Franchise’s website, TheFranchiseOK.com, which was recognized as having the “Best Website” in 2022 by the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters. Ryan holds an associate’s degree in Journalism from Oklahoma City Community College in Oklahoma City, OK.