Oklahoma's Porter Moser Frustrated With Selection Committee's Message About Scheduling

Porter Moser described getting left out of the NCAA Tournament as a “gut punch.”

His Oklahoma team had forces itself firmly back onto the bubble with an upset win over Baylor, who the Selection Committee named as a 1-seed, but the Sooners finished one game short.

Virginia Tech’s surprise victory in the ACC Tournament and Richmond’s upset of Davidson to take the Atlantic 10’s automatic bid proved to be too much for OU to overcome, and Moser’s team finished as the second team out of the field.

“Our hearts were on going to the NCAA Tournament,” Moser said during a Zoom press conference on Monday ahead of OU’s NIT opener on Tuesday. “… When you are sitting there and the final name goes up and you’re not up there, that’s a hard feeling when you invest so much.”

And while the Sooners’ tournament dreams were just hanging by a thread, there was still frustration that teams like Notre Dame and Rutgers, who were named in the First Four and will face off to take an 11-seed into the Big Dance, made the cut over OU.

Oklahoma (18-15 overall) finished as the No. 39-rated team in the NCAA NET rankings. The NET rankings were designed as a replacement to RPI, which the Selection Committee can use to evaluate a team’s strength of record. Notre Dame (21-10) finished as the No. 53 team in the NET rankings, and Rutgers (18-13) slid into the tournament field with the 77th NET ranking in the country.

Despite OU’s metrics, such as the NET ranking and strength of schedule, being much better than that of Notre Dame or Rutgers, the NCAA Committee deemed the Sooners unworthy of a tournament bid due to their performances in the biggest games of the year.

"A lot of Quad 1 opportunities to win games (for Oklahoma), and simply weren't able to win enough to get into the bracket," NCAA Selection Committee Chair Tom Burnett told ESPN's Holly Rowe on Sunday evening. "That's just going to happen year to year."

A Quadrant 1 win is a victory over a team ranked Nos. 1-30 in the NET rankings at home, over a team Nos. 1-50 on a neutral court, or Nos. 1-75 on the road.

The Sooners were 4-12 in such games, notching wins over Baylor and Arkansas on neutral floors, Texas Tech at home and Kansas State on the road.

Rutgers finished 6-6 in Quad 1 contests, and Notre Dame was 2-8 in Quad 1 games.

Oklahoma had “a lot of Quad 1 opportunities” simply because it plays in the Big 12 Gauntlet.

The conference sent six teams to the NCAA Tournament, with Kansas and Baylor earning 1-seeds. Oklahoma State, though ineligible to play in the postseason, finished ranked No. 51 in the NET. Kansas State and West Virginia weren’t far behind, ending the year at No. 74 and No. 78 in the NET respectively.

“I think it’s hard to just simply quantify a Quad 1 win,” Moser said when asked if putting together a tough schedule is detrimental to a team's tournament chances. “If you beat a team that’s ranked 75th, that’s a Quad 1. If you bet Baylor and their ranked second, that’s a Quad 1. Seventy-fifth on the road and you beat Baylor, those are looked at the same, the way they told us.

“We had a lot of opportunities for Quad 1 wins. You’re at Auburn when they’re No. 1, you’re at Baylor when they’re No. 1, you’re at Texas Tech and they have one of the longest home-court winning streaks, you’re at Texas, you’re at Kansas, you’re at Iowa State. Those (are) Quad 1s, so yeah there’s a lot of opportunities but I think there’s got to be some kind of balance.”

Moser said after the season he’ll take a step back and evaluate every aspect of the program, as he does at the end of every year, but missing the tournament due to playing too many Quad 1 games may have an impact on future scheduling.

“If they’re saying we had too many Quad 1 opportunities and some people had 17, 18 Quad 3 and 4 opportunities, it is something to think about with scheduling,” Moser said. “What are they really valuing? If you play too many Quad 1 games and lose them, does that hurt you?”

Ultimately, Moser said the Sooners will look back and wish they could have gotten an extra lift in any number of the one-possession games they lost this season, but the frustration from the reason the Selection Committee gave for OU’s seclusion from the tournament remains.

All Oklahoma can do now, Moser said, is focus on the NIT where OU can prove a point to the Selection Committee.

“You can be mad at people for not being selected, or you can prove them wrong,” Moser said. “I choose to prepare, to fight, to go into this tournament trying to prove people wrong. That’s how I’m choosing it and I want players to follow my lead.”

The first round matchup between Oklahoma and Missouri State is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday night, and the Sooners will host the contest inside the Lloyd Noble Center.

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