Porter Moser shares what Alabama upset means for Oklahoma

Oklahoma defeating Alabama will go down as surprise of the day, simply destroying the No. 2 team in the country. While the Big 12/SEC Challenge has provided a few shock results, none are as impressive as the one in Norman. Head coach Porter Moser has been looking for a quality win this season and now owns one.

Entering Saturday, Oklahoma found themselves as losers of three straight games. Two were blowouts as well, coming up against tough Big 12 opponents twice a week. Moser said his team had a day off this week to hit the reset button. He will be thankful for the move, saying the Sooners were able to move on from the losses.

“When you lose like that, you hear all kind of stuff outside noise,” Moser said. “To come back — we took a well-deserved day off. Got away from it, came back, and kind of just moved on. You asked me what my message was yesterday and I was like ‘we got to move on.’ It was uncharacteristic of us with the fight.”

Oklahoma last played on Tuesday, giving Moser the luxury of taking a day off. Even though Alabama is not a common opponent, Moser was able to have his team prepared and it paid off in a big way.

“Happy” was the word Moser used to describe his emotions. Oklahoma desperately needed this kind of win for multiple reasons. Not just for morale around the program but also to put something impressive on the resume as the Sooners build for an NCAA Tournament spot.

“Just really happy for the guys,” Moser said. “I think they were sick of me saying ‘man, we’re right there.’ I thought they played the right way. I thought they played hard, I thought the crowd was unbelievable… Just really happy for the guys. To bounce back from that, to do this. That’s character, that’s resiliency, that’s togetherness.”

At times, it felt like Oklahoma was not able to miss. Moser saw his team shoot 57.6% from the field and more impressively, 69.2% from behind the three-point line. Long stretches of impressive offensive play were how such a big lead was built and eventually sustained in the second half.

The Big 12 grind will resume shortly in Norman, with a basketball version of Bedlam against Oklahoma State coming to town. Moser will hope Oklahoma can build off the late-season nonconference win and push toward making a run in March.