Porter Moser identifies biggest issue with Oklahoma this season

Oklahoma dropped their second straight, both of which came at home, and the fourth of the last six on Saturday. Of all the reasons that led them to falter again, Porter Moser said it comes from a lack of both discipline and leadership from his team, including on the defensive end.

Moser assessed the 85-84 loss for the No. 11 Sooners to No. 20 Texas Tech during his postgame press conference. He started with his issues with their defense as he felt like they didn’t have the effort or attention to detail that was necessary for them to succeed.

“It’s our issue with this team,” said Moser. “We’ve got a certain some of us that take the foot off the gas defensively.”

“I tip my hat off to Chance McMillan. I thought he had a career night. He was hitting flying shots into the corner. He got one off a re-screen on an end out,” Moser said. “You’ve just got to be down and ready. You know what we’re going to do. They hit on a low action in the far corner against their bench – stuff that we’ve gone over.”

The Red Raiders came to Norman and had one of their best scoring outings of the season with 85 points on 52.6% shooting and just a hair under 40% from three. That included a career-day from McMillan off the bench as he scored 27 points in 32 minutes by shooting 10-13 (76.9%) from the field and 6-8 (75%) from deep. He also finished second on the team in rebounds with eight.

That’s not all for the lack of composure from the Sooners, though. Moser recalled the final possessions of the first half that allowed Texas Tech to cut their lead down to one because of a lack of discipline regarding the clock, even though it was something they had discussed right before the possession.

“I don’t know if any of you guys have thought of this but, trust me, it’s bothering me so much,” Moser said. “They were at the free throw. We were like ‘Last shot! Start the action at 10’. We go down the other end. They start the action at 19. We’re screaming ‘Hold up! Last shot’. We didn’t. They come down, get fouled, make two free throws.”

“That stuff, leadership stuff?” Moser said. “That’s a complete mental breakdown.”

In a game with swings in both directions, Oklahoma had to feel good after taking their largest lead of nine with 7:30 to go. However, from that moment on, Texas Tech closed on a 26-16 run to take it by one.

Games, especially in the Big 12, can come down to the thinnest of margins between wins and losses. With that in mind, Moser hopes they’ll all clean it up in order to overcome this skid that has put Oklahoma below .500 in conference play.

“Everything matters when it’s a one-point loss. Everything matters when it’s a one-point loss,” said Moser.

“That starts with me. We’ve obviously not coached well enough – but we sat there and talked about that,” Moser said. “Everything matters, man. Everything matters.”