Back to McCasland for OU basketball, back to fundamentals

A little bit of lessons learned for OU basketball last weekend. But, hey, you would rather that lesson happens in early November instead of conference play or the NCAA Tournament.

OU definitely saw a very familiar problem rear its ugly head once again in terms of the lack of size. Lack of size but a little bit of a lack of want-to as well. The latter? That’s something that does not sit well with Porter Moser.

A 15-point loss, but now OU is back home. Not just home, but time for the McCasland Field House event.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-3) at OU (1-1)
When: 7 p.m.
TV: SEC Network+

Who is going to help get everything back on track? One reason OU got the experienced guys in the transfer portal. Time for Nijel Pack and Xzayvier Brown to do their thing.

“Sometimes young people don’t want to hear the truth,” Moser said. “When you got leaders that it starts with them saying the truth is we just pounded physically. There is no tactical thing about the rebounding part of that. Body on a body and gotta block them out. Or you have to go get it. That was a big disparity that.

“I want Nijel Pack, X-Brown, all guys to step in confidently with every shot. If two guys are flying at you, one more. That’s a fine line to get across as a coach. I do not want them to hesitate. I don’t want them to think I don’t want them to shoot because I do, I need them to. Have to understand that part of great basketball is passing up an OK shot for a better one.

“We’re going to get to that, because we’ve had really good, responsive, veteran guys who got it and came out of a film session. Same thing with the coaches; we’ve got to be able to handle the truth. The truth is we got out-physical’d. That starts with me and setting the tone.”

Waking up Mr. Rogers

OK, now Kai Rogers knows what college basketball is all about. He fought back from the knee injury but was rudely introduced.

Time to bounce back… and get healthy.

“His first game, because he missed the first game, his first game we’re asking him to guard an All-American veteran,” Moser told SoonerScoop. “Welcome to college basketball, Kai. He really was; he had to do that, so it was a big challenge. He’s got to just, every day, come with his hardhat on, his notebook and ready to learn and ready to make mistakes out of aggression.

“That’s my biggest message to him: If you make mistakes, make it out of aggression. We’ll figure the rest out. Just come in physical, (with a) motor and make those kinds of mistakes, and it’s common for guys to make mistakes out of they’re thinking too much; it’s the first time they’re on the stage. That’s common. I got to help Kai be uncommon and understand it’s OK to make mistakes out of just aggression.”

Rogers scored zero points in six minutes.

Final word

“If you remember the genesis of it, I remember coming to a volleyball game here and looking up at Alvan Adams’ name, and I’m looking around—some legendary guys up here. I’m like, how cool would this be? I’m always trying as hard as I can to get a home-court atmosphere with a hard place to play, and I’m like—well, that’s how it was started two years ago. But this year I’m excited. The first McCasland game, I’ve gotten to know the grandson and what they’ve done for the University of Oklahoma, the McCasland name and also have the students being so close to over to me and everything and also playing here. I just think it’s a win-win, great atmosphere. I hope it’s a win-win-win after the game.”