OU basketball ready for another showdown with Georgia

Every coach wants it, but OU head coach Porter Moser knows it. It’s March, and it’s time to be playing your best basketball of the season.

The Sooners are. Period. Backs against the wall, and they responded in the biggest positive way ever. Winning three of the last five, all Quad 1 wins. The two losses by a combined four points against solid locks for the tournament.

Play your way in, and that’s what OU has attempted to do after scuffling along at 16-10 just three weeks ago.

We won’t call it Revenge Week or anything like that, but the Sooners do have some opportunities to right some wrongs.

It starts Wednesday night against Georgia to open the SEC Tournament from Nashville. UGA took down OU in the third conference game of the season two months ago.

There is no bubble watch for Georgia, though. The Dawgs went from 2-1 to 4-10 in conference before catching fire during a four-game winning streak.

“They’re also playing their best basketball of the year,” Moser said. “I talk about our run of games, they just went on — they just won four in a row, four in a row in the SEC. I think Silas DeMary, their point guard, is really — in these last five games, he’s up six points in his point average. He’s averaged almost 19 a game in this stretch. He is really playing at a high, high level.

“They rebound so well. They’re so big and physical. They’re just playing at a high clip, very, very confident. But the first game, we’re a different team than the first day we played ’em.”

Different team and a different Jeremiah Fears. OU’s star freshman was still learning the SEC ropes in Athens two months ago.

You might remember that evening, two points. Two. Fears has been pivotal in the charge for the Sooners during the last three weeks.

He’ll need to be that star again in Nashville.

“Just continue to keep going,” Fears said. “My teammates and coaches did a great job of telling me to keep a next-game mentality, and I think I did a great job of just continuing to move forward, and looking forward to the next game.”

Second shift stars

Moser has talked the last couple of seasons about the second shift. Don’t call them subs, call them the second shift.

Never has OU needed more from the second shift than last Saturday at Texas without Sam Godwin. Glenn Taylor and Luke Northweather couldn’t have delivered any better.

Both scored 10 points, both had their moments where they were crucial to OU earning the victory. They’ll need that duo and a whole lot more throughout this week.

“Huge,” Moser said. “To have Luke come in and give you 10. If you would’ve said Luke was gonna come in off the bench and give you 10 and not take a 3 — I don’t know what I would’ve said that I can say on air — I think he was aggressive, confident. Got offensive rebounds, finished in there. Luke was great.

“Glenn Taylor, he came in off the second shift and got us 10. Kobe came off the second shift, had five assists I think in the first half. Mo’s been second shift and he’s stepped up. He made a lot of energy plays. Dayton constantly has been that guy. So you need that. I’ve said it a lot: To win in this league, you’ve gotta have multiple guys producing.”

If OU can get by UGA, another chance to right a wrong awaits. The Sooners would play sixth-seeded Kentucky on Thursday night.