OU toughness to be tested against Texas A&M

OU head coach Porter Moser wasn’t about any playful banter. All he remembers of recent days is ’72 hours being pissed about rebounding.’

That’s what it has been like for the Sooners since getting pounded 107-79 on Saturday night at Alabama. You could sense OU losing its first game of the season, but not like that.

Not by allowing 51 rebounds, 22 on the offensive end. That’s not going to fly against Bama and won’t fly against the best of the loaded rest of the SEC.

Guard Duke Miles said the team was out of character Saturday night. Well, OU has a massive chance to get right once again.

But it’s going to take some toughness. Because as good as the Crimson Tide are at attacking the glass? The Aggies are actually better.

No. 9/10 Texas A&M is the best offensive rebounding team in the country. Bow up, box out and make it happen.

Attack the glass

“A&M is literally the best in the country,” Moser said. “He coaches them up, Buzz (Williams) coaches them up that they go so relentless. And they all go. It’s not like you’re just worried about three guys; they all go. You got to—it’s a relentlessness. Got to go get it. You got to go get it. That’s a thing that really, obviously, hurt us against Alabama that we’ve got to be ready for against A&M.”

Don’t point the fingers at the big guys, either. It’s going to be up to guys like Miles and Kobe Elvis to get in the trenches.

The only way this works is with a team effort.

“The guards got to have more,” Moser told SoonerScoop. “Everyone’s got to help. You know, you can’t play 13 minutes and have one rebound. You can’t. And we’ve called guys out. We’ve called guys out. We’ve challenged them.

“You can’t play these kinds of minutes and not get rebounds. Guards—every guard is included in that. (Rick) Majerus had a big thing: Rebound down. That’s for the guards’ mentality. You’re on the perimeter, you can’t just sit there and watch. You got to look, box out, then rebound down.”

Honesty can work?

There’s a lot that can and does go wrong when you lose by 28 points. The only way to get better, though, is to address it.

Moser has a much older team this season. He’s not afraid to say what needs to be said. The good thing? Sounds like the older players are a-OK taking that message and moving forward.

“It helps having older guys because you can tell them the truth,” Moser said. “Sometimes, younger guys hear the truth and it gets them uneasy. It gets them in their feelings. It’s uncomfortable hearing my coach say that, or I’m embarrassed.

“Older guys? It was a combination of embarrassment and being pissed. And that’s what older guys do. And it’s not personal, it’s not anything. That film session, there was a lot. The film doesn’t lie, my God, I heard Majerus say that all the time. But the film doesn’t lie. And we were not to our standard.

“But still, it takes what it takes to win, and we didn’t provide that. And so yea, older guys help you. Hopefully they bounce back. We always talk about that. And you got to have this more than ever in this league, because what’s ahead of us is, man, you gotta be able to bounce back. How you respond when it doesn’t go your way. That’s character.”

Moser’s goal? To keep them ‘pissed’ for a while. Not just have one good practice and think it’s fixed. OU (13-1, 0-1) has to show against the Aggies at 8 p.m. Wednesday on SEC Network that it’s actually really making the strides.

Final word

“It’s interesting. I look back… I did that, when I was at Loyola, against Illinois State. Cut my teeth at Texas A&M. Went with my college coach, Tony Barone, at Texas A&M. I was there six years in my 20s. Met my wife in College Station. A lot of great memories about College Station; I’ve never played them. In a 30-something year career, I’ve never played Texas A&M. This is the first time we’ll be playing A&M. I really haven’t thought about it much. I know Mike mentioned it to me the other day. I’ll probably think about it when we play there just because you spend six years of your life there and meet your wife there… honestly, it’s been 72 hours of being pissed about rebounding. That’s the storyline.” – Moser on coaching vs. A&M for the first time