Xzayvier Brown, Kai Rogers crucial to where OU goes from here

For two completely different reasons, go ahead and circle OU guard Xzayvier Brown and backup center Kai Rogers.

Through the initial 10 games? Even though their roles couldn’t be more different, their impact is almost the same.

Brown has to be the one running the ship. He’s the point guard, the one who fills up the stat sheet. When he hasn’t been on, it’s been noticeable.

Then there’s Rogers, the true freshman. Each game, he needs to be better. The strides need to be shown. Because OU won’t go as far as it should without a legitimate backup big.

It converged in the right way in the Bedlam win against Oklahoma State in Oklahoma City on Saturday afternoon.

Kansas City at OU (7-3)
When: 6 p.m.
TV: SEC Network

Brown had a game-high 21 points with five assists, three rebounds, one steal and just one turnover in nearly 33 minutes.

“It was great to see Xzavyier Brown be Xzavyier Brown,” head coach Porter Moser said. “That’s a big takeaway for me. He’d be the first one to say no excuses or anything. But he tweaked his ankle in the Alcorn game, and he didn’t say. We knew.

“He’s getting treatment every day. That three-game stretch, he was playing his heart out. But to see him get it going, he looked more like X. Twenty-one points on nine shots. Five assists. One turnover. Playing in that hard of an atmosphere. He makes us different. He was a key to the game and it was great to see him.”

That’s easy to see, a performance like that. But Rogers was huge in his own way. In just under 13 minutes, Rogers had two points, two rebounds, one assist and one block.

It’s still not smooth all the time. However, it’s looking a lot better than two, three weeks ago. An encouraging sign that when SEC plays comes around in January, Rogers will be as prepared as possible.

“Kai makes plays for us. He’s making his minutes count. He had a big blocked shot. He had a lob dunk from Dayton,” Moser said. “Just having a presence, two rebounds, two points, one assist, another nice thing, in 12 minutes.

“If you’re going to be a good team at this level, you need contributions from nine, 10 guys. If it’s five minutes, make it the best five minutes. If it’s 10 minutes. That’s what I was happy about with Kai. He showed some good toughness there. The rim protection. Even if he didn’t block the shot, he affected some shots.”

OU went through that brutal four-game road/neutral site slate at 3-1 and has positioned itself at No. 50 in the NET Rankings.

That’s going to work, something to build on. And Rogers can be key moving forward.

“We can see Kai’s continuing improvement from first game to now,” guard Nijel Pack said. “I mean, we can see strides every game. He’s continuing to learn and get better and that’s, you know, that’s pretty scary because he’s playing really well as a freshman right now.

“The sky’s the limit for him. I mean, you see he’s a hard worker. He takes a lot of criticism, but he’s young and he still listens and he plays hard. So I’m really excited to see, you know, as he continues to grow throughout the year.”