2025-26 Season

[SoonerBounce13]

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His points are fair enough, but to not even mention Kai Rogers makes me question how well he did his homework.

Parts of that read like it was AI

 

[BoulderSooner]

The Athletic's Jim Root today had what struck me as a somewhat gimmicky story entitled, "Which men’s NCAA Tournament teams are in danger of missing the field in 2026?" OU came in at #6.



Where Moser missed, though, was in finding another big man to reinforce the Sooners’ shaky interior. Oklahoma ranked 324th nationally and 13th in the SEC in 2-pointer percentage allowed, sorely lacking in paint intimidation. The Sooners also ranked 283rd in defensive rebound rate, easily the worst ranking of Moser’s 21-year head coaching tenure.

Mo Wague is a serviceable center, but when you commit 7.8 fouls per 40 minutes as he did last year, you struggle to stay on the floor. The depth behind him is shaky at best. In the uber-athletic SEC, it is incredibly difficult to survive while getting crushed around the basket. Some of the SEC’s 14 participants from this past March will fall out, and Oklahoma is certainly a candidate.


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His points are fair enough, but to not even mention Kai Rogers makes me question how well he did his homework.

it massively discounts how Wague finished the year ..

and it doesn't even mention Davis coming in from ND ..

OU will be much much better defensively Inside ..

 

[skyvue]

and it doesn't even mention Davis coming in from ND ..

He does mention him as a tough matchup at forward, but doesn't say he'll be of any defensive help in the paint.

 

[daqman]

The Athletic's Jim Root today had what struck me as a somewhat gimmicky story entitled, "Which men’s NCAA Tournament teams are in danger of missing the field in 2026?" OU came in at #6.

Here's what he wrote:

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6. Oklahoma
Why They’ll Miss It: Porter Moser’s pattern of nonconference success continued last year, and the Sooners’ SEC swoon nearly cost them an NCAA Tournament bid. Oklahoma did not lose a single game until January, but Moser has yet to post even a .500 record in conference play.

Everyone who started more than four games for that at-large squad is now gone, and Moser had to swiftly find some alternatives in the portal. To his credit, he scooped up a talented quartet in Xzayvier Brown, Nijel Pack, Tae Davis and Derrion Reid.

Where Moser missed, though, was in finding another big man to reinforce the Sooners’ shaky interior. Oklahoma ranked 324th nationally and 13th in the SEC in 2-pointer percentage allowed, sorely lacking in paint intimidation. The Sooners also ranked 283rd in defensive rebound rate, easily the worst ranking of Moser’s 21-year head coaching tenure.

Mo Wague is a serviceable center, but when you commit 7.8 fouls per 40 minutes as he did last year, you struggle to stay on the floor. The depth behind him is shaky at best. In the uber-athletic SEC, it is incredibly difficult to survive while getting crushed around the basket. Some of the SEC’s 14 participants from this past March will fall out, and Oklahoma is certainly a candidate.

Why They Actually Will Make It Again: The Sooners’ offense is going to be tough to stop. Pack is a proven power-conference scorer, and pairing him with Brown gives Moser two lethal perimeter threats who can also create for others. Plus, Dayton Forsythe is an emerging scoring threat. Reid and Davis will be a matchup nightmare duo at the forward spots, and the Sooners should get a defensive boost from Jadon Jones and Jeff Nwankwo, both of whom missed all of last season.

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His points are fair enough, but to not even mention Kai Rogers makes me question how well he did his homework.

rogers was ranked 107th according to 247sports......
anyone expecting him to make an impact in the sec is likely expecting too much.
we can all hope he can contribute some positive minutes....but at this point...he really doesn't deserve a mention

 

[TheMont]

Jim Root knows his stuff nationwide; I've been listening to his podcast (Three Man Weave) for years. I don't think any of that is out of touch. Sure, he could've mentioned Rogers, but I think a true freshman being the only true center backing up Wague certainly qualifies as "shaky as best". Root is correct that guarding the post/lane and giving up defensive rebounds were a massive achilles heel for us last year, and we didn't do anything to address that in the portal.

 

[WichitaSooner]

Jim Root knows his stuff nationwide; I've been listening to his podcast (Three Man Weave) for years. I don't think any of that is out of touch. Sure, he could've mentioned Rogers, but I think a true freshman being the only true center backing up Wague certainly qualifies as "shaky as best". Root is correct that guarding the post/lane and giving up defensive rebounds were a massive achilles heel for us last year, and we didn't do anything to address that in the portal.

I agree, I thought it was a pretty fair, level-headed assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. We all saw Wague play well the last four games, but we also saw his foul issues and inconsistency before that, so it's fair to question how he will look over a full season as the main guy. I think the 5 is without a doubt our biggest question. And even if Rogers has potential, it definitely is scary having him as the only other true 5 on the roster.

 

[BCSooners]

I agree, I thought it was a pretty fair, level-headed assessment of our strengths and weaknesses. We all saw Wague play well the last four games, but we also saw his foul issues and inconsistency before that, so it's fair to question how he will look over a full season as the main guy. I think the 5 is without a doubt our biggest question. And even if Rogers has potential, it definitely is scary having him as the only other true 5 on the roster.

I thought is was a good breakdown. I am very excited for this year and think this is a top 25 team.

There are question marks though for me:

1) Can Brown be an SEC caliber point guard.
2) Can Jones and/or JN provide good minutes coming back from injury and never playing P5 ball.
3) Can we protect the paint & REBOUND? I don't think Moser has had an average rebounding team yet compared to OU's conference.

 

[WichitaSooner]

FWIW, The Athletic also just released their first bracket (silly this time of year but at least gives a general idea of how teams are viewed.) They have us in the "last four in" category. Among our noncon opponents, they have Marquette and Nebraska near the bubble, and obviously Gonzaga easily in the field.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Root is correct that guarding the post/lane and giving up defensive rebounds were a massive achilles heel for us last year, and we didn't do anything to address that in the portal.

not playing sam helps post defense a bunch

 

[CoachTalk]

SEC better than last year? I do not think so top to bottom...

Do I think OU is a lot better than last year top to bottom... Yes.

I dont think come march we will be last 4 watch list... We werent this past year. I dont see us even close this year.

 

[sooner333]

I think there was a thought that the Nebraska game may be, but looking at the Big 10 schedule, there are no other games going on at that time. You’d think that means ours will be on TV.

It probably depends more on the football schedule.

 

[WichitaSooner]

It probably depends more on the football schedule.

Yea that’s a good point. Maybe even volleyball since they show quite a few matches. Too bad the Big 10 Network and app aren’t under the espn umbrella.

 

[BoulderSooner]

Yea that’s a good point. Maybe even volleyball since they show quite a few matches. Too bad the Big 10 Network and app aren’t under the espn umbrella.

or at least Fox app that owns 50% of it ..