Cold Hard Facts

[cowboysooner]

We had a losing record

Of our losses, 17 losses were to teams in the NCAA or NIT

Of our Losses to NCAA teams, we lost two games to the 3 seed, two losses to the 6 seed, two losses to the 9 seed, one loss to the 11 seed, one loss to the 24 seed and one loss to the 34th seed

Of our losses to NIT teams, we lost two to the 1 seed, and also lost games to Sam Houston and Villanova.

Of our wins, we beat five teams in the NCAA tournament.

Of our NCAA wins, we beat the one seed, an 11 seed, a 21 seed, at 24 seed and the 34th seed.

Of our NIT wins, we beat Florida and Seaton Hall.

Everyone on the board has an opinion, and a right to one, on the job Porter has done. But, he was essentially dealt a team coming off of the death penalty (e.g. virtually no returning players outside of Hill). This is a fact. It is just the fact that he had to build a staff and his first team from scratch with leftovers from both the portal and first signing period due to being hired when he was. He talked a bunch of kids into coming in (in order to have a team) and then felt obligated to try to make the most out of them in year two instead of processing them and going back heavily into the portal.

His last two high school recruiting classes look pretty good and at least show some promise.

Based on the above, and considering the schedule he played this year, I just find it unfair to be too down on Porter, or at least premature to be too down on him.

This year's portal additions and next year's performance will be important for him to regain some momentum and regain the trust of the fan base.

 

[WichitaSooner]

We had a losing record

Of our losses, 17 losses were to teams in the NCAA or NIT

Of our Losses to NCAA teams, we lost two games to the 3 seed, two losses to the 6 seed, two losses to the 9 seed, one loss to the 11 seed, one loss to the 24 seed and one loss to the 34th seed

Of our losses to NIT teams, we lost two to the 1 seed, and also lost games to Sam Houston and Villanova.

Of our wins, we beat five teams in the NCAA tournament.

Of our NCAA wins, we beat the one seed, an 11 seed, a 21 seed, at 24 seed and the 34th seed.

Of our NIT wins, we beat Florida and Seaton Hall.

Everyone on the board has an opinion, and a right to one, on the job Porter has done. But, he was essentially dealt a team coming off of the death penalty (e.g. virtually no returning players outside of Hill). This is a fact. It is just the fact that he had to build a staff and his first team from scratch with leftovers from both the portal and first signing period due to being hired when he was. He talked a bunch of kids into coming in (in order to have a team) and then felt obligated to try to make the most out of them in year two instead of processing them and going back heavily into the portal.

His last two high school recruiting classes look pretty good and at least show some promise.

Based on the above, and considering the schedule he played this year, I just find it unfair to be too down on Porter, or at least premature to be too down on him.

This year's portal additions and next year's performance will be important for him to regain some momentum and regain the trust of the fan base.

LOL. Three returning players who had started some or all of the previous season for a tournament team. That's some death penalty. I guess the ISU, KSU, Mizzou, and Mississippi State coaches, among others, can bring people and programs back from the dead, since they are all in the tournament and took over worse situations.

Again, our roster turnover is in no way unique. This isn't 1985 -- virtually no schools have more than 3 or so guys who have been together for more than a couple years. Moser is failing compared to his peers when it comes to identifying and signing the right portal fits, and he certainly has failed as an in-game coach.

WSU just fired a coach who was hired two weeks before the season in the fall of 2020. Talk about a situation that was truly difficult -- Marshall had run off a huge portion of the roster, and Brown had no time to recruit or prepare to be a head coach for the first time ever. In his first season, he won a conference title and took them to the tourney. The past two seasons, they took a step back, although unlike Moser, their team improved a lot during the course of this season. Yet, they fired him because the consensus was that he probably wasn't the right guy to truly get them over the hump long term and because they were losing fan support. They now owe him money on top of the millions they still owe Marshall. IMHO, I've seen enough to feel like Moser will not get us where we want to be, or even back to the "mediocre" days of "just" making the tourney every year. I don't think it will be unreasonable to give him a third season, but I have no confidence he will right the ship, and I hope Joe C pulls the trigger if next season isn't much better.

Also -- our noncon schedule this year was far weaker than what we played the last few years under Lon. We played two tourney teams, and one of those was in the Big 12/SEC challenge -- i.e., we didn't choose to play Bama. We also apparently ducked out of the Battle 4 Atlantis next season. Take away the Bama win, and we didn't accomplish much in the noncon. That can't be blamed on the strength of the Big 12.

 

[cowboysooner]

Forgot about Harkless and Gibson. So, we had 3 players returning and had to fill 10 spots. Still damn near starting from scratch, particularly in the post.

I make no attempt to compare how Porter has done relative to how other coaches at other schools have done in a comparable time period. The situations can be different in many ways and one coach can take a quick fix approach and another a longer approach that he thinks will make his program sustainable year to year.

In the end, you judge coaches by their wins and losses and make decisions based almost solely on that criteria. Prudence, fairness and financial issues make it wrong to do that, in the absence of extreme circumstances (not just wins and losses) over a two year period. I agree next year is important and needs to show we are going in the right direction. I just think the board has been too critical of Porter to this point considering all the circumstances, both related to the play of the team and factors related to our conference, our gym, our fan support, our history, the lack of numbers in high power 5 kids coming out of Oklahoma with ties to the University etc.

As you might guess, I am crossing my fingers Porter strikes it rich in the portal. We really need a big (rim protector) and a perimeter shooter. A super quick point guard that can keep the league points in front of him defensively would be nice as well.

 

[steverocks35]

Forgot about Harkless and Gibson. So, we had 3 players returning and had to fill 10 spots. Still damn near starting from scratch, particularly in the post.

I make no attempt to compare how Porter has done relative to how other coaches at other schools have done in a comparable time period. The situations can be different in many ways and one coach can take a quick fix approach and another a longer approach that he thinks will make his program sustainable year to year.

In the end, you judge coaches by their wins and losses and make decisions based almost solely on that criteria. Prudence, fairness and financial issues make it wrong to do that, in the absence of extreme circumstances (not just wins and losses) over a two year period. I agree next year is important and needs to show we are going in the right direction. I just think the board has been too critical of Porter to this point considering all the circumstances, both related to the play of the team and factors related to our conference, our gym, our fan support, our history, the lack of numbers in high power 5 kids coming out of Oklahoma with ties to the University etc.

As you might guess, I am crossing my fingers Porter strikes it rich in the portal. We really need a big (rim protector) and a perimeter shooter. A super quick point guard that can keep the league points in front of him defensively would be nice as well.

We can also judge a coach by how well he he does during games. What I saw was a complete failure of in-game strategy, substitution patterns, and overall game management. Opinions will vary but that's how I saw it.

 

[WTSooner]

It wasn't just "good" teams we lost to.

Looking at power conference teams that we played that did not make the NCAA Tournament, by my count we went 5-5. That isn't great.

 

[skyvue]

Forgot about Harkless and Gibson. So, we had 3 players returning and had to fill 10 spots. Still damn near starting from scratch, particularly in the post.

We also had Cortes and Noland (a top 100 recruit) committed and Issanza. And Moser had had two portal cycles and let's say 1.5 recruiting cycles entering this season to bring in the talent he wanted/needed.

Harkless, Gibson, Mason, Mawein, Schroeder and Issanza all left after a season under Moser. Noland (and if rumors are to believed), Hill and Cortes are leaving too.

 

[WTSooner]

We also had Cortes and Noland (a top 100 recruit) committed and Issanza. And Moser had had two portal cycles and let's say 1.5 recruiting cycles entering this season to bring in the talent he wanted/needed.

Harkless, Gibson, Mason, Mawein, Schroeder and Issanza all left after a season under Moser. Noland (and if rumors are to believed), Hill and Cortes are leaving too.

And multiple assistant coaches, including one head scratcher that I'm not sure anybody will ever know the truth about.

 

[MichSooner]

We also had Cortes and Noland (a top 100 recruit) committed and Issanza. And Moser had had two portal cycles and let's say 1.5 recruiting cycles entering this season to bring in the talent he wanted/needed.

Harkless, Gibson, Mason, Mawein, Schroeder and Issanza all left after a season under Moser. Noland (and if rumors are to believed), Hill and Cortes are leaving too.

I don't think either Harkless or Gibson played under Porter.

 

[BoulderSooner]

and let's say 1.5 recruiting cycles entering this season to bring in the talent he wanted/needed.

more like 1.1 recruiting cycles ..

 

[BCSooners]

I don't think either Harkless or Gibson played under Porter.

Yes they did last year.

 

[thebigabd]

This was a 20+ win team with Harkless and Gibson.

 

[BoulderSooner]

This was a 20+ win team with Harkless and Gibson.

with gibson at PG and harkless at the 2 shooting 15+ times a game??

Absolutely not

 

[TINY]

This was a 20+ win team with Harkless and Gibson.

I’d say it is 19-20 wins with Gibson alone.

 

[BCSooners]

Gibson & Harkless for Sherfield & Bamisille makes this team better by 2-3 wins.

 

[skyvue]

with gibson at PG and harkless at the 2 shooting 15+ times a game??

Absolutely not

Harkless averaged one shot more per game than Sherfield did. He shot a slightly higher percentage overall than did Sherfield and averaged three more points per game than Sherfield did.

Sherfield shot better from behind the arc but Harkless more than made up the difference by getting to the free throw line nearly 120 more times than Sherfield did. Throw in Harkless' much stronger defense and I think it's entirely reasonable to say that the team would have been better with Harkless than it was without.

 

[Eielson]

I’d say it is 19-20 wins with Gibson alone.

It would have to be about a 22 win team with Gibson alone to be 20+ with both.

 

[Boom Soon]

Harkless averaged one shot more per game than Sherfield did. He shot a slightly higher percentage overall than did Sherfield and averaged three more points per game than Sherfield did.

Sherfield shot better from behind the arc but Harkless more than made up the difference by getting to the free throw line nearly 120 more times than Sherfield did. Throw in Harkless' much stronger defense and I think it's entirely reasonable to say that the team would have been better with Harkless than it was without.

I think there is some nuance here with Gibson and Harkless. They are both an absolute upgrade over Bamisile. You replace Bamisile with either Gibson or Harkless and I think OU atleast wins two more games. But, I think Sherfield was an improvement over Harkless and about the same as Gibson. It's easy to look at Gibson and Harkless' numbers from this year vs. Sherfield's but they weren't playing in the Big 12 anymore. In fact, I'd say both DePaul and UNLV is quite a step down in competition from OU. I don't think Harkless or Gibson do so well as OU's number one guy. I don't think they do so well having to carry the load of the team being defended night in and night out by the best teams in the countrylike Sherfield was. I mean we all know the first thing every scouting report on OU said was: "STOP SHERFIELD." Things would be different had Gibson and Harkless accepted their role as the number 2 and number 3 guy on the starting lineup. But they didn't want that. They wanted the best numbers they could get. Hence, transferring out of the Big 12. I would say, overall, they succeeded in their goals.

Sherfield was definitely disappointing at times in Big 12 play. But so were Gibson and Harkless last year. I actually strongly think Sherfield could benefit from another year in the Big 12.I don't think he's ready for the NBA yet. I mean I don't think he's better than Reaves and not even close to Buddy. But, I think another year with OU could help.

 

[BoulderSooner]

It would have to be about a 22 win team with Gibson alone to be 20+ with both.

with gibson here in the same role as last season i 100% agree ..

but that was not an option

 

[WichitaSooner]

It would have to be about a 22 win team with Gibson alone to be 20+ with both.

Hehe you and I rarely agree but I’m 100 percent with you on this one!

 

[skyvue]

I think there is some nuance here with Gibson and Harkless. They are both an absolute upgrade over Bamisile. You replace Bamisile with either Gibson or Harkless and I think OU atleast wins two more games. But, I think Sherfield was an improvement over Harkless and about the same as Gibson.

It depends upon which numbers you look at. Sherfield led Harkless in two stats: 3-pt percentage and free-throw percentage.

But Harkless got to the lline more than twice as often as Sherfield and scored way more from the line than Grant did. That's why he outscored him by three points per game. And that's a stat that's not conference-dependent.

And there's no denying that Harkless is a better defender than Sherfield.

But I've never said either Harkless or Sherfield was better than Sherfield--maybe they are; maybe they aren't. What I've said was that it's a problem that Moser let those guys get away. And if we don't get Sherfield if those two guys are still on the team? I'll take Gibson and Harkless over Sherfield and Bamisile every time. No contest.