Oklahoma basketball: Porter Moser calls Sooners crowd 'unbelievable' after upset of No. 2 Alabama – 247Sports
Coach Porter Moser and Oklahoma picked up a statement win on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. The Sooners blew out No. 2 Alabama, 93-69, at home to improve to 12-9 on the season. Oklahoma led 50-33 at the break and pulled away in the second half to secure the win.
Oklahoma guard Grant Sherfield led all scorers with 30 points and six assists. Sooners forward Jalen Hill chipped in 26 points with eight rebounds and Tanner Groves recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. The Sooners’ held future lottery pick Brandon Miller to only 11 points.
“I thought they really played hard and the crowd was unbelievable,” Moser said. “I sat there when the crowd rushed the floor and my younger self might’ve ran out in the middle of it. I just sat there and said this is the vision. This kind of excitement with the student body, I thought they were awesome early. Best crowd I have had since I’ve been here. Rally happy for the guys to bounce back from that.”
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Here is everything Moser said after the win:
“I thought they really played hard and the crowd was unbelievable. I sat there when the crowd rushed the floor and my younger self might’ve ran out in the middle of it. I just sat there and said this is the vision. This kind of excitement with the student body, I thought they were awesome early. Best crowd I have had since I’ve been here. Rally happy for the guys to bounce back from that.”
“I saw a bounce in his step. He was playing with joy. He had a pace to him. He was playing both ends. He was playing through mistakes even. You can’t play this game tight and sad and he had a great bounce to himself and that’s what I saw from the beginning. …we talked (to our players) about the physicality of (Alabama). I said the one thing we have because we are older is physicality. Our league is old.”
“Jalen had 26, but the first thing we should be talking about is that kid needs to be on the watch list for the national defensive player of the year. If he’s not on the watch list for National Defensive Player of the Year, people aren’t watching. This kid is unbelievable defensively. …he’s guarding lottery picks and he is resilient and he’s playing a lot of minutes. For him to have that defensive performance and 26 points as well, I mean what a performance by Jalen.”
“The guys kept on bouncing back and handled their runs. Because I’ve seen some crazy runs on tape with Alabama. I think they were up 37 at half against LSU, I’ve seen them (get) double-digit wins. I just watched them and so we talked about eliminating those runs with good defensive possessions. I thought we had really good offensive possessions but I thought that’s the key to answering their runs. They can get on runs as good as anybody.”
“The first couple of plays, I thought he got too high and they got behind him for a couple of dunks. And then he adjusted and then I thought he was terrific. He just played an all-around game. He was really verbal on the coverages defensively. I really saw some things defensively in the second half and defensively he did some really good things. Offensively, he had a great pace to him. Every huddle, he was in there. Thought he had great leadership tonight.”
“I think the transition (defense), I think they heard the message in the film session after TCU because our transition (defense) wasn’t what it needed to be there. These guys, I really thought we got back and made a wall. We got to their shooters. We really were talking about the 3-point attempts and I thought that was a key to the game. …that was a key, getting back and getting to their shooters.”
“We were having good possessions. I don’t want to talk about the last game anymore, let’s talk about this game. I need to move on man and talk about this one. I thought the pace was great with those guys. I thought everybody gave us a nice lift with the pace. I thought we had a lot of contributions from a lot of different guys. …I have been really making an effort to connect with the students where I can. …I just wanted to soak in (the win).”
“We got to the paint and we dropped off. We knew they would come to block shots, so we dropped it off. I thought we made good decisions and I thought we made the extra pass at times. It’s nice when you hit your shots, too. …they were just locked in playing the right way. I thought we had good possessions and we didn’t waste possessions. One way we wanted to combat their athleticism is to get back and make a wall in transition.”
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