Tennessee basketball handed Oklahoma its second straight loss on Saturday afternoon. The Vols got ahead early and coasted past the Sooners 70-51 in Norman.
Following the game, Oklahoma head coach Porter Moser met with the media and discussed the recent struggles, Tennessee’s torrid offensive start and much more. Here’s everything more said.
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On Tennessee’s defense shutting down Oklahoma’s offense
“Well, I thought what we were doing earlier the year that we’re not doing right now is emotionally and physically fighting through hard times in a game. I thought over and over some, as we talked about, we had resiliency fighting through some of these games, early games. And I think these last two, especially these last two, and I’m not talking about fighting through No. 60 in the country — the No. 1 (Auburn) and the previous No. 1 (Tennessee). But when things have gotten hard emotionally as much as physically, they were knocking down shots. I think they made their first five. And I don’t think emotionally we handled that.
“We were really ramped up to play and we could never string some baskets together. We we couldn’t go on. We’ve gone in runs in this building and gotten the energy in this building going. We could never get any energy going, and we could never cause that, because we just couldn’t get a string of made shots.
“We know how elite defensively they are. But I thought we had some looks. I thought we had some looks, some layups. And we just couldn’t string any kind of run together the whole night. I don’t know if we ever made three of them in a row. It just seemed like we’d make one and then we’d miss a layup or we’d miss a good shot. But I don’t think the last two games, and again — I’m talking about the best of the best teams in the country — we haven’t fought emotionally and resiliency when it got hard in that game.”
On Oklahoma battling through mental fatigue and that being where the Sooners need to improve
“Yeah, I think mental toughness is you come out, you’re ready to play and you know, they hit some shots. I mean, they made some shots. They got an offensive rebound and dunk and we missed a wide open layup. (Mental toughness) is to fight through that. Alright, it’s early. And I just think we’re not emotionally together fighting through that, the hard parts of the game right now.
“And we’re playing elite teams with that, but with that said, I just think that we just absolutely could not string some possessions offensively together. I thought the second half we showed more fight. They had 25 points. We forced 19 turnovers, but we got into — and it’s happened two games in a row — that some things didn’t go our way and then we couldn’t string it together and then the lead just ballooned. And when that lead ballooned, you’re trying to fight back. A 20-point deficit, we cut it to 15 to start the second half and then they got it back up to 24. So yeah, absolutely disappointed in fighting through Tennessee’s runs and their physicality.”
On Jeremiah Fears playing 28 minutes after being banged up against Auburn
“So we took the day our mandatory day off was the day after (the Auburn game). Came the day, Thursday, and he got treatment. It was his thigh. Didn’t go Thursday, didn’t go Friday, did some shooting, was stretching. We really, truly didn’t know until this morning when, because it was an early game. So we went through the process of getting loose. He said he felt so much better, wanted to go. And so that was our game time decision. But we truly, if it’s a later game, you have a shoot around, you can see how he did the shoot around. But all we could go by was that. But he hadn’t had any reps the last two days. But I thought he gutted it out and really tried to be there for his teammates to play today in this big game.”
On if it’s more of a mental or physical adjustment for the offense
“It’s both. It’s both. And again, I’m going to talk about Tennessee and Auburn. The last two defenses are, and before that it was A&M, so we’re playing some of the best defenses in the country, but I still feel there were times, and I’m gonna go watch the tape, that there were shots that we had. That I think our turnovers turned it into baskets that, I mean, I can think of three right now that. One on the side out of bounds play that you just, you’re spotting them points. Those are unacceptable turnovers. There’s turnovers out of commission, but we’ve got to be able to, you know, they’re really, really physical. They take you out of it. But we couldn’t string some roles. We got to get transition. We couldn’t get transition in the first half because they were shooting at such a high percentage. We weren’t getting stops.”
On how to keep players in a good mental space, get them out of slumps
“We’re still in a position to be in position and that’s what we have to, but you have to have some urgency and we’ve got to collectively come back to where we were. I thought this team was really resilient. I was talking to you after a number of close games that we won, whether it was Providence, Arizona, Michigan, Louisville, just over and over. We were down at halftime to go to Georgia Tech, South Carolina. We were down Arkansas. We’ve had a lot of games where I’ve talked about resiliency, fighting through hard. Again, the competition does that to you, but you still have to fight through the hard parts of these games. We’re in a position to be in a position, alright? And that’s the thing. It takes one game to turn it. One game that you win with our schedule can just throw a dart up there on an unbelievable resume win. But it’s not going to happen if we don’t collectively come back together and have this resiliency to fight through the tough parts of a game.”
On what has to happen to win against a team that is as big and athletic as Tennessee
“We have seen that. The length and athleticism difference, but we’ve had it, we’ve won against it. You just gotta be, you know, extremely tough. You got (to be) tough. It’s the fight that you have and I know they’re one of the best screening teams. They’re just throwing screens and screens and screens. But you still gotta fight. We need depth. We need depth. We didn’t have enough. I don’t think enough guys that are capable brought everything they had today. You need multiple depth to play against that size and athletic differential.
“You can beat teams that are bigger, stronger and athletic. I know it’s hard, but there’s gotta be a fight through the hard parts. It just can’t be fighting when things are going your (way) and getting on a run. ‘Cause we never got on a huge run today. We never really had one of those 8-0 runs that we’ve had. There’s a definite size difference and length, I get it. But we’ve beaten teams with that difference.”
On subbing out his guards as much as he did early in the game
“I was trying to keep us fresh. I was trying to keep us fresh and not knowing with Jeremiah (Fears), I probably pulled — I got him a quick breather, you know, I think before the first media, I think I did. Just to see, you know, with him. And I was just trying to stay fresh because running through all those screens is taxing. They deny every catch. You’ve gotta work to get every catch. I said it before, one of their strengths is they try to wear you down on offense by screening and not moving. And then defensively, how physical they are.I was trying to just stay fresh and with having some guys come in there and bring it.”
