Porter Moser Post-2024 Season
Porter Moser meets the press on Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Transcript
00:00 All right, today I wanted to give you some context of how our last 48 hours was,
00:08 about how we feel about the NCAA tournament, not getting in, and about the NIT.
00:16 I'll answer a few questions at the end about those two subjects.
00:20 And I hope you respect that, any other questions about any other topic,
00:25 I'll answer later.
00:26 But I just wanna, didn't have to do this today, but I just, for Sooner Nation fans,
00:31 people, I wanted them to have a little context instead of inferring some
00:35 different things.
00:36 I'm here today not with some written, predetermined speech that someone
00:42 handed me.
00:43 This is me speaking from the heart about our guys,
00:47 the devastation, the hurt they're going through.
00:52 And about just me from the heart about being a leader of this program,
00:57 about our guys.
00:58 I'm gonna take you through on these two topics.
01:01 A year ago, roughly a year ago today,
01:04 I was reminiscing with Lois and Sam and Otega yesterday.
01:10 A year ago today, after guys went in the portal,
01:14 who was left was Yaya Kata, Luke Norweather, Sam Godwin,
01:19 Otega Owee, and Milo Sousan.
01:23 That was our roster after the portal.
01:26 And my incredible staff sat around and we were like, we are gonna build
01:30 an NCAA tournament team the right way with guys that represent Oklahoma.
01:34 Starting from that, three post players and
01:36 just two guards who were fresh from returning.
01:38 And we recruited a group of young men that I would go to battle with at any time.
01:46 I enjoyed working every single day going with these guys and
01:51 put ourselves in a position building that from this point forward.
01:57 I look at from December 1st, every single day since December 1st,
02:03 our young guys woke up right or wrong, and
02:07 we look at a bracket and Oklahoma was in a bracket.
02:10 There wasn't a day from December 1st on.
02:13 Now, if we lost the game, we might slide a seed.
02:15 And as a coach, I know better to look at those things,
02:18 cuz I know there's a lot left.
02:21 But for young people, every single day from December,
02:25 they're looking at a bracket and they're in it.
02:28 The first time since December 1st, they looked up,
02:32 that they were not included was on the bracket review.
02:37 And I'll say this, it's not who I am.
02:42 I'm not here to talk about any other team or any other conference.
02:47 That's not who I am.
02:48 I would never wanna take the joy away from a young student athlete or
02:53 a coach that's in it right now.
02:55 That's not who I am.
02:56 So you're not gonna bate me any questions or
02:58 get me to say anything bad about another team that is included.
03:01 Or a conference that's included.
03:03 Cuz I just don't wanna take the joy away from that.
03:05 But I will talk about the complete hurt and
03:11 the reason how dumbfounded I am of why Oklahoma wasn't included.
03:17 And I have not been told a reason.
03:18 That day of, I know there's a lot of talk of bracketologists.
03:29 And I didn't know this, I guess there was like 120 of them.
03:32 Didn't know that.
03:34 But if you take the top 20 reputable ones,
03:36 there's not one that didn't have a sin.
03:40 There's not one.
03:42 Two years ago, we were the last team out.
03:44 And I'll have to say personally, I didn't feel, there was a lot of split.
03:51 There's a lot of reasons why.
03:52 And as hard as it was being the last ones out two years ago,
03:56 there's some compelling things that I could say of what it was told me.
04:00 And as hard as I was, I could see it.
04:06 I feel totally different right now.
04:08 I feel such hurt for the young guys who put so
04:15 much into it that they don't have answers.
04:18 That why they were left out when every single day,
04:22 the response I'm getting from people in the media, other coaches, we had gin.
04:27 I can't get an answer from anybody to tell me why.
04:34 And I think that's where the flaw comes in of the process.
04:38 And I'm not gonna sit here and call out any things, and
04:40 I'm not gonna go down a rabbit hole.
04:42 I'm just gonna say that the system is flawed
04:47 because you hear different reasons of why a team got in.
04:51 This team might got in for their net.
04:53 This team got in because they're starting to schedule.
04:56 This team got in because they had this many quad one wins.
05:00 This team got in because they didn't have as many bad losses.
05:04 This team got in because their league, whatever it was.
05:08 You hear different, there's no consistency of why a team got in.
05:13 That's to me where this metric, their Ken Pond was better,
05:22 their BPI was better.
05:24 There's no consistency.
05:24 There's always a reason that is shown to fit and answer what they give you.
05:30 There's 20 people that are absolute experts in studying all the metrics.
05:37 They study every metric.
05:38 And those top 20 people who do that and study it all have Oklahoma in.
05:44 That's a concern for me about the system.
05:48 But then why, when you look at some teams that are in,
05:53 our metrics are better than a lot of them.
05:55 And that is what I have to give our guys answers and their families.
06:01 Families that believed in what we're doing.
06:03 And to go back to that story of where we were a year ago.
06:07 We sat there two games below,
06:09 we finished the game two games below 500 a year ago right now.
06:13 With those five guys staying.
06:15 And from that point on, in the number one league in the country by every analytic,
06:20 we went plus 10.
06:22 We went from two games below to 20 wins in eight games.
06:26 That's a plus 10 turnaround.
06:27 And for all intended purposes, we're an NCAA tournament team.
06:35 We had to overcome the craziest Saturday that I can remember of five bid stealers.
06:39 And I'm so incredibly proud of our guys of fighting through what they did.
06:45 The resiliency, injuries are part of the game, I get it.
06:49 But those are tough to handle.
06:51 We were 18 and 6 ranked.
06:54 We were 7 and 6 in quad one and two when we had a couple guys go down and
06:58 from that forward.
06:58 But the resilience of a fighting through to get where we were.
07:02 And then to sit there on the bracket show when every indication was that we're in.
07:06 And we're not.
07:08 So I'm proud of the year that went on.
07:13 No one will look as a coach at what we could have done better.
07:19 I'm more than anybody being as long as myself,
07:23 I look at what could I have controlled?
07:25 Where could we have found two more points in this game?
07:28 Where could we have found two more points in that game?
07:31 So that's what I start with internally.
07:35 Then I think about the end result where we were at.
07:40 From that starting point in one year, my staff worked so incredibly hard.
07:43 In the era of the NIL, when this is really the first year that we really had some.
07:48 And that's the fact of the matter.
07:51 And we made a huge jump.
07:52 But I go back to thinking about our guys and not getting in.
07:59 And that's, I can't get an answer.
08:01 I know you're gonna ask me, what have you heard?
08:03 I can't, no one can tell me an answer.
08:05 And that's where I think the flawed system is.
08:08 Some people will say they didn't want nine Big 12 teams in.
08:13 Well, that's not a good reason.
08:15 Some people say, well, the Big 12 game the system.
08:17 There's, I can name almost ten teams that had 13, 14, 16, 17,
08:23 quad three and four games.
08:25 We had 11.
08:27 So you can't say that.
08:30 There's a lot of things that I'm not gonna go into so
08:33 many details cuz people will always pick apart the metrics.
08:37 But that was, there's not a specific
08:43 gauge to go by while you're in or out to tell these teams.
08:48 It's a strength of record.
08:49 Is it net?
08:52 Net really does the efficiency.
08:54 Doesn't it count in your opponent?
08:56 The strength of record goes into the quality opponent and all that.
09:00 That's a telling one.
09:01 Ours was 31, very high.
09:03 So that's, and then I wanna give you some context for our guys.
09:11 The resilience they showed, the families,
09:16 the group of coaching staff that I had, I couldn't be more proud of who they are.
09:21 But instead of inferring, I wanted to share with you,
09:25 put you in our shoes in the room.
09:27 So we sat there since December 1st, and the guys felt there was never an indication
09:34 Oklahoma wasn't in until the reveal.
09:36 The raw emotion in that room was so real.
09:41 These unbelievable young men, the tears, hugging each other,
09:47 the disbelief, the anger, the range of emotions was raw.
09:55 Trying to find the words to explain to them I had none.
09:57 I don't know why the metrics, why we weren't included.
10:03 In trying to find words in those 10 or 15 minutes, and
10:09 then all of a sudden having to say to them, do you wanna play in the NIT?
10:12 It never was a thought, and it's absolutely not to disparage the NIT.
10:21 I think it's a storied tournament.
10:23 It's not to say,
10:28 Pippi will infer that some coaches wanted to go start on the portal.
10:33 That's not where we were.
10:37 We weren't about those, it wasn't even about those two teams.
10:39 I will represent, I will coach to the last bounce I can possibly coach.
10:43 And I told my guys that.
10:45 I said, I will coach, I will develop, I will teach,
10:48 I will compete for this school to the last bounce.
10:52 So nobody can infer what it is.
10:55 It was an incredible, raw emotion that these kids had to make a decision in 15
11:01 minutes after heartbreaking news with some of the guys that will never have
11:05 a chance to play in the NCAA tournament again.
11:07 And that's the fact of the matter.
11:09 I wish there's some teams that has 72 hours to kind of
11:14 soak in that they weren't in.
11:19 They can comprehend that they weren't in the tournament.
11:21 And then they can make a decision to play in.
11:23 There was none of that.
11:25 It was hurt, pain, tears, emotion, and then, hey,
11:30 but we got 20 minutes to make this decision.
11:33 And that's the fact, is that we didn't feel we had enough guys to field a team,
11:38 more than five guys or six guys to field to play in.
11:41 And that's the reality of it.
11:47 And that's what people can infer.
11:51 It was no other reason than that.
11:53 But completely, on one hand, what these guys went through,
11:58 the resiliency the last couple weeks with some injuries to fight through in this
12:03 league, to be where we were a year ago today.
12:08 And I will say this too.
12:09 We're at that same point.
12:12 And I'll talk later, but where we're going with this,
12:16 my parents were unbelievable people.
12:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]
12:31 We're hurting for the players and their families more than any of us, the coaches.
12:34 But my parents taught me, characters how you respond when things don't go your way.
12:42 And how we're gonna respond of getting gutted and
12:46 devastated by this news is I remember feeling how bad we felt a year ago.
12:52 Of being two games below 500 and all the work we put in.
12:56 And I look at the year of absolutely everywhere we went trying to get this fan
13:00 base going, trying to get a roster in all this time to go plus 10.
13:06 That there's gonna be no less acceleration on our efforts for
13:12 Oklahoma basketball.
13:13 My staff, players, where we're going, this was a devastating blow.
13:20 But I know for all intents and purposes, from a year ago to now, where we were and
13:25 what we did, and all intents and purposes, we were an NCAA tournament team.
13:28 We had some crazy circumstances out of our control on a Saturday with five
13:33 pit steals, with some injuries, and then, in my opinion, getting subbed.
13:37 But how we're gonna respond is with work, with energy, enthusiasm, with class.
13:48 That's why there's no way you're gonna get me to talk about another conference,
13:51 another team, a specific name, anybody.
13:55 I don't wanna take the joy from them, because we will have our joy.
13:58 We will have our joy.
14:02 >> With that, we'll have a few brief questions or
14:05 opportunity for some questions.
14:06 Please start one question at a time.
14:08 We'll work our way through the room.
14:10 Brian, you wanna start us off?
14:11 >> Yeah, you talked about not getting a reason.
14:15 Is there a process in the wake,
14:19 any year to get direct feedback from the committee, like why the decisions were made?
14:24 Is that a formal process that happens at the end of any year?
14:27 >> There's not a formal process of feedback.
14:29 You get bits and pieces, and here's things.
14:32 And that's, I think, where the complaint of the coaches is.
14:35 Is there's no transparency, and there's such generalities.
14:41 And for every team, why they got in, why they didn't get in,
14:45 is a different reason.
14:46 Over here, your net, your number of quad one opportunities, been told that.
14:54 So what would you rather have?
14:55 More quad one opportunities, which is harder?
14:57 Or 16 or 17 quad three or four games?
15:01 To me, that's,
15:06 to build your thing with 17, we only had 11 of those.
15:11 Here's the other thing that I think is telling, and
15:13 I've had so many coaches tell me.
15:14 We were undefeated against quad two, three, and four.
15:18 We were undefeated.
15:21 There's only five teams that did that.
15:25 Purdue, number one seed, Houston, number one seed.
15:28 Auburn, a number two seed, UConn, a number one seed, and Oklahoma.
15:37 If it was so easy to do that, why are the only other teams that do that,
15:43 the best of the best?
15:44 So that is, I've had a lot of coaches tell me that when that graphic came out.
15:52 Cuz some people will say, you didn't get it cuz you had a bad loss.
15:55 You had this quad three loss, this quad four, I didn't get.
15:58 Well, they use that some year, or some teams.
16:00 Well, we didn't have that.
16:01 Whatever it may be, that's where the problem I think the coaches have,
16:06 is that there's just so many generalities, and
16:08 there's no specific process of unbiased getting in.
16:16 And that's why I go back to, if 20 experts,
16:19 they sit there and they study and study and study all year long.
16:25 And if you take the top 20 and nobody had Oklahoma excluded,
16:29 that makes you scratch your head of why the first time someone says we weren't
16:32 excluded was the bracket review.
16:34 >> Go Bob and James.
16:37 >> So after the bracket release, you fight through the emotion.
16:44 What's your message to the team on Sunday night?
16:48 >> It was very hard to talk to the team.
16:51 It was close to being inconsolable.
16:53 Told them I loved them.
16:56 I told them that sometimes in life, we get things that are thrown at them that are
17:02 unfair.
17:03 What just happened is not gonna be the last time in their life that something
17:10 is unfair to them.
17:11 I told them that.
17:12 I thanked them.
17:17 I didn't have a lot of answers, cuz I didn't have them.
17:20 All I could just say is the raw emotion as their head coach is I loved them.
17:25 Some things in life are unfair.
17:29 And I'm proud of those guys believing in what they did in the hardest
17:35 conference in the country through different adversity to hurt.
17:40 And nobody can take away from them that from starting point last year,
17:43 I told those guys that were there from that group of guys
17:47 to the point of where we competed and won, to the extent we did.
17:52 And put ourselves in a position.
17:54 We had some things out of their control.
17:55 Sometimes life throws things out of control, I told them that.
17:58 It was a crazy Saturday.
18:00 It was an insane Saturday.
18:01 And that's what I told them.
18:05 >> Okay.
18:06 >> Porter, after listening to you, I understand why you didn't go to the MIT.
18:10 Did you even get to the point of your three guys wanting to continue to play?
18:15 Did you even get into any discussions like that at all when it came to the MIT?
18:20 >> Yeah, a little bit.
18:21 Yeah, it was just too far from their mind.
18:25 That's why I do think in the future,
18:28 I get the MIT wants to piggyback off the selection show.
18:32 I get that.
18:33 It's been that way for years.
18:34 But right now, to have to shift,
18:39 like I said, some people had time to decompress and
18:43 kind of understand they weren't in those teams.
18:45 And they get to, all right, three or four days, we're not getting in.
18:48 That disappointment, and they process it, and they're like, all right,
18:52 let's compete in the IT.
18:53 There's no time to process when you absolutely were told by everybody you're
18:57 in, and there was no time to process it.
19:00 And the emotion of those guys, it was not about continuing to play.
19:05 It was just pure hurt, and they couldn't think of anything else other than that.
19:09 And that was where you're not gonna go in and compete with five guys.
19:14 Just that was, like I said, I told them, I will coach, teach, develop,
19:20 compete, prepare, represent every one of those words for
19:23 the University of Oklahoma and play, and I will do that.
19:26 And but the administration and us combined made a decision.
19:30 It's almost unfair for the five guys to do it if we do it with a small number of
19:34 guys.
19:36 >> Bill Perry and Jesse.
19:37 >> Yeah, Porter, without the bid stealers, I think you'd have been a nine seed,
19:42 not even in date.
19:43 >> Right. >> Wouldn't even have to mess with
19:45 the first four.
19:46 >> I agree.
19:46 >> If you had been a nine seed and not in date, Brooklyn or wherever,
19:50 would you sit there and look at the bracket and say, hey, why are we so low?
19:55 Why did they have us?
19:58 Because, I mean, your frustration with the committee's obvious and
20:03 understandable, however, if you were a nine seed wherever,
20:07 the bid stealers put you where you are today.
20:11 >> So you're asking, would I have been happy with my seed?
20:15 >> Right, yeah, I mean, in other words, I mean, in some ways,
20:19 it was out of the committee's hands.
20:20 If they had you a nine seed in wherever, team A, B, C, D, and E all won,
20:25 they had no choice but to move you down.
20:28 >> No, I get it with, I get us moving us down with the bid stealers.
20:32 I get that part of it.
20:33 I don't get where our metrics, I feel,
20:38 across the board are higher than some other teams that got in.
20:41 And I'm not gonna name specific teams.
20:43 I don't wanna take away choice from anybody.
20:45 Just fighting for our guys, fighting for this, of how good the Big 12 was.
20:50 And I'll say that moving forward,
20:52 you can't put a limit on how many teams in a league.
20:54 It's just not a reason not to take a team.
20:56 But I get the bid stealers of where we were before the bid stealers.
21:01 But after those bid stealers, there's still, I can't get an explanation why we
21:06 weren't in, cuz no matter who calls me, no matter what any expert says,
21:09 they still had us in.
21:10 And that's what everyone keeps, well, that's the only feedback I've gotten.
21:14 It's like, I don't know what to say, Porter, we had you in.
21:17 That's all, that's after the bid stealers.
21:19 So I get the bid stealers of moving us down, I get that.
21:24 I don't get why we still weren't included based on our metrics
21:28 across the board.
21:29 >> Jesse.
21:31 >> Porter, with all that, with how disappointing the weekend was and
21:34 the crazy turn of events, just how do you, I guess, in a broad sense,
21:38 how do you evaluate the season as a whole?
21:39 Cuz like you said, you improved a lot from last year, and
21:42 most years you make the tournament after the season.
21:45 But with all that, just how do you evaluate it, and
21:47 what do you take from it going into the offseason?
21:49 >> I'll take a big, I'll have a big of a jump.
21:52 We made the, I thought we had, we competed against the best of the best.
21:59 I will always start with where could we have been better?
22:03 I'll always start with that.
22:05 But these guys played hard every night.
22:07 They competed, they showed resiliency.
22:10 They won 20 games and
22:11 put themselves in a position of being an NCAA tournament team.
22:15 The reality is we're not.
22:18 And I know that'll fuel me and the guys.
22:22 But again, I tried to give you some context of sitting up in that coach's office with
22:28 my staff and say, all right, we got Yaya, Luke, Sam, and two freshmen, Lowe, Sin,
22:33 Ortega, let's, in this crazy world of NIL, we gotta build the guys that fit us.
22:40 And I thought anybody got to know our guys.
22:42 The guys that represented Oklahoma, five star human beings.
22:47 Thought they played, they represented.
22:48 We went and went plus ten in the season, in the number one conference in the country.
22:54 I'm hurting so much for the guys, cuz I felt they felt competing against the best
23:00 events to get in, to get the opportunity to advance and compete.
23:04 That's what I take, I'm just, I hurt for these guys.
23:06 >> Colton and Mason.
23:09 >> You mentioned not only today, but throughout the season,
23:12 how much you loved coaching this group.
23:13 I'm just curious what we remember from this group specifically.
23:17 And you mentioned last year, a small group of guys kinda coming together at the buy-in.
23:21 Are you seeing a similar thing after the crushing of Rivaldo?
23:25 >> Yeah, the resiliency of this group sticks out to me.
23:29 Guys like Betray Darthart and Rivaldo Soares, the absolute passion and
23:36 urgency to make the tournament on an everyday basis.
23:40 You just felt it, you felt it in the film session, you felt it.
23:43 And then Rivaldo, turning it to where all of a sudden for
23:48 like an eight game stretch was playing at a all conference clip.
23:52 And then in the Baylor game to go down with his ankle,
23:54 he never really was right again.
23:56 What we didn't talk about is when you took his sock off, and
23:58 it looked like a big snowball every single day.
24:02 Even the games he fought back and played.
24:03 I think back at the Cincinnati game of looking out on that court against a really,
24:09 really good team who's fighting for their NCAA life with no point guard on the floor.
24:13 And Rivaldo almost limping to the bench, and Betray just exhausted.
24:19 And to fight through and finding ways to win.
24:22 To be going into the tournament, all of a sudden find out,
24:25 JVM couldn't play, that we find out that morning.
24:28 That happened two different times.
24:30 And the guy's belief of coming together, and
24:32 that's what you want when you're building teams, is a togetherness.
24:36 There wasn't infighting, there wasn't jealousy,
24:38 there wasn't a lot of outside factors with this group.
24:41 It was about Oklahoma, about being the best we could be to put ourselves
24:48 in a position to be in the tournament in advance.
24:51 And in that starting point, and then even in the recruiting process,
24:54 recruiting those guys.
24:55 Having them believe, they're like, who's coming back?
25:00 You're like, well, we got these two freshmen that played a lot.
25:03 We gave Sam a scholarship, we got a freshman that we redshirted.
25:09 And for those guys to believe we could do it.
25:11 I'll remember that belief and the amount of my staff,
25:15 the energy my staff had with these players.
25:19 And after I've had to lose some guys, I've lost some guys to being a head coach.
25:24 I lost a guy in August to go to Duke.
25:26 I've had some turnover there.
25:27 And for my staff to come together and every single day fight for these guys,
25:31 an incredible coaching staff.
25:33 I'll remember just that, and I'm just heartbroken for the families and
25:38 these kids to do so much of what was asked, to believe in it.
25:44 And then not get a great answer.
25:46 And to have for months, they saw Oklahoma in.
25:51 And the only time in months that someone even remotely said you weren't in,
25:54 was on the bracket reveal.
25:56 That was very, very wrong and devastating for these young guys.
26:00 >> Mason. >> Porter, you mentioned the train wall
26:02 though, and you got mox that's filling out the door too.
26:04 Just what did it mean to you to have those three in your program for
26:07 this one year and develop those relationships with them?
26:09 >> I think those guys had it.
26:13 One of the things I mentioned this,
26:15 you find reasons and themes to bind a team together.
26:19 One of the things about our team is that no one was in the NCAA tournament before.
26:22 And we were spinning that in a positive way to create this energy to get there.
26:27 And I referenced my Creighton teams.
26:30 The first time we went, nobody in the room had been there.
26:34 And that bound us together, and I referenced that.
26:37 And those guys had an urgency about them that they brought every day,
26:42 that I'll remember, that comes with guys in this COVID year.
26:48 We have one more cycle of COVID years where guys transit, they have one year left.
26:52 Sam Godwin will be in that for us, Sam Godwin will be in his COVID year.
26:57 But there's an urgency about that.
27:00 But those guys, they definitely brought an urgency in the game.
27:06 >> We'll wrap up today's availability with Chris.
27:08 >> Yeah, for what's the balance now?
27:11 How much do you want the guys to use this emotion in the offseason?
27:14 Like, fuel them, and how much is there to let it go?
27:17 >> Yeah, that'll be a question for another day,
27:19 just in terms of just where we're going from here.
27:22 But we got competitors, my staff,
27:29 myself, and faith, family,
27:33 friends, togetherness,
27:38 this awesome University of Oklahoma, the outpouring of people.
27:45 I'll say this, my good friend that I've really developed a great friendship
27:49 the last three years, and he's a friend to everybody around here, Bob Stoops.
27:53 He uses the term OUDNA a lot.
28:01 We've talked about it, and
28:04 the OUDNA just doesn't talk about at the top of the hill.
28:11 The OUDNA is really strong as you're climbing that hill.
28:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
28:19 And that's where the staff, these players, this program,
28:24 is gonna rely on that ODNA to fight through this adversity.
28:28 The people at this school, the outpouring of people, the leadership,
28:32 and the two Joes, Joe Harris and Joe Castiglione.
28:35 Marcus Bowman, my administrator, but that OUDNA never has to be more relevant.
28:43 It's almost more important on the way up than it is at the top, and
28:46 And that's where we're gonna lean on as we move forward.
28:49 >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Kevin.