Oklahoma's Porter Moser says NIL is key to keeping Sooners at a high level
Oklahoma's Porter Moser says NIL is key to keeping Sooners at a high level
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Jeremiah Fears, Jalon Moore recap OU's loss vs UConn in March Madness
OU basketball players Jeremiah Fears and Jalon Moore talk to the media after the Sooners' loss to UConn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
NCAA
Four years into the Porter Moser regime at Oklahoma, the Sooners have made one NCAA Tournament appearance. This year yielded the first. A coach whose job security was middling entering the year likely bought himself another year or two to turn the Oklahoma basketball team into Porter Moser's OU basketball team.
Joe Mussato at "The Oklahoman" wrote that Moser saved his job and kept the athletic department brass from making a tough decision by making the Big Dance. After Friday's loss to Connecticut in the first round of the tournament, Moser was asked where he thought the program was after four years. He brought up what every coach brings up nowadays.
"To get your basketball program right, you have to win in April and May with the NIL," Moser said. "For us, retention, you've got to win in April in May in the NIL to do that."
The Sooners likely won't have to create a basketball team from scratch in the offseason, but the team's top six scorers from the season are either out of eligibility or expected to leave the program. Expected is the key word. One player who almost certainly won't be back was Oklahoma's best player on the season, and about the only player who played to his season standard against the Huskies, Jeremiah Fears.
Fears is a potential lottery pick if he decides to enter this year's NBA Draft. At worst, scouting services have him as a first-rounder. He averaged 17.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in his first year of college basketball. And he did so after re-classifying to be a part of the Class of 2024. Age-wise, he should have been finishing his senior year of high school.
Moser thinks the Sooners are on the right track, especially if they can continue to land players like Fears.
"All four years, we've been in the No. 1 basketball conference," Moser said. "I thought to be able to compete, the guys' (resilience) in this league, I'm so proud of how these guys fought through hard and (got) to where we're at and I'm excited for the future."
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