Coming into the season, OU coach Porter Moser praised his team's depth following a slew of transfer portal additions. It was a significant point of emphasis for the Sooners, considering the bench was a bit of a weakness the last two seasons.
Through three games this year, it's been a huge strength. The Sooners are averaging 35.3 bench points per game this season, which ranks first in the Big 12 and 41st nationally.
It's been a key reason why the Sooners have started the season with three straight blowout victories.
"The guys that have come off the bench have been outstanding," Moser said during Thursday's availability. "It’s what you want. They uplift. The level of play doesn’t go down. It’s a credit to them. From a psyche standpoint, everybody wants to start. You only have five in this game. What I feel and what I’ve translated to them is we have eight starters. We have eight guys that I believe can do it.
"That’s not coach-speak. I might have said that before in my career and maybe not meant it. I mean this with these guys. You have guys who have started at Power Five guys. I really don’t look at it like starters and non-starters. They’re all guys that are bringing a lot of value. It’s been key that when you go to the bench, they’ve uplifted the level of play."
The biggest thing for Moser has been the buy-in of the bench players.
New additions Le'Tre Darthard, John Hugley and Rivaldo Soares have been big additions to the bench. Darthard is averaging 9.7 points per game while shooting 45% from the floor and 37.5% from 3-point range, and he's third on the team in minutes per game (24.0) despite starting just once. Hugley, playing 17.0 minutes per game, has posted per-game averages of 10.3 points and 5.0 rebounds while shooting 83% from the floor. While Soares has struggled a bit with his shot, he's tied for the team lead in total rebounds (18) while playing 22 minutes per game. Darthard and Soares are only behind starting backcourt Javian McCollum and Milos Uzan in terms of minutes per game.
Outside of those three guys, the Sooners have received some nice minutes from true freshman Kaden Cooper along with Maks Klanjscek and Luke Northweather.
But it's also been a bit of a juggling act for Moser. His main three bench guys have started games elsewhere and are used to being on the floor for tipoff. But he's been preaching the value of making their minutes count while bringing energy and pace off the bench.
"It’s hard because everybody wants to start," Moser said. "(The) thing is you have to keep the communication, the relationship, being about the right things and let them know their value and let them bring their value. There is a lot of communication that has to go on. To their credit, the thing about that is it’s OK that it bothers them. They just have to be able to handle it in a team concept and do that. They’ve done that.
"I want that. I’d be more worried if they didn’t care. The thing I love about it is they are handling it professionally. They’re handling it with a team-first mentality. As a staff, we’re letting them know how valuable those minutes are. If you get 25 minutes and the starter gets 25 minutes, it doesn’t matter. It matters what you’re doing on the floor when you’re the floor.”
While the Sooners are 3-0, it's all come at home against teams that they're supposed to beat. But they're taking care of business, and these early games have been useful for Moser in terms of figuring out future rotations against Big 12 opponents.
"The Big 12 is obviously a grind," Moser said. "We’ve got a lot of games left in non-conference, it’s a grind. But the thing also that you’re doing is, like the NBA, they know their rotations. They know they’re gonna play. I’ve had it in the past where sometimes they don’t know if they’re gonna come in or not because I’m trying to see who’s hot or see how can play.
"I think the guys like Rivaldo, John, Le’Tre, they know they’re getting their minutes. They know that. There’s no, ‘Am I gonna get in the game or not?’ There’s none of that. They know up front. So that’s what’s good about having a definite rotation, a definite amount of guys you can play.”
The Sooners will be back in action Friday against UT Rio Grande Valley. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT (ESPN+) at Lloyd Noble Center.
