NORMAN — Porter Moser, Duke Miles and Kobe Elvis all agreed on one thing during Tuesday's media availability.

The Sooners simply didn't look like themselves in last Saturday's 107-79 blowout loss to Alabama, and several things illustrated that point.

For starters, in the 13 games coming into the contest, the Sooners had allowed more than 77 points just once this season. Only one opponent had posted a field-goal percentage better than 48%.

But the Crimson Tide not only shoot 50% from the field, they finished with more points than any Moser-led team had allowed in the last four seasons.

But the biggest issue was the rebounding. The Sooners had won the rebounding battle in nine of their 13 non-conference games. The Crimson Tide, shockingly, won the rebounding battle 51-26 and logged 22 offensive rebounds, the most the Sooners have allowed all season.

It certainly wasn't the ideal start to conference play.

"That’s not how you want to start it off with, a big L (loss) like that," Miles said. "The biggest thing is we’re trying to get back to being ourselves. Saturday night, we felt like we weren’t ourselves, especially the rebounding and physicality. We’ve been harping on that mostly."

The good thing — or potentially, the bad thing — for the Sooners is that'll be tested again on Wednesday against No. 10-ranked Texas A&M. The Aggies rank seventh in total rebounding (42.8 per game) and they lead the entire country in offensive rebounding (16.6). They also rank 15th in scoring defense (62.5 points per game) and allowed just 60 in their blowout win over Texas last weekend.

The Aggies are going to test the areas where Oklahoma struggled over the weekend, particularly on the boards.

“The guards got to have more," Moser said. "Everyone’s got to help. You can’t play 13 minutes and have one rebound. You can’t. And we’ve called guys out. We’ve called guys out. We’ve challenged them. You can’t play these kinds of minutes and not get rebounds. Guards—every guard is included in that.

"You’re on the perimeter, you can’t just sit there and watch. You got to look, box out, then rebound down. Go get it. That’s what we’ve got to do. It’s every night in this league. We knew that, but we’re literally playing the best in the country at it Wednesday.”

It also wasn't an ideal start to conference play for the true freshman, who entered halftime with one points on 0-of-7 shooting. His first basket didn't come until the 12-minute mark of the second half.

Fears finished with 16 points, but the Sooners are going to need more from Fears moving forward.

"He was very honest, and that's what you love, his youthful honesty," Moser said. "And that's what he learned. That's why I put my arm around him when he came out of the game. I said, 'What'd you learn?' and he said that right away. 'I let some of that bother me earlier.' I'm like, 'Man, it's gonna happen all the time. You're a huge, huge part of what we're doing, part of our success.' And his growth is directly correlated to our growth.

"He's got so much ability that he can help us in so many other ways. He just can't let it affect his defense and his mentality running the offense."

His teammates have confidence in him, too.

"A lot of guys see a lot of peaks and valleys early in college," Elvis said. "Jeremiah hasn’t really experienced that. That might have been his first valley. Duke is there with him all the time. He’ll take care of him. All the rest of us will take care of him. We’ll make sure he’s ready to play come Wednesday."

Wednesday will be a bit of a homecoming for Moser, who previously spent six seasons as an assistant coach at Texas A&M from 1991-95 and again from 1996-98.

This will be Moser's first time coaching against the Aggies.

“I cut my teeth at Texas A&M. I went with my college coach, Tony Barone, at Texas A&M. I was there six years in my 20s. Met my wife in College Station. A lot of great memories about College Station; I’ve never played them. In a 30-something year career, I’ve never played Texas A&M. This is the first time we’ll be playing A&M.

"I really haven’t thought about it much... I’ll probably think about it when we play there just because you spend six years of your life there and meet your wife there… honestly, it’s been 72 hours of being pissed about rebounding. That’s the storyline.”

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