NORMAN — The OU men's basketball team wrapped up non-conference play last Sunday with a perfect 13-0 record. The Sooners head into the start of SEC play as one of only three undefeated teams left in college basketball.

But that doesn't mean this season has been easy. But through some of those battles, OU coach Porter Moser believes his team has found its identity.

"I hink we've got some fight in us," Moser said Thursday. "We've got some resiliency in us and some belief. There's a great chemistry in the locker room about believing."

Finding that identity was important for an OU team that only returned Jalon Moore, Sam Godwin and Luke Northweather from a year ago. And it didn't take long for adversity to start hitting the new-look Sooners.

The Sooners saw some early adversity in late November as they competed in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. They opened the tournament with a narrow 79-77 win over Providence, which saw the Sooners trail at halftime. In the semifinals against Arizona, the Sooners held off a late rally en route to an 82-77 win. Their championship game against Louisville saw the Sooners cling to a single-digit lead for most of the game before ending with a 69-64 win — the first real sign that this year could be different for Moser.

But the biggest test of the early season came last month at the Jumpman Invitational against then-No. 24 Michigan. The Sooners trailed by as much as 11 in the second half, but a late rally was capped off by a Jeremiah Fears four-point play to give the Sooners an 87-86 victory.

"We're pretty resilient," Godwin said. "We've played some games, taken some punches and always bounce back. That's (a winning trait), and that's something we take pride in. Just never give up. Like the Michigan game, we were down 11 points. You're never out of it. Just keep fighting. That's a good trait I realized we have."

The Sooners have proven they can rally through adversity. But that ability is going to be tested over the next several weeks as they begin their first season in the SEC.

It all starts on Saturday, as the Sooners open conference play at No. 5 Alabama (5 p.m. SEC Network).

But that game will be just the tip of the iceberg. The Sooners have 10 games remaining against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25, and that slate includes matchups against No. 1 Tennessee, at No. 2 Auburn and at No. 6 Florida. Oklahoma, Tennessee and Florida are the only three unbeaten teams remaining in basketball.

The Sooners have fortunately given themselves some breathing room with their perfect start to the season. Moser knows Saturday is when the true adversity begins, but there's a belief in what the team has shown so far.

"There's an inner confidence, a confident respect I think we have, and it's how hard we work in practice, how hard we prepare," Moser said. "I think that's what you like to see, too, in this era of a lot of new guys on a new team. They're pulling for each other."

The Sooners have proven they're a far cry from the low preseason expectations, and a big reason has been their ability to weather the storm. They'll have to continue doing that if they hope to return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2021.

"We're able to take punches," Moore said. "That resiliency is really a character trait of this team.

"It's really important going forward as we go into conference play because some games we might start slow and be able to take those punches and come back and win the game, that's going to be important."

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