NORMAN — Oklahoma knew last week was going to be tough. The Sooners were facing back-to-back road games at TCU and Kansas, the latter an arena where they hadn't seen victory in over 30 years.
It proved to be too much to overcome. The Sooners were competitive in both games, but they ultimately fell short and now sit with a 1-2 record in conference play.
The main cause? The Sooners strayed from their identity.
"We know those are two games we could’ve won and, honestly, we feel like we should’ve won," OU forward Sam Godwin said during Tuesday's availability. "We just got off what we do, and that was kind of our emphasis yesterday in practice — just getting back to how we play and the job we need to do.”
That identity, of course, lies on the defensive end, which is what OU coach Porter Moser emphasizes the most.
Despite the Sooners' efforts to ramp up the pace offensively, the focus has remained on being a defensive-first team. During the non-conference slate, the Sooners routinely turned aggressive defense into offense. Over the first 13 games, the Sooners forced nearly 15 turnovers per game and 18 points off turnovers per game, which became a steady part of their scoring. The averaged over seven steals per game.
But in their losses at TCU (80-71) and Kansas (78-66), the Sooners forced a combined nine turnovers and lost the points-off-turnovers battle 36-13. Against TCU, the Sooners forced just two steals. The Jayhawks took care of the ball so well, they set a program record for fewest turnovers in a game (2), with the Sooners failing to record one steal. As a result, the Sooners' transition opportunities were limited — they scored just 16 total fastbreak points during their road trip.
But it wasn't just the lack of forcing turnovers that was an issue. The Sooners committed 36 fouls between the two games, which led to 40 total free throws for Kansas and TCU. Both teams also shot 44% from the field, with TCU shooting 47% in the second half to help put the game away.
Rediscovering the Sooners' defensive identity has been the focus in practice this week.
"We’ve lost track of some of the little things we do defensively and it cost us two points here, two points there, two points there," Moser said. "... Like a bunch of little stuff like that that just added up. And we’ve got to get back to coveting the possession by possession little things that go into being a very-good defensive team. And then with that, we’ve got to ramp up our activity with our hands.
"We were creating a lot of turnovers, or when we did create them, we were turning them into baskets, it’s just haven’t been as active with our hands for whatever reason. Getting deflections. Being aggressive. We gotta get to that. We gotta get some stops and some turnovers so we can run. It's not gambling. It's not like gambling defense, but it's just solid at what we do to try to create some aggressiveness and some transition points."
That's going to be important against a West Virginia team on Wednesday (7 p.m. ESPN+) that looks a lot differently than it did earlier in the season.
The Mountaineers (6-10, 1-2 Big 12) have struggled for much of the season. They rank dead last in the Big 12 in scoring, defense, field-goal percentage and rebounding margin. However, they were without transfer players RaeQuan Battle and Noah Farrakhan, who were only recently allowed to play after a U.S. district judge issued a temporary injunction against the NCAA's transfer rules.
The Mountaineers struggled to open conference play with back-to-back losses to Houston and Kansas State, but came away with a 76-73 win over then-No. 25 Texas last Saturday. Battle, who is leading the Mountaineers with 20.2 points per game, scored 14 points and the Mountaineers shot 41 free throws.
"Farrakhan and Battle are two upper-level Big 12 players that just got eligible the last six-seven games," Moser said. "Battle’s averaging 20 (points), Farrakhan’s averaging 12. Absolutely are bucket getters. They can get a basket. They can go off the dribble. They can both shoot the 3. Really impressed. They’re very, very good."
Still, for the Sooners to get back on track, it starts with getting a win at home.
"Obviously, losing two in a row — let’s be honest, nobody’s happy," Godwin said. "We’re kind of frustrated a little bit, but just got to come together, like the coaches said, get back to what we do, get back to our principles, stick to our game plan, and we should be able to come out with a win.”
