On Wednesday the Sooners lost 82-72 to #14 Baylor in Waco. While it was the Sooners sixth straight conference loss, there were some bright spots. Porter Moser talked about the Sooners loss in Waco saying, “Saw back to being us um with being connected together. Uh loud and high energy and grit. I saw it on, I thought we had we won the battle of 50-50 balls. We were on the floor a ton after loose balls. Physicality was high on both levels and I thought we competed through their runs, you know, and we got back to us now. We gotta get we gotta find it, get over that hump. because we’re in it to win it. You know, I wasn’t in it to be close, I wasn’t in it just to get the pat on the back cause we played hard. That should be given those should be given as part of Oklahoma culture. Is that we’re playing together tough passionate, high energy smart. I thought we made some really good someplace. We got to get better down the stretch because we’re going younger. We have some younger, inexperienced guys getting more minutes… I thought we had a handful of bad possessions under seven minutes and below and we talked about those possessions. Um can’t be the same possessions. Maybe a gamble on a shot selection a gamble on a pass might be different in the first half than it is the last seven minutes of the game. But definitely saw back to us back to what we have to be every day.”
One of the biggest bright spots in that Baylor game was the play of Otega Oweh who made his first career start, and Joe Bamisile. Oweh has continued to improve every game. The true freshman provides athleticism and great defense to the lineup and while just averaging 9.3 minutes per game he leads the Sooners in steals per game. In his first career start, Oweh totaled 10 points and 6 rebounds in 21 minutes. Bamisile, who did not play for a full month this season played, in just his 3rd conference game and totaled 10 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block in 18 minutes. Moser talked about Bamisile seeing more minutes saying, “What I’ve been seeing in practice, you know, talking to Joe, it’s been about being more efficient on offense, more efficient on defense, knowing where you gotta go and then getting your energy in there. And I think what you saw earlier in the year with joe is which is normal. You see it with freshmen and new guys, sometimes they’re locked, they’re locked up because they’re thinking and what do I need to be defensively we’re going to be offensively… Knowledge gives you confidence, the knowledge of he feels more comfortable what we’re doing defensively, we’re more comfortable what we’re doing offensively and now he’s able to play and get his athleticism to the game and we’ve been seeing that knowledge that gap of efficiency is, he was getting things and we said like 2-3 weeks ago. And same with Tega that they’re starting to play hard all the time because they’re not locked up thinking like where do I gotta be now there knowing the defense, the offense and what I’m seeing out of those two is an energy level. They pick up the energy with their athleticism, the pace. we gotta get better defensively. They gotta be on top of where they need to be connected defensively I was just watching clips individually with them both about um you know watching Jalen Hill, Jalen gets it now he’s always connected. But those guys bringing athletic ability and an energy level to us.”
Junior Joe Bamisile talked about how it was getting the increase in minutes saying, “I’ve done a pretty good job of uh just playing really hard. So when I got the chance to play in the game, I was just doing the same thing I’ve been doing in practice. So I’m just grateful. I got the opportunity.” Bamisile talked about how he overcame the lack of minutes saying, “Just trying not to get too much in my own head and you got to remain a confident player no matter the circumstance. So I think getting to a place where circumstance doesn’t dictate and you know, my confidence in myself is big.” He was asked how he managed not getting in his own head by saying, “I would say like regardless of what’s going on, whether I’m playing, I’m not playing or if it’s the summer it’s not summer, I work out every day, basketball wives and I lift weights every day. So I think doing that made it really easy to just like uh have a sense of belief in myself when I got in the game.” Bamisile was asked about what some of the biggest adjustments he needed to make were. He stated, “Just consistently playing hard. I think when I first got here, I relied heavily on my offensive skill set and now being able to adjust and have that same attention to defensively playing hard is made playing a lot easier.” “I think I can bring some energy like I’m a pretty confident person. So when I play, I kinda uh bring energy to other guys. I feel like I can take some of the scoring load off guys like Los, Grant, Tanner, and Jalen. And then I think uh when I’m actually like locked in, I feel like I’m actually a really good defender. So I think being able to help guys on that end of the floor will go a long way for our team,” said Joe Bamisile on what he brings to the rotation.
The Sooners will take on the 9th-ranked Kansas Jayhawks tomorrow at 12 pm. The last time the Sooners faced the Jayhawks they lost 79-75. Freshman Milos Uzan was asked what he picked up on from the first meeting between these two teams saying, “We definitely have to guard down the stretch a little better. We have to have better, better offensive possessions down the stretch. So really just the last eight minutes of the game, we have to find a way to finish, finish strong.” The Sooners will look to snap their 6-game losing streak in conference play tomorrow against Kansas, who will be without Bobby Pettiford, Zach Clemence, and Zuby Ejiofor. Those 3 being out for the Jayhawks will result in more minutes from Joe Yesufu and the 2 freshmen MJ Rice and Ernest Udeh, who have both been coming on as of late. It will be yet another tough one for the Sooners but then again it would be a huge win as would any win from here on out.
Cover photo credits to Soonersports.com
