Oklahoma basketball: Porter Moser’s status after this season may be his choice

Porter Moser has had a rough go trying to make something out of very little in two seasons as head coach of the men’s Oklahoma basketball program.

The Sooners are currently at .500 overall but are just 3-10 in Big 12 play and in serious danger of posting their worst conference record in 54 years. The 1968-69 Oklahoma team finished 3-11 and in last place in the Big Eight Conference. That team was coached by the late John MacLeod.

Moser, who came to Oklahoma after a successful coaching career at Loyola Chicago and leading the Ramblers to a 32-6 record and an NCAA Final Four appearance in 2017-18, is not really on the hot seat in Norman. In both of his two seasons at OU he has had to practically rebuild the men’s basketball team.

Oklahoma had just four scholarship players on the roster when Moser replaced the retired Lon Kruger in 2021, and he had to add eight newcomers this season as a result of players transferring out of the program, including two starters.

Some Sooner fans are obviously not happy with the current state of Oklahoma men’s basketball and believe Moser may be over his head trying to return the Sooners to basketball relevance — let alone championship level — in a conference that is far and away the best and most competitive in college basketball.

I’m not one of the naysayers, not just yet anyway. I believe Moser is a very good coach with a solid basketball mind. He does need to get a better talent mix to come to Oklahoma and get good players with size and more athleticism than he has on the current roster. If Iowa State and Kansas State can bring in new head coaches and rebuild rosters that compete at an elite level, there is no reason Oklahoma can’t.

I don’t believe OU athletic director Joe Castiglione is even thinking about replacing Moser. The problem is, he may not have the chance. Moser could just as easily choose to voluntarily leave the Sooner program.

The Notre Dame coaching position will be open after this season with the announced retirement of longtime Irish head coach Mike Brey. As a Chicago native and a Catholic, Moser is an ideal fit for that job and the rumor mill has been busy linking him to the position as a leading candidate.

Earlier this week, Moser shot down those rumors, acknowledging, “I’m a Catholic kid from Chicago. We had a lot of success in the Chicago area (with Loyola Chicago). I have a lot of respect for that university (Notre Dame).

"“With that said, I have no interest,” Moser said. “I have not pursued it, nor do I have any interest. Oklahoma’s my home. The Sooners are my home.”"

Moser’s current contract at Oklahoma has him making $2.8 million per year. Notre Dame reportedly is paying Brey around $2.5 million. As a point of interest, Moser’s contract stipulates a $9 million buyout if he were to leave before April and a $6 million buyout if he would leave after March.

“Yeah, everywhere you go you’re going to have people talking,” the OU head coach said. “I know that. But there’s nothing that can be said to me that’s not stopping (sic) my vision and my passion of where I want to go and how I want to look at building this program and winning here.”

Moser explained that he and his staff are not interested in taking any shortcuts to building a program that can both win and sustain that success.

"“Everything we’re doing now is for both short term and long term,” he said. “I’m constantly trying to figure out ways to win right now, but also build the culture. I’m not trying to do a short-term thing.”"

Sounds to me like a head coach we’d like to stick around for a while. But it’s all about winning. A series of losing seasons won’t cut it at Oklahoma…or anywhere.