Jay Bilas explains why Oklahoma firing Porter Moser would’ve been a mistake

Although many Sooners fans grumbled when Oklahoma athletic director Roger Denny announced men's basketball coach Porter Moser would return for at least one more season, there seems to be a consensus around college basketball from those with no care to believe either way that Denny made the right move, including ESPN analyst Jay Bilas.

There was a catch to Moser's return, though. It wasn't just settling on a coach who had produced underwhelming results in five seasons, but Denny admitted the university hadn't given Moser the needed resources to actually succeed as the Sooners ranked 10th in the SEC in spending in 2025.

Jay Bilas defends Roger Denny's decision to keep Porter Moser

"Porter Moser's an outstanding basketball coach," Bilas said on the Dari Nowkhah Show on KREF. "Just from a 30,000-foot view, I think more programs should do what Oklahoma's doing.

"The easy thing to do for an athletic director and a president is make a change, because it gives them some runway where people stop complaining and they have some time where there's a different mindset of hope. And I don't think changing coaches is necessarily the smart thing to do. There's instances where it is, but not most of them."

As Bilas explained, firing Moser would have been a short-term fix to silence angry fans, who definitely had every right to be frustrated. A new coach would have had the same issues to overcome, which likely would have led to the same outcome to continue a cycle. That's insanity.

Bilas pointed to a time when he played at Duke when players really thought Mike Krzyzewski was going to get fired. Coach K went on to lead the Blue Devils to five national titles after that moment when Duke believed in the man already in charge.

Moser more than likely won't come out on the other side of this as a Hall of Fame coach, but the state of the Sooners' basketball program could still reach a new level under Moser. If not, this situation at least influenced OU to funnel more resources to the program for the next coach.

Read more: Oklahoma AD Roger Denny vows to fix embarrassing Sooners resource gap

Denny's decision ultimately came down to the root of the problem. If Moser still can't win with more resources, then now the Sooners know for sure. It's then a more educated decision if the Sooners do need to make a coaching change. The pool of candidates then would also likely be a lot better than this lackluster cycle.

The move proved Denny is not only concerned about next basketball season, but many more beyond 2026-27.

"I think it's really smart of Oklahoma to do it this way," Bilas said. "You have to give the coaches the resources to compete, and if they've got it and don't do it, that's fine, but if they don't have it, when you've got somebody as good as Porter Moser, you keep him. The first question I'd ask is, 'Who else you gonna get?' He's so good, I don't think the answer would be anybody better."