Loss to Texas assures this will be another crummy season for Oklahoma men's basketball under Porter Moser

Hope for things getting better for the Oklahoma men's basketball team this season has left Lloyd Noble Center.

The Sooners lost to Texas 77-73 on Wednesday night at home in a game they were absolutely manhandled in until the final 10 minutes. The loss extended OU's losing streak to four games to start SEC play, while the Longhorns' woes ended with their first SEC win and their first Quadrant 1 win of the season.

There was defintely hope for this OU basketball team under Porter Moser, especially two weeks ago.

The Sooners had finished 2024 at 13-0 and had made it through nonconference play undefeated with three Quadrant 1 wins. They had a young budding superstar who had emerged as an NBA Draft lottery pick in freshman Jeremiah Fears. And Fears had the supporting cast around him to thrive with Jalon Moore as a sidekick down low. The two combined for 49 points against Texas.

Then 2025 and SEC play began with a 107-79 butt whooping to then-No. 5 Alabama on the road. It was a beatdown, but it was the Sooners' first true road game with a freshman leader, the first SEC game in men's basketball history and it was against a Final Four caliber team. There was no need to worry, at least not yet.

But worry seeped in the next Wednesday against a top-10 Texas A&M team at home that was without its best player. The Sooners led by as many as 18 points in the second half, but squandered the monstrous lead and Brycen Goodine's 34-point performance.

A pair of losses to two top-10 teams doesn't deem a basketball team bad, but then the Sooners fell to unranked Georgia on Saturday in Athens. The Bulldogs, though, notched two ranked wins that week, including over then-No. 6 Kentucky before taking down OU. Georgia is now ranked at No. 23.

There were excuses and reasons for the Sooners to lose each of those three games. None were even considered bad losses, at least in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament committee, as Quadrant 1 losses. Nonetheless, any three losses in a row is a rough for a team with postseason expectations.

Then came the Red River Rivalry on Wednesday night. The Longhorns were struggling at 11-5 and also winless in SEC play. It was a home game and Sooner Nation showed up to Lloyd Noble Center despite the 9 p.m. tip. But it seemed like OU fans were the only ones who actually wanted to be there.

Moser was furious during his postgame press conference about his team's effort during the first 25 minutes of the game and took the blame, even raising his voice at one point. Moore even called the first half "lackadaisical."

"It starts with me," Moser said. "The first 25 minutes is, I'm apologetic for the effort for the first 25 minutes."

That first half and more looked like a team that was beaten down. A team that was on a losing streak that it didn't expect to end anytime soon. The team appeared almost as worn out by this cycle as the fan base.

Moser's teams at OU keep doing this. They start strong and create hope, only to crash and burn during conference play. He's coached three teams like this so far and all three have missed the NCAA Tournament.

And unless Wednesday night's shameful performance against your most hated rival isn't a wake-up call, then the 2024-25 is destined to be like the others.