Oklahoma basketball projected starting five after Jalon Moore withdraws from the NBA Draft

Porter Moser is heading into his fourth season at Oklahoma and he still hasn’t taken the Sooners to the NCAA Tournament. After a 20-12 record in 2023-24, his roster was gutted by the transfer portal, losing five players including his leading scorers Javian McCollum and Otega Oweh. Moser scrambled to rebuild through the portal, and on Wednesday he finally received some good offseason news. 

Jalon Moore, Moser’s leading rebounder from last year tested the NBA Draft waters this offseason, but, before Wednesday's deadline, decided to withdraw from the draft process. The 6-foot-7 forward, who averaged 11.2 points and 6.7 rebounds and was arguably Oklahoma’s most important two-way player, announced that he'd be returning to Norman for his senior season.

With Moore back in the fold, Oklahoma’s roster is finally stabilized and we can begin to project what Moser’s starting five will look like for next season, OU’s first in the SEC. 

While Oklahoma didn’t make the tournament last year, Elvis helped lead the Dayton Flyers there out of the A10, and with three points and five assists, Elvis navigated the Flyers past Nevada in the first round. Elvis started his career at DePaul back in 2020-21 and arrives at Oklahoma after three seasons playing for Dayton with one year of eligibility remaining. 

Not much of a scorer, Elvis averaged 9.4 points a game on 37.9% shooting, but did knockdown 37% of his three-point attempts and 84% of his free throws. Elvis had a 3.5/1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio last year, the best of his career, and that decision-making will make him a good fit to run Moser’s offense. 

Elvis is going to struggle finishing at the rim in the SEC and without a high-level playmaker in the frontcourt, there could be a heavy burden on Elvis as a passer.