There will be at least another year of Porter Moser leading the Oklahoma men's basketball program, and although that was not the news many disappointed OU fans wanted, it seems the wrong guy was getting the blame this whole time for the Sooners' falling short of expectations.
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on Saturday, as the Sooners sweat out their NCAA Tournament fate, that Moser will return as OU's head coach despite spending almost the entire season, and last, on the hot seat. According to Thamel, new OU athletic director Roger Denny met with Moser on Saturday morning to discuss what needed to be down for more success in the future, which mostly includes more financial support from the university through a larger NIL budget to get more talent as OU reportedly has one of the lowest basketball budgets in the SEC.
Porter Moser reportedly returning to Oklahoma in 2026-27
The writing was on the wall for this decision from OU after a report from ESPN earlier this week and as the Sooners used a late surge to suddenly be on the NCAA Tournament bubble for the second season in a row. It's really been a masterclass of coaching from Moser as he kept his team believing after a nine-game losing streak and turned things around to have OU as one of the hottest teams in college basketball in March.
This mirrors what the Sooners did last year when they again used a late winning streak to sneak into the NCAA Tournament. OU won't know if it did enough to overcome its early shortcomings for sure until Selection Sunday, but the process more than the result revealed what kind of coach Moser is.
Moser seemingly did everything a great coach should do as he kept his team believing and got his players playing their best at the perfect time.
I'm just as guilty as anyone blaming Moser for the Sooners' failures the past two seasons, especially this year, but Denny's recent comments reveal that Moser was just the fall guy. Even if Moser was replaced by the top candidate, the OU men's basketball program would likely still be in the same spot a year from now. The problem was bigger than Moser and above his pay scale. The real problem was then handed to Denny just last month.
"We're not holding up our end of the bargain," Denny told The Oklahoman's Colton Sulley. "And so, Priority 1 has to be to fix that and get our resources and expectations and performance all aligned. And from that point, we can then decide what the right path for our program is, but we're not at that point.
"We're not at that point because of what we're doing administratively, not because of what Coach Moser is doing on the court."
Denny then reiterated those thoughts with a post on X.
At Oklahoma, we’ve had a long history of embodying an underdog spirit. And in men’s basketball, that mentality has often led to us outperforming our resources. It’s on Coach Moser to make sure that our team’s performance continues to meet and exceed our resources for the program.…
— Roger Denny (@Oklahoma_AD) March 14, 2026
In hindsight, it seems OU basketball got the change it needed already last month when Denny replaced Joe Castiglione as AD. It's likely a coincidence that the Sooners are 8-3 and put together a six-game winning streak since Castiglione's reign as AD ended, but any success beyond this season will be the evidence needed to reveal who was really at fault.
OU fans are not getting the change they wanted, but the change they didn't know they needed as time finally revealed who might really deserved the blame of the Sooners' recent failures.