OU basketball aiming to win ‘one at a time’ in March Madness

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RALEIGH, N.C. — Porter Moser trotted out to midcourt, glanced up at the jumbotron and surveyed the 19,500-seat Lenovo Center during Oklahoma’s shootaround on Thursday.

It took him four seasons but Moser is back in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament for the third time and first time with the Sooners. Moser’s history in March Madness is well-documented. He led Loyola Chicago to the Final Four in 2018 and Sweet 16 in 2021. 

“This tournament, there’s nothing like it,” Moser said. “The thing you look forward to, you work all summer, everything, to be on this stage to where it’s win and advance. So what we’re looking forward to is competing to get a win and one at a time.”

On the other side, UConn’s Dan Hurley arrived as the two-time defending national champion. The Huskies finished the regular season 23-10 and 14-6 in the Big East, a down year by their standards.

Most have penciled in UConn as a sleeper team due to Hurley’s experience, but he’s not overlooking Moser and OU.

“I think with the way the season’s played out, we’ve been in the news a bunch,” Hurley said. “We get talked about a lot. Yeah, we’ve earned an 8 seed. We’re in the 8-9 game vs. an absolute dogfight with Oklahoma to try to get out of the first round here and play for a Sweet 16 berth. Yeah, we’re ready to play.”

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Both teams are playing high-level basketball heading into Friday’s first-round matchup. After starting SEC play 4-12, the Sooners have won four of their last seven games, with the three losses coming by five points total.

The Huskies fell to Creighton in the Big East Tournament but recorded five consecutive victories before that.

“They play tough,” Moser said. “They play hard. They move it. They share it. They play the right way. And they’ve earned the right to say back-to-back National Championships. For us, we’re coming in here…

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Source link : https://www.oklahoman.com/story/sports/college/sooners/2025/03/20/ou-basketbal-ncaa-tournament-sooners-uconn-huskies-march-madness/82578472007/

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Publish date : 2025-03-21 00:15:00

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