Oklahoma’s athletic department is led by one of the nation’s best. Joe Castiglione is highly regarded amongst his peers for his work as Oklahoma’s athletic department leader for over 20 years.
Castiglione was named Co-National Athletic Director of the Year in May 2018 by the Sports Business Journal. He won the award in 2009 and was a finalist in 2016.
He is at the forefront of Oklahoma’s move into unchartered territory as the university, its fan base, the city of Norman, and everyone prepares for move to the SEC. A conference that feels more like a season of Game of Thrones than a sporting competition.
The athletic department wants to be operating at its full potential as they leap to the nation’s toughest conference.
The SEC takes no prisoners as it competes for cultural relevance, fiscal domination, and broadcast prominence across the major sports while continuing to create more exposure for those sports that aren’t traditionally the biggest draw.
Oklahoma is one of the nation’s most iconic football programs. Castiglione, head coach Brent Venables, and the program know what it takes for OU to go toe to toe with Alabama and Georgia. The Sooners have to level up everything to rise to that higher level of competition.
The diamond is a bit of a different story. Patty Gasso is the best in the country and leads a program that is the best. The softball program has made as strong of a case as anyone for being the best in collegiate sports. They’ve created a dynasty similar to the one that Nick Saban created at Alabama, and their two-plus year run atop the sport of softball is equal to that of the Georgia Bulldogs in football. The SEC will be playing catchup to OU softball.
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The same can be said for gymnastics.
K.J. Kindler and the women’s gymnastics team have had an incredible run of their own. Rivaling that of the Sooners’ softball team. Under Kindler, the Sooners have made 16 national championship appearances since 2007 and won five national titles since 2014.
The men’s gymnastics team has won nine national titles and has been the national runner-up 10 times since Mark Williams took over in the year 2000.
Oklahoma’s other diamond sport has some work to do, but Skip Johnson and the OU baseball team fought to a College World Series final last summer. It was an incredible run before losing to, you guessed it, an SEC team in Ole Miss.
The women’s hoops team has been to the round of 32 in each of Jennie Baranczyk’s first two seasons. They’ve got some success to build on as they head into the deep waters of the SEC that features powerhouse programs like South Carolina, Tennessee, and this year’s national champion LSU.
That brings us to Oklahoma’s men’s basketball team.
Every team previously mentioned has won a national title for the university or gone to the NCAA tournament in recent years.
The men’s team has not.
Oklahoma’s men’s basketball team is coming off its second consecutive missed NCAA Tournament. The Sooners haven’t gone consecutive years missing the NCAA tournament since 2009. That drought would last until they made the Big Dance in 2013.
The program narrowly missed it in 2022. Despite transfer portal additions like Nevada transfer Grant Sherfield, the team took a step back in 2023, finishing last in the Big 10. They were strangely competitive at times, picking up top 25 wins that provided glimpses of potential. The biggest highlight was their upset win over No. 2 Alabama. But much of the season was incredibly inconsistent, leading to a disappointing finish.
In the aftermath of these two consecutive missed NCAA tournaments, it’s hard to imagine that Porter Moser isn’t facing a little pressure for tangible improvements.
I would be willing to suggest this: His job is on the line if the Sooners don’t make the NCAA tournament next season.
Not because he’s a horrendous coach that has lost control of the program but because Moser was seen as a rising candidate in the coaching ranks. After taking Loyola Chicago to the Final Four in 2018, he looked like one of those program-elevating hires. The Sooners have not improved in is first two seasons. One could argue that the program has gone in the opposite direction.
So what’s next?
Eight players have departed the program since the season ended at the hands of in-state foe Oklahoma State in the Big 12 tournament. The Sooners will be welcoming four-star freshmen Kaden Cooper and Jacolb Cole this summer. They’ll provide a boost to the program.
But they won’t be enough to completely retool the roster. Oklahoma has to make aggressive moves in the transfer portal.
They also may consider looking at their Xs and Os.
In Ken Pomeroy’s ratings, Oklahoma ranked 74th in adjusted offensive efficiency. Defensively, they ranked 48th in adjusted defensive efficiency. Oklahoma shot poorly on numerous occasions. They had no game-changing big men. Their big men struggled to score and rebound. They lacked the athleticism to match up on the wings with teams like TCU, Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, etc.
Porter Moser’s shown with the additions of Cooper and Cole in the 2023 class and Milos Uzan and Otega Oweh in 2022, that he can recruit. But will he get enough time to build his roster on the recruiting trail? He’ll have to make bolder moves than that.
Oklahoma will enter next year with an almost entirely new team. It remains to be seen if the roster turnover will result in wins.
Kim Mulkey, head coach of the LSU women’s basketball team, hit the portal before last season, bringing in nine new players. She parlayed those signees into a national title.
It may be hard to replicate that. However, Moser and his staff have an opportunity for a soft reset. That reset could save his job and give his boss added confidence in him as the Sooners head to the SEC.
The football program has decades of success to fall back upon and national titles to boot. The men’s basketball program does not, but the expectations for the basketball program aren’t national titles every year. NCAA tournament appearances are the floor for this program. But they should be competing for conference titles and making runs deep into the tournament. A sweet 16 appearance and a final four here and there are reasonable expectations for a program that’s been able to land some of the best players in the country in years past.
Porter Moser and his staff have their hands full over this offseason to revitalize the energy and excitement around the men’s program. Attendance was spotty at best, and it seems the fans need a reason to believe. The administration also probably needs a reason to believe in their investment.
The idea behind the SEC move is the financial ramifications, but the Oklahoma community believes it can compete with the best, regardless of the sport.
If we’re unbiased, it’s hard to argue against the SEC as the best conference in collegiate athletics. That’s why next season for Oklahoma basketball means so much.
How many programs can they have firing on all cylinders or at least trending in a positive direction before entering the lion’s den? It would go a long way toward establishing their identity in the SEC. Additionally, success on the hardwood for the men’s team would help Joe Castiglione and Oklahoma leadership send a message to the rest of the SEC: We aren’t here to exist. We’re here not just to compete. We’re here to win.
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