Riding the momentum of a 6-0 start to the season the Gators will have a quality opponent on Wednesday, the Oklahoma Sooners. Florida was supposed to play Oklahoma last year, the start of a home and home with the Sooners, but the game was postponed due to COVID cases. This game will be played in Norman, Oklahoma to kick off the series before next year the two will meet in Gainesville.
The last meeting between these two teams was in 2018 in the Bahamas for the Battle 4 Atlantis. Oklahoma came away with a gritty 65-60 win in a game where the Gators were ice cold offensively. This time around the Gators would love to have a better showing, particularly with this being the start of a series. Of course, with Oklahoma set to join the SEC this will end up being a yearly matchup, so you can also look at this as a teaser for what could be a rivalry down the line.
When the home and home series was scheduled it was former Florida coach Lon Kruger at the helm for Oklahoma but he has since retired and Oklahoma filled the void with Porter Moser, most recently at Loyola-Chicago. Loyola-Chicago had been a dominant mid-major under Moser, including in 2018 when they made the Final Four. You may also remember in that season that Loyola-Chicago came into Gainesville during the non-conference portion of the season and handed the Gators a loss, something that at the time seemed like a crushing loss but ultimately didn’t look quite as bad when the Ramblers made the Final Four.
Last year the Sooners made the NCAA Tournament as an 8-seed and won their first game against Missouri before falling to Gonzaga. Unfortunately for them, they lost a bunch of talent. Guard Austin Reaves graduated and went to the NBA, while explosive scorer guard De’Vion Harmon transferred to Oregon and long-serving stretch big Brady Manek went to North Carolina.
Moser did well in the transfer portal to grab brothers Tanner and Jacob Groves from Eastern Washington, two 6’9” forwards who are both extremely skilled passers and scores–especially Tanner. He’s the most productive Sooner to start the season averaging 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 assists per game, and much of what Oklahoma does offensively runs through him.
While at Loyola-Chicago, Porter Moser was one of the first coaches to fully embrace 5-out spaced offenses, something that is now catching on a ton and that we’re now seeing Mike White run at Florida. Not only was he one of the first coaches to start utilizing the scheme, but he’s one of the best. Now at Oklahoma, he still runs the same offense and it is extremely effective. What they do best are called “Chicago” actions where a pindown screen is set for a player to then instantly receive a dribble handoff and then attack. The pindown makes it that a defender is already trailing, and when the offensive player gets the dribble handoff it’s almost like a pick and roll action. It’s easy to execute and hard to guard, and that’s why if you turn on pretty much any NBA game on a given night you’ll see those sets being run
Tanner Groves is the key to these actions for Oklahoma, an offensive quarterback from the high post who has great touch and timing with passes. He’s also got a wide frame so when he gives a dribble handoff with a guard curling off of him, he naturally sets a wide and difficult to navigate screen. If the defense sags off him to concern themselves with cutters, he’ll simply turn towards the rim and fire from deep, and he can convert. Groves hasn’t been a high volume three-point shooter in his career but has always been effective, and now Moser has him shooting a lot more long balls. He’s attempting 3.5 threes per game so far this year and is hitting 39% of them, so the Gators definitely need to be aware of him as a threat. When he’s not being the fulcrum for the Sooners’ offense on the perimeter he’ll also get down low on the block and post up, something he does well with his great touch and big frame. His ability to score down low keeps opponents from being able to put a smaller defender on him and in the Gators instance if they end up switching guards onto him during the “Chicago” dribble handoff options he’ll happily go down on the block to exploit the mismatch.
In terms of perimeter threats, Umoja Gibson is the name to note. The 6’1” senior is undersized at only 165 pounds but he’s a savvy veteran who is best playing away from the ball where he can slide into open space behind the three-point line and fire. He has hit 38% of his threes on some heavy volume and he has the green light in Oklahoma’s offense to let shots fly, especially when he can sit behind a Tanner Groves screen.
Running the point guard spot for Oklahoma is graduate transfer from Duke Jordan Goldwire, a veteran who provides a steady presence in the Sooners’ backcourt. Goldwire was only a 3-star recruit but Coach K saw him as someone who would stick around the Duke program and be a connecting piece between the 5-stars he was regularly bringing in and he was just that, but in his final year he chose to go somewhere where he could have a bit bigger role. Goldwire’s best ability might be his work on the defensive end but he’s also a reliable ball handler and a capable passer. In the last couple of games Florida has dismantled teams who didn’t have confident guard play to deal with the Gators’ pressure and Goldwire should be fairly equipped to handle it with his experienced floor general game, though he isn’t particularly quick and that could put him in some tough situations.
While Porter Moser runs some pretty impressive stuff on the offensive end his reputation is first and foremost as a defensive coach. It’s a very advanced man to man system that seamlessly switches between pack line protect the paint principals and fanning out to take away shooters during drives. While preparing for the subtleties of a Porter Moser defense are in no way easy, the Gators will know they will likely play against 40 minutes of man to man defense which should help with their preparation.
Overall Oklahoma is a solid team but they lack high end talent and they aren’t particularly athletic. They’re the kind of team that has a bunch of players that would be tremendous role players on a really good team…but they don’t have the elite players at the top of the lineup that make this squad a really good team. They’re 6-1 on the season but their loss came to Utah State and their best win is against UCF with a sharp drop off after that–their next best win likely being against East Carolina. In Porter Moser’s first year taking over for an Oklahoma team that lost a decent amount of talent they are definitely rebuilding but they still have a number of quality pieces and Moser can X and O with the best of them, so this should be a really good contest.