NCAA Basketball: 12 teams with most pressure to win in 2023-24 season

Mar 16, 2023; Columbus, Ohio, USA; Purdue Boilermakers head coach Matt Painter guides his teamâ€™s practice for the NCAA menâ€™s basketball tournament at Nationwide Arena. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-The Columbus DispatchBasketball Ncaa Men S Basketball TournamentSyndication The Columbus Dispatch /

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NCAA Basketball Oklahoma Sooners head coach Porter Moser Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports /

10. Oklahoma Sooners

Coach Porter Moser’s stock was never higher in NCAA Basketball when he took the Oklahoma job three years ago. He had taken Loyola-Chicago to a Final Four appearance and turned them into a national program out of the Missouri Valley Conference.

But in the two seasons with the Sooners, he and the program have been “okay” at best. They’ve been a combined 36-33 (12-24 Big 12), missing out on the NCAA Tournament both times. And being tied for last place with a Texas Tech squad that lost its head coach during the season was a fairly disappointing result.

The biggest reason for the issues is that Moser hasn’t been able to keep up with the recruiting arms race in a Big 12 that has plenty of talent all over. The prospects out of high school have ranked towards the bottom of the league, as well as from the transfer portal. He’s known as a great developer but in an era where players aren’t sticking around four years, could Moser be out of his element?

Oklahoma is set to go to the SEC a year from now, where elite recruiters such as John Calipari, Eric Musselman, and Nate Oats (and many others) reside. The program has to wonder whether or not Coach Moser is the guy to guide them in the new conference. If the Sooners finish towards the bottom-end again, the program will have a tough decision to make.

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