"Revenge tour right now" - Oklahoma's Glenn Taylor eyes payback against Kentucky ahead of SEC Tournament matchup
The Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Georgia Bulldogs 81-75 in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament on Wednesday evening. The Sooners will face the Kentucky Wildcats in the next round of the tournament.
The Sooners and the Wildcats met two weeks ago, with Kentucky winning a tight game 83-82 on a last-second shot by Otega Oweh. It was an ill-tempered game as Sooners fans booed the returning Oweh and Oklahoma native Brandon Garrison with a fan even tossing a can of beer at the Kentucky stars.
During his postgame news conference after beating the Bulldogs, Sooners forward Glenn Taylor Jr. was fired up for the game against coach Mark Pope's Wildcats on Thursday evening.
"We took a tough one at home," Taylor said. "We feel like we should have won, same with Georgia. We knew our backs were against the wall, we knew we had to get them. So, we're going on a revenge tour right now. We feel like we gotta go get Kentucky tomorrow. So, we're ready."
Oklahoma coach praises team's resilience
The No. 14-seeded Oklahoma Sooners were underdogs against the No. 11-seeded Georgia Bulldogs, but they clung on to the win to improve their NCAA Tournament chances.
During his postgame news conference, Sooners coach Porter Moser praised his team's resilience in the tough game.
"I think it's a lesson in life," Moser said. "Our faith in God; put you in tough situations and believing things, and I tell you what ... every day, we came in and talked about fighting through hard and believing and staying together. And these guys have been resilient.
"We've had some gut-punch losses, but I'm telling you how many people — we go at Florida, at Alabama — that's fun for these guys to come in and keep believing through adversity. It's such a lesson for life of fighting through hard."
Before the SEC Tournament, bracketologists had placed the Oklahoma Sooners in the March Madness bubble after finishing the regular season with pivotal wins against the Missouri Tigers and Texas Longhorns. The Sooners were ranked No. 45 in the NCAA NET rankings, and the win over Georgia gave them a Quad 1 victory since the Bulldogs were ranked No. 31 in the latest NET rankings.
Moser's team now has a 7-10 record against Quad 1 teams and a 4-1 record against Quad 2 teams, still placing them firmly in the NCAA Tournament bubble.