For the second time in a year, the Sooners’ third-year men’s basketball coach has shot down a rumor connecting him with an opening elsewhere.

(Eli Lederman’s “OU Week in Review” newsletter hits inboxes every Saturday morning. Subscribe here.)

NORMAN — For the second February in a row, Oklahoma men’s basketball coach Porter Moser has shut down rumors linking him with an open job elsewhere.

You might recall last winter when Moser’s name popped up around Notre Dame’s coaching search after Mike Brey announced his plans to leave the Fighting Irish. Moser shot down his rumored interest in a move to South Bend with gusto at the time; “Oklahoma is my home. The Sooners are my home,” he said on Feb. 13, 2023.

On Monday, Moser got another chance to affirm his commitment to OU 364 days later, this time knocking down a rumor connecting the Sooners’ third-year coach with the open position at DePaul back in his home state of Illinois.

“I haven’t talked to anybody. I’m not even thinking about anything. Absolutely not even engaging in anything like that — 100%,” Moser told reporters Monday afternoon. “Same comment as last year. All rumor-mill fodder. Nothing, nothing true.”

Moser delivered his latest stiff-arm with OU sitting at 18-6 (6-5 Big 12) and ranked 25th in the latest AP Top 25 rankings ahead of Tuesday’s visit to No. 12 Baylor (8 p.m., ESPN2/U). 

With seven regular season games remaining, the Sooners hit the road just two wins shy of eclipsing the previous Moser-era high of 19 wins set in 2021-22. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi listed the Sooners as a No. 6-seed in his latest NCAA Tournament projection. OU has not made the 64-team field since Moser replaced Lon Kruger.

DePaul’s search for its next men’s basketball coach began last month when the school fired third-year coach Tony Stubblefield after a 3-15 start. The Demons are currently led by interim coach Matt Brady, the assistant who left Moser’s staff several months after his hiring in the fall of 2022 citing “personal reasons.”

A commonality between the two jobs Moser has been linked with in the last 365 days: both pulled on his home roots. 

Last year, Moser acknowledged his long-held respect for Notre Dame as “a Catholic kid from Chicago.” As for DePaul, the Demons’ Wintrust Arena sits 10 miles from the campus of Loyola, where Moser spent 10 seasons leading the Ramblers and culminating with a Final Four appearance in 2018.

Moser’s name is bound to pop up again the next time a job opens in or around Chicago. As long as the Sooners are rolling as they are now, and as long as that open spot isn’t Northwestern, perhaps the most tempting destination back home in Chicago, Moser appears plenty content with what he has in Norman. 

“I’m so excited about where we’re at with the team,” he said Monday. “This is everything I’ve tried to build for, is being in this position.”