#7 Oklahoma State versus #11 Memphis Live Radio Broadcast: How Will Marcus Smart Shoot In His Team's First Test?
ByTuesday night's most anticipated men's college basketball game will feature #11 Memphis (1-0) at #7 Oklahoma State (3-0) tonight at 8 pm E.T. on ESPN.
Despite losing current Kentuck head coach John Calipari several seasons ago, current head coach Josh Pastner has kept the Tigers on the national radar. They've made it to the tournament in his last three seasons, including a 30-4 record and a Sweet 16 appearance last season. Pastern and Memphis begin their first year in the newly formed American Athletic Conference, which includes Big East cast-aways #3 Louisville and #18 Connecticut.
"It's hard to ignore. You see Memphis on the schedule and knowing that they're one of the top teams in the country and we're playing them at home is hard to ignore," OSU guard Markell Brown, who scored 22 points in his team's 97-63 win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff last Friday Night, told ESPN. "We have to set it aside and focus on the other teams that come in and I think coach (Travis Ford) did a good job putting the schedule together. We played three very decent teams that prepared us for this Memphis game."
They couldn't have been too decent, or else Oklahoma State deserves to be the top ranked team in the country. The Cowboys have crushed a slew of specifically named state universities (which haven't been good since George Hill's IUPUI squad): Mississippi Valley State, Utah Valley, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff.
Naismath Award candidate Marcus Smart hasn't yet hit his full stride statistically, though he's mostly been filling up the box score, including a 14 point, 9 steal, 5 assist, 4 rebound, and 1 turnover game versus Utah Valley. He's shooting just 40 percent from the floor, one of the things scouts didn't like about his game before the season. We'll see how the beefy, 6-foot-4 guard plays in his first test tonight.
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