The Oklahoma State Cowboys may have the best player in college basketball in Marcus Smart and while everyone is raving over Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins, Smart might end up being the number one overall pick, but before that, OSU will play against Purdue in a big ESPN college basketball matchup for the Old Spice Classic and the matchup will be on TV on ESPN2 starting at 12:00 pm noon and will be live streaming on the WatchESPN website.
The team is coming off of a nice blowout win over the South Florida Bulls on Monday and after a long break they will play against Purdue and Markel Brown was the star in the victory, leading the team in scoring, boards and dishes with 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and now he has the chance to face a tough Big Ten team. The Big 12 is shaping up to be a very strong conference this season with Kansas and Baylor and both teams come into the game on Thursday undefeated with 5-0 records on the season and this should be one of the better early matchups of the season and could be the best game on Thanksgiving. The team is ranked second in scoring with over 100 points per game and one of the main reasons has been smart and the team has won every game by a large deficit.
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The Cowboys have blown out everyone and Purdue is the toughest opponent since playing against Memphis and that game wasn't close and after playing against the Boilermakers the team will be matching up with South Carolina the following day and Smart will be the main focus on offense for the Cowboys. Smart and Brown each had 25 points in the win and the two have combined for a great start to the season and they could be two of the best backcourt players in the country and they give Oklahoma State a great advantage in the conference and come tournament time they will be a team to watch out for.
The team is winning games by an average of nearly 40 points and the last time the two teams played was back in 1991 before some of these players were born and for the Cowboys, the offense will revolve around Brown and Smart, the two players leading the team in scoring. The conference looks like it will be very deep this season, as Iowa State is ranked in the top 20 and so is Baylor and the Bears are now 6-1 on the season, while OSU is 5-0 and Kansas is looking like a national title contender along with OSU because of the talented stars they have. Oklahoma has started undefeated as well and Texas Tech has five wins in seven games and that means the conference tournament could have upsets written all over it for many top matchups.
The Cowboys will have Smart playing aggressive on Thursday and Purdue comes in after winning over Siena and they will next play on Friday against Boston College and they come into the game ranked 38th in scoring and rebounding. The team has been solid shooting from the field at nearly 50 percent and Oklahoma State will have to play smart on defense and this could be their best chance at an upset loss in the early goings after five straight big wins. Purdue has played much closer games and the next current ranked teams on the schedule is Baylor and Iowa State all the way in February.
