The No. 15 Oklahoma State University Cowboys (11-0) basketball team hits the road to play the University of Tennessee Volunteers (7-2) at the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville tonight with tip-off at 7 p.m. (EST). OSU is a slight favorite giving a 3 ½-point chalk with a total of 150 ½. The game will be televised nation-wide on ESPN2.
Tennessee is getting a return visit from OSU following the Vols trip to Oklahoma City Dec. 22, 2005 where the Vols suffered their worst defeat of the season 89-73.
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Both teams might be a little rusty since it’s been over a week since either has played due to final exams week layoff. The Vols last played on Dec. 6 in Knoxville when they defeated Western Kentucky 57-49. The Cowboys last laced them up on Dec.9 against Ball State in the San Diego Slam tournament 75-56.
Coaches Bruce Pearl of Tennessee and Sean Sutton have enjoyed early success as head coaches at their respective schools. Pearl went 30-10 in his first year as Vols coach in 2005 and is 7-2 in 2006. Pearl is 1-1 this season against ranked teams with a win 76-58 win over No. 16 Memphis and the loss at North Carolina 101-87. Overall Pearl has a 347-94 record coaching college basketball mostly at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
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Sutton is in his first year as a head coach at any level succeeding his father Eddie Sutton who retired as OSU’s coach after the 2005 season and has guided his team to an 11-0 start for just the fifth time in school history. The last time OSU went 11-0 was in 1991-92 when Sutton was a senior guard on the team.
The Cowboys are led on the court this year by Mario Boggan, a 6-foot-7; 247-pound forward-center who began is collegiate career at Florida. Bogan leads Oklahoma State with 20.5 points and 7.1 rebounds per game and has scored at least 20 points in eight of OSU's 11 games.
For the Vols, Chris Lofton has moved into second place on UT's career 3-pointers list with 41 triples this season pushing his career total to 248. Allan Houston (1989-93) holds the school record with 346 3-pointers.
