After averaging 15.4 points in a stellar freshman season, many people were left puzzled when Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart decided to return to the team for his sophomore season. According to Tulsa World, Smart is crediting the team’s loss to Oregon in the NCAA tournament as the reason he decided to wait another year before entering the NBA. A loss that hurts so bad he has still not watched the film from that game.
“I didn’t think me nor the team gave it our all against Oregon,” Smart said. “It left a disgusting taste in my mouth. We haven’t even watched the Oregon video yet, and I’m pretty sure Coach is doing that for a reason because he knows how disgusted we are about it and he knows how hyped it’s going to get us when we look at it.
“We’re going to look at it and be, like, ‘That was the team that came out and played that night?’ It’s just going to motivate us to play every game and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
If you saw that game in last year’s NCAA tournament this should come as no shock to you. The Oklahoma State Cowboys came out flat and played like they were ready to go on Spring Break. The team who is ranked No. 8 in national rankings and a co-favorite to win the Big 12 will take last year’s early elimination and use it as motivation to go above and beyond expectations. No player with Marcus Smart’ ability would put the NBA on hold for another year for anything less than an NCAA championship. That is exactly what they plan to do in Stillwater.
