Shaka Smart has plenty of experience against Oklahoma.
Porter Moser has plenty of experience in Chicago.
Smart’s Marquette squad and Moser’s Oklahoma team square off in the Bad Boy Mowers Series in Chicago on Friday afternoon.
Smart went 7-5 against the Sooners in six seasons as the coach at Texas from 2015-21.
Moser spent a decade coaching at Loyola Chicago, leading the Ramblers to two NCAA Tournament appearances and one Final Four.
The Sooners have won back-to-back games, including Sunday’s 72-53 win over Alcorn State, since dropping a game to Nebraska 105-99 on Nov. 15.
After that game, Moser challenged his team to make significant strides defensively.
“Gotta be better defensively, and I thought we have three out of the four halves,” Moser said.
Oklahoma is led by Nijel Pack, who is averaging 18.5 points. Xzayvier Brown is averaging 16.0 points, 3.2 assists and 1.8 steals. Tae Davis and Derrion Reid are also scoring in double figures.
“We need more guys playing their roles,” Moser said. “Not everybody can be their leading scorer, not everybody has the green light that Nijel Pack has, but it doesn’t mean everybody doesn’t have huge value.”
The Sooners (4-2) have also gotten a recent boost from the return of Jadon Jones, who missed the season’s first four games due to injury.
Friday’s game will be the Golden Eagles’ second in Chicago this season.
They lost 100-77 to Indiana there on Nov. 9.
Marquette (4-3) is led by Chase Ross, who is averaging 20.9 points and 4.3 assists.
Ross is coming off a 27-point game in the Golden Eagles’ 85-71 win over Central Michigan on Saturday where he was 7-of-8 from the floor and hit 12 free throws with seven assists.
No other Marquette player is averaging more than 10.6 points per game.
“Right now, we’ve got one really confident guy out there and then we’ve got a lot of other guys trying to figure it out,” Smart said. “That’s just kind of our reality. So our job is to keep working to build and build and build the understanding of what’s going to go into success for us as a team first and foremost but also the individuals.”
