SMU Basketball gets first glimpse of Andy Enfield era with exhibition game at Oklahoma State
SMU Basketball heads to Oklahoma State for a charity exhibition game that’ll tip at 11 a.m. CT on Saturday at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Admission and parking for the exhibition are free with The Eddie Sutton Foundation collecting donations to benefit the American Heart Association, but the game won’t be televised. So, On The Pony Express will await news of the exhibition and how it goes for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs’ inaugural season in the ACC opens at Moody Coliseum on Nov. 4. SMU will play an 11-game non-conference schedule before opening ACC play against Virginia on Dec. 7.
Head coach Andy Enfield took the helm of the SMU program following 11 seasons at USC, where he led the Trojans to five of the last eight NCAA Tournaments, including a run to the Elite Eight in 2021.
“There’s a lot of energy in the city of Dallas around SMU community for the ACC,” Enfield said at ACC Tip-Off. “To play in this league, to have the quality of teams that are going to come in on a weekly basis into Moody Coliseum is really exciting. What the Mavericks did for the city to go to the championship, you could just feel the energy. We feel that at SMU now, the energy of going into the ACC. We can’t wait for the season to start.”
Enfield brought in seven transfers and three freshmen while retaining three players off last year’s roster.
“Brand new team. We’ve had players with big game experience, like the two gentlemen here with Boopie and Chuck,” Enfield said. “Quite a few of our players have played in the power conferences before and played in some high-profile and big games. So we have a very experienced basketball team, and as far as individual goals they came here to try to win a championship, and they know they have to do that together. How many points you average doesn’t matter.
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“We have to have scoring obviously, but we’re so impressed as a coaching staff with their attitude, their unselfish spirit, and they know that they have to rely on each other to have a season we want to have.”
The schedule includes seven teams that made the postseason last year. SMU’s pre-league slate includes a home matchup with Mississippi State (Nov. 22), a neutral-site game versus LSU (Dec. 14) at Comerica Center in Frisco (SMU Tickets vs LSU), a road game at Butler (Nov. 15) and two games in the Acrisure Holiday Invitational (Nov. 26-27).
SMU’s inaugural ACC home slate includes Virginia (Dec. 7), Duke (Jan. 4), Georgia Tech (Jan. 11), Louisville (Jan. 21), Cal (Jan. 29), Stanford (Feb. 1), Pitt (Feb. 11), Wake Forest (Feb. 15), Clemson (Feb. 22) and Syracuse (Mar. 4). (SMU Season Tickets)
The Mustangs’ road ACC contests are Boston College (Dec. 21), North Carolina (Jan. 7), Virginia (Jan. 15), Miami (Jan. 18), N.C. State (Jan. 25), Virginia Tech (Feb. 5), Notre Dame (Feb. 19), Cal (Feb. 26), Stanford (Mar. 1) and Florida State (Mar. 8).
