ESPN

Oklahoma State will be looking to break a three-game skid vs. SMU, which has won five of its last six games, in the opening game of the second annual Dallas Showcase at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night.

The game -- the first of a doubleheader -- is scheduled to tip off at 5:30 p.m. and will be telecast on ESPNU.

SMU (7-4), making its first appearance at the AAC, will be battling Oklahoma State for the first time since 2005. Three of the Mustangs' four losses have been by a combined nine points.

"With young players, sometimes they get ahead of themselves and think they are better than they are and then you take a step back," said SMU coach Matt Doherty, whose roster includes eight freshmen and two sophomores. "Hopefully we've taken some steps backwards and have gotten better. This will be a great test for us."

The Cowboys (6-5) aren't much older. OSU’s roster features six freshmen and one sophomore. Former Dallas Lincoln All-American Le'Bryan Nash, a 6-7, 230-pound freshman forward, leads OSU with 13.1 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.

"We have put our team in a very difficult situation as far as the schedule (is concerned)," OSU coach Travis Ford said. "We haven't played at home very often and we've played against teams much more experienced than us, but we're hoping at the end of the day it will help us get better down the road."

Tickets are on sale through Ticketmaster.com or at the American Airlines Center box office. Lower arena seats are priced at $29, $59 and $99. A portion of each ticket benefits Buckets and Boots, a Texas-based charity that supports volunteer firefighting efforts.

ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 335 Division I teams. Here is the first in our Insider series on the Big 12 and schools in the Metroplex:

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Versatility is the buzz word for Oklahoma State this season, and coach Travis Ford uses it with such bursting enthusiasm, such tent-revival conviction that you wonder if he has forgotten that he lost (very versatile) Big 12 Player of the Year James Anderson and (the also versatile) Obi Muonelo.

"We will be much more balanced than we've been and more athletic than we've been," Ford said, "which is what we've been looking for."

There will be a pretty significant learning curve for this team. That seems obvious with five newcomers, three of which will have to play a lot, two of which will be expected to score a lot, none of which were necessarily considered immediate-impact type players in the recruiting process.

To read the rest of this Insider content on the 2010-11 Oklahoma State basketball team, click here.

Many of the Big 12's basketball coaches embraced -- at least publicly on Monday's summer coaches teleconference -- the idea of playing an 18-game conference schedule in which the 10 teams will play everybody twice.

With 12 teams, the conference played a 16-game schedule in which teams played division teams twice and inter-division foes once.

Oklahoma State's Travis Ford, Baylor's Scott Drew and Missouri's Mike Anderson all talked about the positives of a balanced, 18-game schedule, such as crowning a true regular-season champion and retaining the league's high RPI. The Big 12 finished the 2009-10 season ranked as the No. 1 conference in both the RPI and Sagarin Ratings. When Nebraska and Colorado leave, the Big 12 will lose two of its poorer performers.

One coach, however, isn't exactly thrilled about the extended conference season. Texas A&M coach Mark Turgeon said. Turgeon called it a grind and said it could force him to dial down his non-conference scheduling.

"As a coach, I think it's really, really tough. I was in the Missouri Valley [Conference] with 18 [games], I was in the Pac-10 with 18. I'd much rather play 16," Turgeon said. "Scheduling, you can get out and find you a couple more [non-conference] games, get a couple more wins and now you got a couple more tough games. Of course, our league is going to be really tough. I saw coaches, I know the Big East went to 18, it's a grind, 16's a grind. It's hard and then you add two more. It makes it really tough on a basketball team.

"I think our non-conference scheduling may change a little bit. I've always been real aggressive scheduling non-conference, we play a lot of quality opponents. That might change in the future. We might not play quite as many because I know I have two extra games in the league. It will be interesting, but I know it's tougher on coaches, but it's great for the fans."

Hard-nosed Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford is an early candidate for Big 12 coach of the year. The former Kentucky Wildcat returned the Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament last season and there's been no slippage in his second year despite voters in both polls keeping OSU out of the Top 25.

Impressive wins at Kansas State and at home against Texas A&M have paced the Cowboys (16-4) to a 4-2 Big 12 record. Now they seek a first conference road win today at Missouri (15-5, 3-2). Coach Mike Anderson's Tigers are 12-0 at home. The Cowboys have dropped road games at Oklahoma and Baylor.

OSU is led by a dynamic backcourt featuring Big 12 leading scorer James Anderson (22.1 ppg) and Obi Muonelo (13.0), who scored 24 points in Wednesday's 76-69 win over A&M.