It’s High Noon.

Marcus Smart Returns to the Court for Celtics:

Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

Former Oklahoma State great, Marcus Smart, has spent the past 6 weeks recovering from thumb surgery. Smart has been on the bench watching a young, injury-ridden #2 seed fight off Giannis Antetokounmpo and crew in the first round the of the NBA Playoffs. With the series tied, 2-2, the Celtics received good news before Game 5.

Smart went through warmups and the team and him decided it was time to make his return. Smart played for 25 minutes and had 9 points , 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and a steal. Smarts on-court impact in the NBA hasn’t always appeared on box scores. His toughness, high motor and ability to defend four-to-five different positions is the reason he will be in the league for a long time.

Check out yesterday’s highlights!

Loryn Goodwin’s Dream Comes True:

In the WNBA Draft on April 12, the Dallas Wings selected Goodwin in the second round with the No. 18 pick. Goodwin didn’t have a watch party for the draft, but she said she instantly screamed hearing her name announced.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, they picked me. Dallas picked me,’” Goodwin said. “Then, my mom called me immediately, screaming, too. It was a real experience for it to be happening after so long and having this be a dream since I was a kid. It finally came true.”

Here’s a really cool article here from Nathan Hiatt (O’Colly).

There probably isn’t a better situation for a point guard than sitting behind Diggins-Smith and learning from an All-Pro, right? Good luck to Loryn in her WNBA career! Oklahoma State will always be supporting!!!

Is Mike Boynton Looking to add BYU to Non-Conference Schedule?

Another potential team to keep an eye on is Oklahoma State. The Cowboys have been looking during the past month to schedule a home-and-home series with a top 100 RPI team. BYU has expressed interest in scheduling a series, but to my knowledge nothing has been officially agreed upon yet.

In a interview with BYU Sports Nation a couple weeks ago, Dave Rose mentioned OSU as a team that didn’t make the NCAA tournament this season because of lackluster non-conference scheduling.

One of the big arguments against Oklahoma State for making it into the tournament this past season was the low RPI rankings of our non-conference opponents. BYU’s RPI was was 68th last season. If we replaced one of our 300+ RPI opponents with the 68th RPI opponent, would we have made it in to the tournament?

It looks like Mike Boynton isn’t planning to give the committee the opponent RPI excuse again. BYU would be a really good get for the Cowboys schedule, but the fact that Mike is even talking with good teams to get them on the schedule is proof that he isn’t happy with missing the Big Dance. I’m sure more scheduling rumors will be popping up here in the near future.

CRFF News: Marcell Ateman Talks with our own Tyler Wiederhoeft

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GO POKES!