Could COVID-19 Actually Help Cowboy Basketball into the NCAA Tournament?
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State head basketball coach Mike Boynton was on with SiriusXM Big 12 This Morning co-hosts Ari Tempkin and former Iowa State and NFL quarterback Dave Archer on Tuesday morning to talk Oklahoma State basketball. The Cowboys will open the hoops season on Nov. 25 down in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex in Arlington against UTA as they will take junior guard Isaac Likekele and freshman star Cade Cunningham home for the first game of the season and the first of Cunningham's career. The hope is that those two and all their teammates will be eligible to end the season playing in the NCAA Tournament. That is resting on an appeal filed by Oklahoma State with the NCAA.
You also have to make it to the tournament and the Cowboys are challenged some with youth on the front line as sophomore Kalib Boone, freshman from Canada in 6-7 Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe and others like transfer Bernard Kouma (6-10, 240) and freshman Montreal Pena (6-10, 200) will have to help in the paint and at the glass.
"I'm not sure, if we've shot a 1000 balls in practice so far ... and we've shot more than that... if we've missed 500 of them, which would be a high percentage of makes, the other 500, the offense gets the rebound about 80 percent of the time. So, I say that to say, we're not a very good defensive rebounding team right now," Boynton said with some discouraging notes in his voice. "That scares me to no end, not because we're not capable. We just don't understand the urgency. We're actually playing pretty good defense. We're probably better defensively than I'll let my players believe, but you can't be a really good defensive team if you don't rebound well. It's just plain and simple.
Head coach Mike Boynton mixes is up with players in the half court in the first practice of the season.
Bruce Waterfield - Oklahoma State University Athletics
On the other hand the shooting has been good, the ball handling pretty good, the passing good on most days. Yes, the guards including Likekele, Cunningham, Rondel Walker, transfer Ferron Flavors, Chris Harris, Jr., and Avery Anderson III are all doing well.
"Our guard play is terrific," Boynton said of the team's strength at this point. "Quite simply put, there's no one in the country who I would rather have their group of guards over mine."
Strong statement.
Fans can see what they think this Thursday with another live streamed practice.
Boynton and everybody connected to Oklahoma State basketball hopes that Boynton and Oklahoma State put together a strong statement for the appeal to the NCAA over the ridiculous penalties handed out to the Cowboys over the transgressions including the bribes that former assistant coach Lamont Evans.
"If you look at all the preseason stuff and they all list us as not being eligible for postseason because they know that we are, but once we appeal that penalty is stayed, for lack of a better term. That's a legal term for saying not in effect now. If the tournament were played today we're eligbile. If the tournament is played before the appeal is final, then we're eligible for the tournament. We are eligible for the NCAA Tournament pending the outcome of the appeal. If they come back and uphold the ruling before the tournament then we would not be eligible."
Oklahoma State did not profit at all from Evans' greed. Evans kept the money and did not share it. He didn't buy any players with it in recruiting or even attempt to use in on current players. Still, the NCAA hammered the Cowboys with a postseason tournament ban.
"It's moving along, but it is moving along more slowly than it usually does," Boynton explained of the appeal OSU worked on and submitted over the summer. "You know COVID has a lot to do with that. We'll see, but we feel we have a strong argument. We feel like we presented a pretty good case and we feel like we will present ourselves pretty strongly when we go before the appeals committee. By nature appeals are hard to win. We feel we will have a strong case and we will see."
Many feel this team will be talented, will be really good led by the veteran Likekele and the 6-7 freshman point guard and speculative first pick in the 2021 NBA Draft in Cunningham. Now, the initial Associated Press College Basketball Poll didn't really think so. Gonzaga was No. 1 by a very slim one-point over Big 12 favorite Baylor. Kansas was No. 6, Texas Tech at No. 14, West Virginia and coach Bob Huggins at No. 15, and Texas at No. 19. The only OSU in the poll was Ohio State at No. 23.
"I don't put a lot of stock in preseason opinions," Boynton told the duo on SiriusXM, but Boynton did say he likes his team and he said he wouldn't trade guards with anybody in the country.
That sounds like if the appeal is successful or if the COVID-19 delays the committee from getting it looked at and a decision made, then Oklahoma State may be dancing for the first time in March under Boynton.
