Wednesday Marked the First Practice of the Cade Cunningham Era in Stillwater
STILLWATER – Today was the first official day of practice kicking off the start of the 2020-21 NCAA basketball season. Oklahoma State was on the main court in Gallagher-Iba Arena and the program livestreamed the two hour and fifteen-minute practice for fans to get a sneak peek at what’s to come.
You can watch the practice here.
Mike Boynton spoke with the media via Zoom prior to the practice and this is what he had to say about the importance of allowing the fans to watch the first practice of the Cade Cunningham era in Stillwater.
"Well today will be unique in the fact that we're not preparing for a game, so a lot of it is just nuts and bolts, right? But there is an excitement level because they haven't seen these guys,” coach Boynton said. “Most of them in a long time, some of them at all. Most of our fans have never seen Ferron Flavors, or Bryce Williams or Bernard Kouma. They haven't seen any highlights of them, they haven't seen anything about them. There's a novelty there, for lack of a better word, of seeing guys for the first time.
"I wish in some regards we could do this more often, I'm not sure I'm willing to commit to doing it every day. I don't want to give away all our secrets, but to give our fans so more perspective, like we do work on free throws. When we go 12 for 24 in a game it's not because we don't practice it. It's just because that's the way it happens sometimes. It's a great day today because it's the first practice, the excitement's there, like I said I look forward to the next — I guess we got 42 days from today we'll play our first game. It's a nice little carrot out there for everybody."
For most of the fan base, this is the first time they’ve seen an Oklahoma State practice. As Mike Boynton mentioned, this was also the first time many of them have gotten the chance to watch a majority of the news guys.
It being the first full practice, it certainly wasn’t a well-oiled machine, but these guys have been together since early July and that chemistry showed.
First thing’s first, Cade Cunningham is everything he was advertised to be. He’s quick on and off the ball and he has great vision on the court. Oh, and when it comes to passing? Cunningham has a chance to be one of the best passers in the conference this season.
He was dropping dimes halfway down the court to guys streaking down the court. We’re talking passes that some juniors and seniors couldn’t make. Coach Boynton told us before practice that there will be times where we see Cade playing multiple positions in a game and today, we got a glimpse at what that could look like. At one point, coach Boynton sent Cade down to the five spot and brought Kalib Boone up to the four spot. Interesting, but it’s something we’ll see at points throughout the season.
Logging on the watch the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2020 class were 21 NBA franchises and scouts. It's a big deal, not just because they're evaluating Cade, but it allows the rest of the guys to get in front of NBA scouts.
A couple of other items of note, Isaac Likekele is going to be one of the best players in the Big 12, and possibly the country this season. There weren’t many instances in today’s practice where he could be contained on offense, no matter who was guarding him, and there weren’t many situations where guys got by him when he was on defense.
Sophomore Chris Harris is back from the torn ACL he suffered in February. He looked good out on the court, had plenty of range and you couldn’t tell he was coming back from a serious knee injury.
"Chris is probably a little ahead of schedule I think structurally from what the doctors tell me,” coach Boynton said. “I only do what they tell us to do. It's as good as it's going to get from a structural standpoint, there's not lingering soreness. He gets a little fatigued quicker than he would otherwise. But he's come along very nicely, and obviously he's a guy whose presence is going to be needed as somebody who played for us last year and has some pretty good experience from just a competitive standpoint."
As for sharpshooting guard Ferron Flavors Jr., there weren’t too many instances where he was missing shots, especially from the wing and down into the corner.
Freshman wing Montreal Pena is an insane athlete. We found that out over the summer talking to coach Boynton, but there’s a good chance Pena is the most athletic guy on the team and it might not be close. He’s incredibly bouncy with a vertical of nearly 43-inches and hardly missed a shot from within 10 feet of the basket.
Sophomore Kalib Boone has continued his progression from the end of last season and should be more improved this season on the block. Something he needed to work on was being more physical on the block and it appears he’s gotten better with that. There’s still roughly a month and half before the start of the season and I think you’ll see continued improvement in that area.
The Cowboys, while young overall, have a chance to be really good this season. Led by Isaac Likekele and Cade Cunningham, this group has a lot of depth and athleticism at multiple positions. Rondel Walker has great speed on both ends of the court, Donovan Williams was making some difficult shots, as a whole, the team was moving the ball well. With the overall youth there's going to be some headaches and difficulties early on, but hopefully should iron themselves out as the season progresses into the 2021 portion.
“It was a good first day,” coach Boynton told his players following practice. “I’m gonna tell you something I tell everybody, today’s the first day of practice in college basketball for 353 teams in the country. I’m gonna bet that 350 of them had a good practice today. The three that had a bad practice today, they got no shot. My point is as we go along, can we have a good practice No. 2, because it won’t be 350 teams that have a good practice tomorrow. I don’t know, 300? It’s still gonna be a lot: excited, new, ready to go. Can we keep – basically you want to be the last man standing. You want to outlast the rest of the guys. Can we have a good practice No. 25, and at that point it’s going to be about 75 teams that are still having good practices. That’s the mindset, can we do every day, on the days we don’t feel good, on the days we’re tired, on the days were our mom was griping about something, our girlfriend pissed off at us or we didn’t get something turned in in class or coach is on my butt or whatever it is, can we come in with a focused mindset that our goals are bigger than our problems. Are our goals bigger than our problems day in and day out? That’s what it’s all about. If we can stay focused on that, we’ve got a chance to be really, really good.”
