OSU Hoops Notebook: Pokes Prepare for Exhibition Against Rogers State
STILLWATER -- Oklahoma State is fresh off a secret scrimmage against the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and preparing for their season-opening exhibition against Rogers State on Friday night.
Head coach Mike Boynton met with the media on Wednesday to discuss the previous few weeks including the Marcus Watson suspension and how the team's preparing for Rogers State.
The biggest news surrounding OSU basketball right now is the suspension of guard Marcus Watson. Watson was accused of rape last week and news of his suspension broke on Saturday, Oct. 26.
"No, at this point, I know exactly what's been published publicly," said head coach Mike Boynton on if he had any new information. "It's an unfortunate situation, but at this point, that's all we have."
With the start of the season nearly upon us, does the suspension of Marcus Watson throw a wrench in to the rotation? Not according to Mike Boynton.
"Well, there's no rotation yet," said coach Boynton. "We haven't played, so the guys who performed the best in practice, will have an opportunity. As it relates to [Marcus Watson], he's obviously not a part of the conversation at this point."
Each time we've met with coach Boynton, he's discussed how the Cowboys have had a great stretch of practices. But this time, he said that the guys were at a point where they needed a break from playing each other. So, they set out a scrimmage with Tulsa. A super-secret scrimmage that no one knew about until the basketball Twitter account sent out photos and a short video.
"We actually, and I think it was a good thing, we stumbled a little bit at the beginning of last week and had a couple of not great practices," said Boynton. "We needed that. We needed a little bit of recharging, they needed to see someone else, so going into the scrimmage, I was really focused on seeing how they would respond to not having a couple of good practices leading in. They responded really well. I was pleased with the things that we were able to do based off of practices and how the guys are starting to understand their roles within the team."
It was a great scrimmage that's prepared the team for it's next task, an exhibition against Rogers State to unofficially kick off of the season.
"Coach [Justin] Barkley does a great job; [Rogers State] has got a couple of Division 1 transfers that will come in here and be excited about the opportunity to compete against a Big 12 team," said coach Boynton. "So, our guys need to prepare the right way the next two days to play against a team that's going to come here and try to win.
The game is scheduled to take place this Friday at 7 p.m. and will be broadcasted on ESPN+.
