Cowboys Set for Senior Day Showdown with Iowa State

There's going to be plenty of pomp and circumstance during Oklahoma State's Saturday Senior Day showdown with Iowa State.

Oklahoma State (14-14, 4-11) vs Iowa State (11-16, 4-10)
Date / Tipoff: Feb. 29, 2020 / 3 p.m. CT
Site: Gallagher-Iba Arena (13,611)
Series: Iowa State leads 66-65 (OSU leads 38-18 in Stillwater)
Last: Iowa State won 89-82 on Jan. 21 in Ames
TV: ESPNU (Clay Matvick, King McClure)
Webcast: WatchESPN app or espn.com/watch
Radio: Cowboy Radio Network (Dave Hunziker, John Holcomb)
Satellite Radio: XM 383

STILLWATER – Even though Saturday’s game against Iowa State isn’t the final home game of the season, Oklahoma State has planned its Senior Day festivities before the opening tip. I’m actually a big fan of hosting Senior Day on Saturday compared to an 8 p.m. tip on Wednesday, March 4 against Kansas State. This gives fans a better opportunity to come out and honor the seniors that’s given so much to the program.

There are six seniors being honored prior to tipoff by Cowboy legend Tony Allen; four that have been with the program their entire careers – Cameron McGriff, Lindy Waters, Thomas Dziagwa and Trey Reeves – grad transfer Jonathan Laurent and walk-on JK Hadlock.

As for Tony Allen, this will be his first time back to Oklahoma State since being drafted in the first round of the 2004 NBA Draft.

I got the chance to ask coach Boynton on Thursday what this senior class means to him. He had the opportunity to recruit both Lindy and Thomas while he was on staff at Stephen F. Austin, then got to spend all four years at Oklahoma State with this group of seniors.

“Maybe the most meaningful [Senior Day] I’ve been a part of so far,” coach Boynton said. “I hope there are many more, but these guys had an opportunity when Brad [Underwood] left to say ‘You know what, no thanks. I’ve been through enough here. I want to move on and start something new. I’m not really sure you can coach anyway.’ But they believed in me, believed in this program and believed in each other. They’ve given me a chance here the first three years as a head coach to figure it out a little bit. Kind of start to establish a little bit of an identity. They haven’t bucked what we’ve tried to do as a staff, they’ve never showed a bad attitude. Haven’t always played great, but that’s a part of the deal. So, whenever this program is rolling in a few years and we’re having success, the kids on that team won’t be more important than those three guys that we’re going to lose this year in terms of the process of getting to that point. So, I’ll always think very, very highly of those kids.”

The last time out, the Cyclones came away with an 89-82 win in Ames. Since then, Oklahoma State has been playing its best basketball of their Big 12 slate. But it’s going most likely going to be a down-to-the-wire game as 10 of the last 15 games between OSU and ISU have been decided by nine points or less.

With sophomore guard Tyrese Haliburton out with an injury, the Cyclones are led by sophomore guard Rasir Bolton and redshirt junior Solomon Young. Bolton’s averaging 14.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game, while Young’s averaging 9.9 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.

In fact, it was a career-high 27 points from Young that helped push the Cyclones to their last win over the Pokes. Since then, Oklahoma State’s focused more on playing from the inside out and has done very well in the paint. The battle in the paint is going to be a fun one to watch.