OSU Hoops Can Use Cowboy Football as Motivation Ahead of Big 12 Play

STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State football team capped a great 2023 season with a 31-23 win over former Big 12 foe, Texas A&M, in the Texas Bowl. They finished with a 10-4 record, the eighth 10-win season under Mike Gundy. 

It was a rather difficult start to the season as they started 2-2, with losses to South Alabama and Iowa State and the two wins were tough to come by over Central Arkansas and Arizona State. They then rattled off five wins in a row, including three against ranked opponents, one of which was OU in the last Bedlam for some time.

The resiliancy Mike Gundy and Co. showed this season could be, and should be, applied in the building in the east end zone. 

“I thought it was just a tremendous example of a team having the ability to stay locked in through the noise,” Mike Boynton said during his availability ahead of the New Year’s Eve game against South Carolina State. “It's hard. We've talked about it before; when things don't go well, the reaction extremes can sometimes be hard for young folks. That his staff -- and him as the leader -- were able to keep that thing together and figure out a way to finish with a phenomenal season -- hats off to him.

The Cowboy basketball team has had a rough start to the 2023-24 season. They’re 6-5 on the season, with home losses to Abilene Christian and Creighton, a road loss to Southern Illinois and neutral losses to St. Bonaventure and Notre Dame.

They are, however, riding a three-game win streak, with a chance to enter Big 12 play riding a five-game win streak.

There’s been a lot of noise around this team the first two months of the season, something Boynton talked about with Gundy and the football team. The round ball Pokes have had 11 days off, with five of those keeping the guys out of the facility and with families and friends. Nothing like a hard reset.

“We feel like a lot of the things that we struggle with are fixable. And, obviously, that's important, because this isn't the NBA where there's a trade deadline sometime in the next month or so where you can go get a different body. We like the pieces. Our margin of error is clearly not as great as maybe some other teams out there, with as many young guys as we're playing, but I think we can get them to understand that sense of urgency over the next week before we start conference play.“

Sunday’s tipoff against South Carolina State is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT and will be streamed on ESPN+. They’ll then host Chicago State on Wednesday, Jan. 3 at 6 p.m. These won’t be the two toughest teams the Pokes will play this season, but certainly two teams to help the Pokes right the ship a little bit more before the gauntlet that is Big 12 play, which starts with hosting now-ranked No. 17 Baylor, which is 10-2 on the season.