(Pokes Report publusher Robert Allen contributed to this story.)
STILLWATER – Mike Boynton and Co. wasted no time in making an offseason splash. Oklahoma State center Moussa Cisse took to Twitter on Friday to announce he’s returning for the 2022 season.
Following the season, the Big 12 announced Cisse as the Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year. He led the conference in blocks with 54 on the year, averaging 1.86 blocks per game. In his first season in Stillwater, he also finished the year averaging 7.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 56% from the field.
The seven-footer was also named the Big 12 All-Defensive league, the first OSU player selected to the team since the 2015 season.
Meeting with the media on Wednesday of this week, head coach Mike Boynton was uncertain of the future of Cisse and many of his current players. Boynton had hinted that other schools were tampering with OSU players and trying to get them in the transfer portal. Cisse was also a possibility to explore professional options including playing overseas.
“Kids need time to decompress,” Boynton said to the media on Wednesday and Cisse was a focus of his comments. “He’s 19 years old. He doesn’t need to make a big decision about what can affect his entire life without really sitting back and giving it some thought, Kids should be allowed to do whatever they want, but they should have the opportunity to step away from the emotion of the moment and really talk to people who can really kind of help them decipher whether it’s real that they need a new start or that they just don’t like how things are going right now.
Boynton said he had conversations with Cisse, albeit briefly after the final game with Texas Tech where his block at the end of the game and play overall was huge in the upset win.
“We talked about how this process needs to go,” Boynton explained. “At the end of the day, he’ll make the decision that he feels is in his best interest for his future, but I feel like we did have a positive conversation initially.”
This is a huge get for Boynton and Co. heading into the offseason as it was believed Cisse would try his hand in the NBA Draft once again as he did prior to coming to Stillwater last summer. This eliminates pressure for the coaching staff to have to recruit another center into the program.
Cisse transferred to Oklahoma State from Memphis over the 2021 summer. He was tabbed the AAC Freshman of the Year as he averaged 6.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in 28 games.
Cisse obviously sees value in staying in Stillwater and working in the Oklahoma State program. Meanwhile, Boynton has one of his best possible recruits for next season and it happens to be a player already lockering in Gllagher-Iba Arena.
“I don’t want to get ahead of anybody’s news, good or bad. I think there will be some really positive news, but I think there will probably be some unfortunate situations as well,” Boynton said being a prophet on Wednesday. “My job is to make sure the people in that office up there are doing the necessary things to be prepared for whatever happens. I don’t expect to have 12 new faces, but if we have to have 12 new ones, we’ll try to have 12 really good new faces.”
With another year in the program and weight room, if he continues to make progress as he did throughout the last few months of the season, Cisse has a legitimate chance to be a candidate for the Big 12 Player of the Year next season.
I think it's safe to say that if a guy's going to return if he transferred into the program, which would be Moussa, Bryce Thompson, Tyreek Smith and Woody Newton. They've already used their free transfer year coming here and would have to sit if they left for another school. Moussa was my concern to go pro, but not transfer.CaliforniaCowboy said:
That is freaking awesome!!
We need Thompson to commit too, maybe Anderson if he doesn't go Pro.
I hope Walker stays too.
