Bedlam Wrap: This Boone Just Wanted to Have Fun
STILLWATER – Exactly one week ago in Gainesville, Fla. nobody with the Oklahoma State basketball team had any fun. Sure, the Pokes bombed in a bunch of three-pointers in the first half and had a 13-point halftime lead, but the worst second half of any game robbed the Cowboys of any sun on their trip to the sunshine state. A three-pointer with 2.2 seconds left in Manhattan, Kan. spelled defeat and the fourth loss in a row. That was followed by a longer trip home where snow and ice had the team land in Oklahoma City and take a bus that took twice the usual time to get back to Stillwater with a 3 a.m. arrival. Here comes Bedlam. Here comes the annual “Remember the 10” game. That constitutes a double dose of expectations and pressure. So, what do you do?
Kalib Boone soul searched and the much more squared away of the Boone twins. The more serious of the two brothers that keeps a routine, does his schoolwork before relaxing or hanging out with teammates. The Boone that brings more seriousness into the locker room and to practice decided it was time to have fun.
“The last few days of practice, I decided to go have fun,” Kalib Boone told the media in postgame. ”Go be me. Dance around. Laugh. Be who I’ve been the last two years. That’s what I was going to do.”
Boone did have fun. He’s always been the more regimented than his brother Keylan. It might be as simple as one being a post player by trade and the other playing on the wing and firing up three-pointers. It has crossed over into life off the basketball court. Funny, how it was just about a year ago that Oklahoma State needed a win to stay in NCAA Tournament contention and they got it with a double overtime 75-67 upset over No. 6-Texas. Kalib Boone was a difference maker with his 22-points, 15-rebounds, and five block shots.
Numbers weren’t as dramatic in Bedlam with 12-points and five rebounds, but just as needed for Boone and his team.
“I get frustrated with him as much as anybody,” Cowboys head coach Mike Boynton said. “But he knows that I love him like my own child. I just see so much in him. For him, he’s just got to figure out how to do it every day. That's the hard part. It’s what makes really good players really good, because they do separate themselves from the average person who can only do it every now and then.”
That quote was from a year ago after that win over Texas.
This was what Boynton had to say about Boone after the Bedlam win.
“He seemed to play with more joy today,” coach Mike Boynton said. “I was proud of him for being able to put those challenges behind him. And even more proud for how his teammates responded to him playing well. They were the ones in timeouts saying, ‘Let’s keep playing through him.’”
Now, Boone needs to find that magic place. The place where hard work and everyday dedication meets with fun and just being himself. This team needs both Boones to do what they do best. Keylan had 10 points, two steals and two blocked shots. When they do play like the Boones Cowboy fans know and love, everybody has more fun!