STILLWATER – When Oklahoma State takes the court this coming Saturday down in Lubbock against Texas Tech, it will be the first time they’ve played a game since Dec. 20 against Texas. This is an unusual amount of time to have off in between games, but as we all know, 2020 has been an unusual year.
The team showed up in the June and have had a rather unusual time up until this point. They’ve been tested several times a week, they’re highly encouraged not to go out and possibly get exposed to COVID-19 and possibly spread it throughout the locker room.
Just like football, Mike Boynton and Co. have done a great job and limiting expose to virus, but with such a crazy start to the season, the players were allowed to take advantage of the time off in between conference games to go home and see their families. As many would’ve guessed, the time away from school and being back at home with family was just what the guys needed.
“I did,” head coach Mike Boynton said of seeing players come back with a renewed sense of focus. “This is not an excuse, just the reality of what it is: we’ve had these guys here since basically the last week in June and asked them to not do anything except show up to practice and go to class and go to the weight room and they’ve done that. So, they all needed a couple of days to go home and kind of recharge the battery, decompress, reevaluate things and they all came back with great energy, great attitudes, be able to look at things as what they are, not what we hoped they’d be and figure out how we can control a little bit better. I’ve been pleased with how we’ve practiced the last week.”
One of the many downsides to this pandemic has been travel restrictions and MA Moncrieffe dealt with that first hand. The Canadian government has implemented a travel ban up North, meaning that Moncrieffe had to spend the break here in Stillwater. He said he spent a lot of time on FaceTime with his family, which made being away from him easier, but that the break was good for him to reset everything and come back rested and ready to go.
“I spent the break in Stillwater, Oklahoma,” said Moncrieffe. “It was a quiet break, I just pretty much relaxed. I got a couple of days off, just rested and took care of my body.”
The Cowboys played only six games heading into conference play, rather than the normal 12-15 non-conference games. Boynton and Co. also had the chance of playing another non-conference game at some point between the Texas and Texas Tech games, but with players traveling and being outside the program, they were advised against it until they knew no one had the virus. Pair that with having the last two weeks off and things are looking a little different for the Pokes this Saturday in terms of conditioning and preparedness.
“I don’t know what to expect [on Saturday], but again, some of this stuff isn’t normal,” said coach Boynton. “We normally play a game in the last couple of days to see where [we are], but that wasn’t advised. Some teams figured out a way to do it; I just don’t want to take a chance that we have to miss some conference games to play a game that’s not really gonna have any tangible affect on our season. We did try to scrimmage quite a bit and practiced and get up and down [the court]. I think our guys are in good shape, we’ll see. We know it will be a physical game. We’ve got a long nine weeks, or whatever it is, ahead of us and look forward to seeing how our guys respond to the time away.”
The Pokes tip off against the Red Raiders this coming Saturday in Lubbock at 3 p.m. CT on Big 12 Now on ESPN+.
