OSU Hoops: Boynton Provides Roster and Injury Updates

STILLWATER – The Oklahoma State men’s basketball team has been off the court and all activities have been paused due to COVID-19 precautions since shortly after the 75-70 upset of No. 6 Kansas. Monday was the first time Mike Boynton has been available to the media since the Kansas game, and he provided some injury updates during a “house-cleaning” opening statement.

“I think it’s kind of floated out there now, and obviously I wanted to address this before it did, but obviously we’ve been here; Montreal Pena is not with us. He’s opted out, [it’s a] personal decision that we talked about” said coach Boynton. “I’m still in contact with him, but he needed to step away from college right now to get things in order.”

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The news about Pena broke over the weekend after junior walk-on guard Dee Mitchell was surprised at work by the coaching staff that he was being put on scholarship.

NCAA basketball teams are allotted 13 total scholarships and Mitchell would’ve put the Pokes at 14. With Pena not being seen or heard from since before the season-opener in November, common sense told us his scholarship went to Mitchell.

However, Boynton also said there’s a 50/50 chance Pena could return to the program at some point after this semester. It’s been talked about and the discussion is on the table.

He also confirmed the news about Chris Harris having season ending knee surgery, as well as released the news that freshman guard Donovan Williams has re-injured the same knee in which he tore his ACL in high school. Williams will miss the rest of the season. He’ll have a procedure/surgery on it, but it has yet to be scheduled.

“Chris Harris had surgery and Donovan Williams is going to have surgery,” said coach Boynton. “It’s not scheduled yet, but we’re working on getting that scheduled. He had an MRI done last Thursday and we got the results back on Friday. So, we’re dealing with a little bit of an injury issue here.

As for guard Ferron Flavors, he’ll have the cast removed on Tuesday and his hand reevaluated.

“Ferron Flavors is going to get reevaluated [Tuesday] I believe,” said coach Boynton. “I think he’s gonna get his cast off his hand and then have an evaluation with our medical team and hopefully he can return to practice when we get back.”

As of Monday, Jan. 19, the game against Baylor in Stillwater this coming Saturday, Jan. 23 is still on.

The news broke last Friday the first Bedlam matchup of the season had been postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test within the Oklahoma State program. All team operations and activities had been put on hold and players haven’t been back since last week.

“Our hope after this [COVID] pause, we’ll know more probably tonight or first thing tomorrow morning when we can return to practice,” said coach Boynton. “Fingers are crossed we can return to practice sometime in the next couple of days, and if we do so, the plan would be to try to get back on the court before our next game versus Baylor.”