Boynton's Tone Changing Some as Pressure Mounts

STILLWATER – Full transparency: a combination of words and a term I’ve used quite frequently this past week, more so with football and the transfer portal. The transparency is that I have not been to many of Mike Boynton’s postgame press conferences or media availabilities this season, but I’ve been to and seen plenty in his tenure.

Boynton has been the unsinkable one. Minus a bundle of the press conferences from the 2021-22 season where the postseason ban from the NCAA would come up, including the press conference that Boynton did side-by-side with athletic director Chad Weiberg as both expressed supreme disappointment and frustrating disagreement with the organization’s decision, the hoops head coach has been positive. Saturday’s postgame following the 56-46 loss to No. 6 Texas felt different. Oklahoma State dropped to 9-6 overall and 1-2 in the Big 12.

Boynton has been guilty to a fault in the eyes of some of staying positive. This is the coach that selects his words carefully, but usually without delay, in staying positive about his team and his players. Boynton can be, and has been analytical, but his answers are usually prompt. Saturday’s postgame caught him searching for words at times. It also had him borderline being frustrated with the consistency of one of his best players and by far the best and most consistent player on the floor for either team on Saturday in 6-9 senior Kalib Boone.

Playing without his fellow starting big man in 7-1 Moussa Cisse, who was out with an ankle injury, Boone had 16 points total, 10 rebounds, and six blocked shots. He had eight points in the run that got the Pokes back on top. Boone subbed out at 4:43, but was back in just over a minute later. 

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Back-to-back dunks by Boone led OSU toward the lead with 8:20 to go in the game.

Asked about Boone’s performance and how he was a key in the Cowboys’ second half run that eventually got them the lead at the 8:20 mark. Boynton paused for a full 12 seconds.

“I’ve got to be careful because I don’t want this to be critical,” the head coach started with his answer. “Because I’m never a critical person of the kids, but this was his 102nd game; we should expect this from this point. It shouldn’t be, ‘Oh we got a good performance. We should come in surprised when he doesn’t play well as opposed to the other way around. I love him and he is like a son to me, and I’ve been with him through all those 102 games. He is going to be a big part of what we do moving forward, but it is time that he starts to do it every day.” 

Boynton went on to explain that if Boone will play more consistent that it will not only be good for the team, but good for Boone as he has the ability to play professionally and for a long time. 

“It’s hard when you are surprised, ‘we got a good performance out of him today,’” Boynton added. “My message to him is come back and do it again on Tuesday (at Kansas State).”

I asked Boynton in the 102 games he’s had coaching Boone has he discovered that compliments and props or hard coaching and criticism works best in pulling out Boone’s best?

“We try everything, and it is not unique to him. I want to make sure we keep this about the game and not just him because he surely played well today. Let’s keep that on the table,” Boynton explained. “To your question, we’ve tried everything.”

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Boone got it done vs. Texas on offense and here on defense.

Overall, Boynton was asked what he does to work toward being more consistent on offense. This team has been mostly consistent defensively, but the lapses in offense and scoring droughts within games has been what has led to many of the six losses. Another long pause (eight seconds) came after being asked what he can do to fix the offensive struggles.

“We struggled today. I think there is a little bit of, well deserved, we haven’t been the Golden State Warriors in my six-years as head coach,” Boynton started giving some levity in his answer. “But we’re better on offense than that. People probably don’t want to accept that because of nights like this, that still shows up. There is a reason we did not play well because Texas made it, so we did not play well.”

I agree with that. Oklahoma State caught a very talented Texas coming off an embarrassing 116-103 loss where the Longhorns were going to play defense like their lives depended on it. You had to know that as Boynton earlier in the postgame called the Big 12 a “response league”. The answer is anticipating and responding before a response needs to be discussed. 

Oklahoma State has 16 regular season games left, just over half the season to play. They need to win at least nine of those to guarantee a winning record and an opportunity for postseason. They likely need to win 11 to really guarantee a trip to the NCAA Tournament. They have to do it playing in a very difficult conference where there are no easy wins, plus a non-conference game with an 8-7 Mississippi team. 

I get where Boynton is at. His players, like Boone, need to be consistently close to their best and not surprisingly good on given nights. His team needs to have a patented strong response for every game and not rebound responses from games where they lacked an answer. 

That is where Mike Boynton and Oklahoma State basketball is situated.