Watch: Mike Boynton Ahead of Second-round NIT Game Against Eastern Washington

STILLWATER – The No. 1 overall seeded Oklahoma State Cowboys are coming off a nail-biter 69-64 win over Youngstown State this past Wednesday.

The media met with head coach Mike Boynton and players Tyreek Smith and Quion Williams on Friday afternoon to discuss that win, as well as the upcoming second-round game against Eastern Washington in Gallagher-Iba Arena on Sunday afternoon at 1, which is also being televised on ESPN2.

This was actually one of Boynton’s longest media availabilities this season, with him hitting on a number of topics.

Both Tyreek Smith and Quion Williams recorded the first double-doubles of their careers on Wednesday against the Penguins, with each being among the top-three scorers for the Cowboys.

"There's a real challenge in allowing guys to play through things, when the reality is that the wins and losses matter. There's only so many mistakes you can have and still win. One would argue that everybody has a different level of leash when it comes to that, and that's true. So, probably the more leash you have, the more confident you are to be able to just go out there and not worry about it. As a coach, those are some of the hard decisions you got to make. Sometimes you got to take the guy out for one or two mistakes, whereas another guy makes five or six. You know, everybody kind of gets judged a little bit differently, because, depending on what we need from them. So, I'm glad that [Tyreek Smith’s] been able to fight through his struggle, because he certainly had a valley during the season, but he's playing really well at a time when we needed him."

He also talked about the regression of Kalib Boone the past couple of weeks, while trying to overcome the challenges of not having traditional offensive scoring big men with Boone on the bench.