Mike Boynton and Co. Looking to Try and Figure Lineup Out Ahead of Big 12 Play

STILLWATER – It’s been a rather rough start to the 2023-24 season for Oklahoma State and Mike Boynton and Co. as the Pokes have started out 4-5, with a couple of tough losses, including at home to Abliene Christian in the season opener. 

There’s certainly a lot of variables you could look at through the first nine games, such as playing a significant number of new players, including five true freshmen and four transfers. One thing that the coaching staff has been trying, and will continue to try to do ahead of Big 12 play is how to put together a more consistent and productive lineup.

"It's been harder this year, with just so many guys in and out,” coach Boynton said on Thursday. “My plan, actually, was to try to get closer to a rotation earlier -- like now -- and be at seven-and-a-half, eight, maybe nine with foul trouble. The game dictates that. But you don't have Isaiah until game nine. You don't have Javon for game one. You miss Thompson for three of the games in the middle. You're talking about three guys who are going to be -- you think -- a part of what you want to do moving forward. We're still trying to figure out that rotation. I think some things are fairly well-established. Q (Quion Williams) is a high-minute guy who's going to play a lot.  I think Dailey has been pretty consistent, in terms of minutes. Garrison's kind of evolved into a heavy minute guy. Javon's probably the highest usage player. We've just got to get Bryce (Thompson) playing a little bit more consistently on the offensive end. Our numbers would tell us that we're actually better on defense when he's in a game. And that's probably news to him even, because that's not where he's hung his hat in his career, so far. It's not an excuse, just a reality -- not having your guys play enough together makes it harder to establish that with the guys who aren't playing as much -- and the guys that come to mind are Justin McBride and maybe Connor (Dow)…. So I want to get there over the next two weeks, before we get into conference play. The games will kind of determine that, but I'd like to be able to get to where we've got eight guys that we feel pretty good about, playing majority of minutes.

It’s certainly been an adjustment for just about everyone as even the returners are seemingly trying to figure out how things are working out with the newcomers. Through eight games, Javon Small is performing the best as he’s averaging 17.1 points per game on 45% shooting from the field and 42% from 3-point range.

The Pokes will have yet another chance to get back to .500 on the season as they’ll play host to ORU this coming Sunday with a 4 p.m. CT tip on ESPN+.

"They're really good,” Boynton said. “They've got three dynamic offensive weapons in Weaver, Thompson and McBride. McBride and Thompson hardly ever come off the court. So they just keep coming at you... They have a great sense of how to evaluate the game as it goes, right? They're not coming out and having to sit or starting on the bench and coming in. So that gives a different element of how you prepare for guys like that. And one of the things is, you don't want to let them get off to a good start, because they can they can play well the whole game. The other thing is you've got to try to give them different looks and try to wear them down over the course of the game, and hopefully they fatigue out. Which, obviously, they're conditioned well enough after 10 games to be able to play through most of the game. But they're really, really good offensively. They don't have a ton of size, but they're competitive in there. They've got a freshman big who's getting better. And I've just been really, really impressed with Russ (Springman) and what he's doing over there. Obviously, taking over a program that's been really successful is hard because the expectations don't change, especially when you have guys who return that have been a part of that success. So kudos to him. They had K-State beat two weeks ago. They lost to Tech last night. They've played a really tough schedule. We've got a tall task ahead of us.”