Garrison and Freshmen Class "Not Freshman Anymore."
STILLWATER – Everybody is still tiptoeing around the topic, but with Bryce Thompson now likely out for the season and Kansas State coming into Gallagher-Iba Arena on a three-game losing streak, let’s just cut to the quick. This Oklahoma State basketball season is in sad shape. A record of 9-12 overall and a 1-7 start to Big 12 play is about as bad as Oklahoma State fans have seen. It is the worst conference start since 2019-20 when Boynton’s team started 1-9 in conference play before finishing 7-11. If you told anybody associated with Cowboys basketball right now that this team would climb back to 7-11 they would take it right now.
The excuses or the reality of this season is the team is young with four freshmen in the top eight on the team in minutes played. There are two freshmen starting with forward/post Brandon Garrison and wing Connor Dow and it’s safe to say that Eric Dailey Jr. is the sixth man. Now with Thompson out it would appear that guard Jamyron Keller and forward Justin McBride are in for heavier minutes.
“They don't have time to wait,” senior guard John-Michael Wright said the other day. “Just seeing them progressing, not being afraid and taking on the challenge of the Big 12 is probably what I've seen the most... I'm proud of all the freshmen. They all keep progressing. We've just got to keep this train moving.”
It has to keep moving. Boynton’s job and the staff is on-the-line. If you talk to some fans that train is way down the track, but the heavy buyout combined with a solid nucleus of these freshman makes me want to believe that a strong finish, much like 2019-20, could lead to keeping the band together.
“I just kept my head down and kept working,” Garrison said this week when asked. “And then the work started to pay off. As the games went by, I just kept up with it. I'm kind of getting used to the flow and the physical stuff in the game.”
It has paid off. Boynton sees that these freshmen are getting better. The sad truth is he needs them to climb and hit another higher plateau this Saturday and for the future. The Kansas State game is really a “must win.” You need a win as-soon-as-possible and it won’t be coming in Houston on Tuesday night nextweek. It needs to come Saturday afternoon.
“We've had to ask these guys to carry more on their plates as freshmen to give us a chance to win, which, most of the time, they're not quite ready to do consistently yet.,” Boynton said honestly.
The honest truth now is they need to get it done. This team needs to win on Saturday with Kansas State.