STILLWATER — We’re very quickly approaching the end of the 2023-24 season as Oklahoma State ends the regular season on the road in Provo, UT, against a tough BYU team. The Cowboys have lost three games in a row and will need to roll through and win the Big 12 tournament in Kansas City in order to keep their season alive. However, that’s a rather big ask as the Pokes are currently 4-13 in Big 12 and tied for last.
Looking past the on-the-court performances of late, one of the main discussions surrounding the team has been NIL and the transfer portal and if Mike Boynton and Co. can keep this talented young team together. Boynton told the media the Cowboys are dead last in the Big 12 in NIL spending at around $500,000 and the Pokes have three very talented up-and-coming freshmen who were thrown into the fire in their first year due to lack of depth and injuries.
Boynton has always stuck to the principle of giving players space towards the end of the season and start of the offseason so they can make their own decisions on whether they want to come back, transfer or try their hands at playing professionally. We found out on Thursday this coaching staff is having to adjust to the times in that regard.
“You can’t have your head stuck in the sand: there are people outside our program calling our kids, so they can’t be hearing from other people how important they could be to them and not hearing that from me and my staff,” Boynton said of talking to his players about next season. “Everybody’s situation is different, so I want them to understand a couple of things really do have to happen: there can be nothing more important than having a winning season next year. Nothing. I’ve been in college basketball 19 years, so I’m not blind to the reality of not having success can do to you. So, we need to be a tournament team. We need to be a team that’s not even fighting at this point [in the season] to get in [to the NCAA tournament.]
“That’s got to be priority one for everybody associated with the program. Starting with me, but every player, every staff member, every [graduate assistant] and I want that to be the mindset of our administration. If I’m fortunate to be back [next season], and I don’t have any reason to believe I won’t, not trying to speculate but I know that’s a question. I don’t want to pretend like it’s not.”
With how the past few seasons have gone, especially this one, it’s perfectly normal and rational to have thoughts and discussions about the future of the program and the head coach. However, that’s something Boynton mentioned he has yet to do with athletic director Chad Weiberg.
“I have conversations with Chad all the time and we’ve never had a discussion about my job status in the middle of the season,” Boynton said. “So, we’re at the end and I don’t expect to have a conversation like that before the end of next week. But at the end of the day my job is to try to put our team in a position to win as many games as we can. I don’t have any control over the ultimate outcome. So, I’m aware of it, but I don’t focus on it.”
Circling back to OSU needing to make the tournament next season, there’s a lot of things that need to happen in order for that to transpire. There’s no arguing the fact this team has talent, especially the young guys. We wouldn’t be talking about other Big 12 teams trying to poach Brandon Garrison and Eric Dailey Jr. if there wasn’t a lot of talent and potential there. But they have to continue to develop their craft and this coaching staff needs to get better as well.
“The very first thing, I’ve got to grow as a coach,” Boynton said. “I think sometimes when I talk about other things, it sort of feels like there’s a deflection from, we’ve had games where we’ve had leads and not closed them. We’ve had games where maybe we didn’t shoot the ball as well and didn’t find another way to win. So, those are things I’ll evaluate before I talk about anything a player has to do. We have really good young talent, we need to continue to try to make those guys better, we need to coach better and we need to make sure we give our fans something to come cheer for.”
This is going to be a very important offseason for Cowboy basketball, in more ways than one and honestly one of the most important offseason in the Mike Boynton era. The staff has a very big battle in front of them to keep this group of young players together and to try and get the few veteran players with eligibility back as well. They’ll have to continue to work incredibly hard to make sure the players who do return get better in several areas, as well as work the transfer portal to bring in additional talent to supplement the roster. Then there’s work for the administration. We’re basically a week away from the end of the season and where we find out if this coaching staff will be back next season. There’s NIL decisions and a decision surrounding the future of the staff that will play a big role in whether or not this group of talented young players who committed to play for Mike Boynton will return if there’s a new staff.
I’d love to get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, especially millions of dollars. However, I’m glad I don’t have to make the difficult decisions that come with making that kind of money.
