‘Shocked’ Boynton bracing for challenges

STILLWATER — Mike Boynton buckled in for a short flight to Dallas, yet before shutting down his phone caught the news on Twitter.

It was college basketball’s dark Tuesday, Sept. 26, and the firstyear Oklahoma State coach’s program was front and center, with Cowboys associate head coach Lamont Evans among those in the crosshairs of the FBI.

“I had just talked to my wife about dropping my kids off at school,” Boynton said Thursday, the first time he has spoken publicly about the scandal that continues to rock the not just the sport, but OSU and the program. “I hang up with her and open up the internet before I took off and see the headlines.

“So that 45-minute flight from Oklahoma City to Dallas was one where my brain was just racing.”

Soon, he was racing back to Oklahoma City, then Stillwater, on the next flight out of Dallas to be with his players.

Boynton, addressing the media with his team practicing in the background, answered questions for 11 minutes. As expected, there were no major revelations. And no players were available for comment.

Boynton said he had no knowledge of the actions of Evans, which have resulted in charges of bribery and fraud.

“I didn’t have any suspicions,” Boynton said. “I was as shocked as anyone when this happened.”

Other items of interest:

•To address any NCAA violation concerns, OSU has retained the services of The Compliance Group, the same firm the school used to handle internal investigations following the Sports Illustrated “Dirty Game” series that suggested rampant wrongdoing with the Cowboys football program.

•Keiton Page, the former Cowboy who had been retained as director of player development, will step into a larger on-court role for now.

•The school is sticking by Boynton, and appears confident that all players are and will be eligible for the upcoming season.

•Boynton said he has had no contact with Evans since the news broke.

For now, the Cowboys proceed, as normal as they can.

“We talked about this — not this specific situation — but distractions coming in a lot of different forms,” Boynton said. “One of our jobs is to try and eliminate the affect distractions have on a team.

“I told our team, ‘This is a distraction; one that may linger on longer than we’d like. But one that we’ll certainly try to be able to look past.’

“And our guys have been tremendous these first few days of practice.”

Preparations will escalate from here. Homecoming and Hoops is set for next Friday. The Cowboys face Arkansas-Monticello in an exhibition Nov. 3, then open the season at home against Pepperdine a week later.

At least, Boynton said, the pace of the preseason and the opportunity to work with his players have provided a welcome distraction from the unwanted distraction.

“They’ve been my greatest sense of relief, in that we did have to start practice so quickly afterwards,” Boynton said. “There wasn’t this long period of time to speculate about all these different things. These guys are excited about starting the season. And so am I.”

This isn’t the way Boynton envisioned starting his first season as coach. He said he’d rather be talking about his team. Still, he said he’s still excited about being OSU’s head coach, and not frustrated, only emboldened by what lies ahead.

“I don’t know about frustrating as much as it’s another challenge,” Boynton said. “That’s the story of my life. I’ve faced challenges at a lot of points in my life. It’s one that I’m confident, with my staff and our players, we’ll be able to get through.”