Cowboys snubbed but should be proud
STILLWATER — Mitchell Solomon stood with red eyes on the hardwood on which he played so hard. We asked his emotions even though we already knew the answer. Anger? Sadness?
“All of the above,” the OSU center said after the NCAA Tournament’s Selection Sunday delivered bad news to OSU.
But there’s another feeling Solomon didn’t reference but could have. Pride. Solomon and the Cowboys should be proud of what they did in this 2017-18 season. They returned hope to OSU basketball, and not even the NCAA basketball committee can squash hope.
Fifty-one weeks ago, hope was in short supply. The committee had treated OSU hoops just fine. Given the Cowboys a 10-seed and a first-round game against Michigan. Then over a 24-hour period, OSU lost a ballgame to Michigan and the coach of its dreams to Illinois. Brad Underwood took the first train out of town after a season of expressing his devotion to the legacy of Henry Iba and Eddie Sutton.
That’s the kind of disappointment that trumps even the Sunday snubbing by the basketball committee.
Soon enough came news of the FBI investigation of OSU assistant coach Lamont Evans, and you wondered if Cowboy basketball would ever engender pride or hope again among the legions who used to fill Gallagher-Iba Arena with cheers.
Fifty-one weeks after Underwood’s exodus, OSU basketball has been turned into the people’s choice nationally, a regenerated force regionally and a promising program locally.
The committee’s Bedlam decision — OU in the field of 68, OSU out — even though the Cowboys clearly are a superior team has drawn the ire of basketball’s biggest voices. Charles Barkley. Dick Vitale. Everyone with a Sunday night radio show.
Of course, the committee doesn’t make decisions in a vacuum. This wasn’t just OU over OSU. This also was OU over Baylor, St. Mary’s and Southern Cal, Middle Tennessee and Notre Dame, Louisville and Marquette. This also was Arizona State and Syracuse, Butler and Texas, St. Bonaventure and UCLA, over OSU.
“There’s been a lot of talk about one versus the other,” said OSU coach Mike Boynton. “The committee certainly didn’t see it that way. We weren’t even close to them in their minds. So I don’t know. I really didn’t know what to think.”
This isn’t the football selections. This isn’t picking between Alabama and Ohio State. When trying to pick among 15 bubble teams for the final six spots, with 10 people voting, the possibilities numbers in the thousands. OU vs. OSU was one board in a barn-raising on which there are no right or wrong decisions.
The Big 12 knows how good the Cowboys are. Winning at Allen Fieldhouse is better than any victory that will occur in the NCAA Tournament’s first weekend. Winning at West Virginia, too, showed that Cowboy basketball was not dead nor does it sleep.
And OSU fans can be buoyed by Boynton. Virtually no one outside the program knew his name when he got the job. Turns out, Mike Holder hired a guy who could coach up a team.
“I think we got lucky,” said senior Jeffrey Carroll. “A lottery pick, in my eyes. He’s a great young coach on the rise. It’s going to be fun to watch.”
You can’t blame OSU fans for being a little gun-shy at embracing Boynton. Being burned by Underwood still stings. But Boynton’s coaching through a rough season, and his defense of the Cowboys as a tournament team, has made him a keeper in the eyes of most OSU people.
“I think some of the perception of me has maybe changed, that maybe this guy can coach a little bit,” Boynton said of his maiden season. “The wins validate that we can do the job on the court. We get the right pieces in, I’m excited about the future.”
There’s reason to be excited about OSU’s future. And who would have thought that possible 51 weeks ago, when the Cowboys experienced disappointment that pales to what happened Sunday?
Berry Tramel: Berry can be reached at (405) 760-8080 or at btramel@oklahoman.com. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 4:40-5:20 p.m. on The Sports Animal radio network, including FM98.1. You can also view his personality page at newsok. com/berrytramel.