Empire state of mind for Cowboys
STILLWATER — The first road trip of Mike Boynton’s tenure as Oklahoma State’s basketball coach sent the Cowboys to New York City. They are one victory from ending his first year there, too.
OSU hosts Western Kentucky on Wednesday in Gallagher-Iba Arena with a spot in the NIT semifinals on the line. Should the Cowboys win, they will head to New York to play in Madison Square Garden.
Four months ago, three games into its season, OSU traveled to New York and split two games in the Legends Classic at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Boynton’s hometown. As a sophomore at South Carolina, Boynton played in the NIT championship game in the Garden and knows
what a treasure the venue is.
“There’s really no place in basketball like Madison Square Garden,” Boynton said. “We’ve got that to look forward to and certainly that’s something we’ll try to continue to emphasize, there’s an opportunity to go play in a place that everybody says is the best place to play. Jordan. LeBron. Kobe. You listen to those guys talk about that place, it’d be pretty remarkable if this team were to get there.”
First, the Cowboys have one more game in the Madison Square Garden of the Plains, Gallagher-Iba Arena. They will face a Hilltopper team that came one point shy of an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, narrowly losing to Marshall in the Conference USA title game.
In the Cowboys’ eyes, though, no opponent is too mighty. Their schedule included six teams who made the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16, including a Texas A&M squad that beat them in Brooklyn.
In all, OSU went 5-6 against those Sweet 16 teams, adding to the team’s tartness about missing the tournament. “You name ’em, we’ve beaten ’em,” senior point guard Kendall Smith. “They want to roll the ball out at the end of the season and they say we can’t beat a team, I’m down to play ’em.”
The Cowboys did not get that opportunity, their worst five victories seemingly carrying more weight than their best five in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament committee.
While the apparent snub has motivated Boynton to evaluate his team’s scheduling in future seasons, it’s motivated his players to prove a point in the NIT.
“We knew that we should’ve made it for sure,” senior guard Jeffrey Carroll said. “Just trying to take that fire and focus and just try to use it for this tournament.”
Focus evaded the Cowboys often this season, but at present, OSU is playing at the highest level it has under Boynton, winning five of six games. It’s a team that has grown since that November trip to Brooklyn.
“We started off, we had a tournament in New York, and we weren’t playing necessarily our best basketball, I don’t think,” Smith said. “To be able to finish the season back in New York, playing our best basketball, that’d be very special.”