Boynton relaxed in face of FBI, Weathers situations
The ordeals surrounding the Oklahoma State basketball program seemed far from coach Mike Boynton’s mind Sunday.
He spent much of the Cowboys’ open practice at John Marshall High School with his two young children, Ace and Zoe, by his side. As the practice reached its end, he called a young fan down to the court to attempt a freethrow; the boy made the shot and was rewarded with an OSU shirt.
Last month, Boynton indefinitely suspended guard Michael Weathers, a projected starter, after the redshirt sophomore reportedly stole a wallet at a Stillwater bar. Continuing to hang over the program is the FBI investigation of former OSU assistant Lamont Evans, who a top recruit’s father recently said in a New York courtroom offered $150,000 and other benefits if his son became a Cowboy.
Weathers was not at the practice, but junior guard Lindy Waters said Weathers’ teammates “see him every day.”
“Part of my job is to help kids when they go through tough times,” Boynton said. “I haven’t in any way abandoned him. Still love him, still care for him and still try to help him through the academic side and make sure psychologically this isn’t something that makes him give up on himself.
“He’s been given some things he has to do on the legal side, and once he’s done with those things, then we can deal with him as it relates to our team.”
While the Weathers’ situation carries weight for the Cowboys’ upcoming season on the court, the legal proceedings surrounding Evans have the potential to impact the program as a whole for years to come.
Boynton reiterated Sunday that he had no knowledge of Evans’ involvement in a corruption scandal that swept through college basketball last fall. Evans was terminated from his position as Boynton’s associate head coach shortly afterward.
“I don’t know anything about the specifics of what they’re talking about,” Boynton said. “Obviously, we’re following it like everybody else, and if something comes up that we have to deal with, we will. At this point, we’re operating business as usual.”
Throughout Sunday, that was the image Boynton displayed, a focus on basketball rather than any clouds hovering his program. He signed autograph after autograph and posed for picture after picture, his second season as the Cowboys’ coach now less than a month away.
“The beauty of it is, none of this stuff is the first adversity that I’ve faced in my life, so what I’ve always tried to do is really focus on what my responsibilities are,” Boynton said. “... I do want people to know we run a really good program. We’ve tried to represent ourselves the best way we can. We’ve been open and we’ve complied with every question that’s been (asked) we could answer, and until this passes, which it will, like everything else does, we’ll continue to try to do our jobs inside the program.”