Boynton sensing support amid down season
STILLWATER — Mike Boynton talks with his boss every day. Often, those conversations with athletic director Mike Holder go beyond basketball, but they've provided a steadying force for Oklahoma State's second-year coach amid a trying season. A loss in Wednesday's 8 p.m. matchup with Texas Tech would give Boynton's Cowboys their seventh straight Big 12 loss, their longest conference losing streak in a season since 2013-14, and drop the program to 30-30 under Boynton. Yet, Boynton said he hasn't sensed the administration and community's belief in the future waver. “I think everybody is still very supportive,” Boynton said. “It's obviously a unique season in a lot of ways, but I haven't gotten the sense that anyone's — no one's happy that we're not winning right now, but I think they understand where we are and how we got here and that we're doing things to try to get us back to where we can have sustainable success over a period of time because we do things the right way along the ride.” OSU is 1-5 since Jan. 16, when the dismissal of three players left Boynton with only seven recruited scholarship players on his roster. A first-time head coach, he's relied on several mentors, including Holder, for help navigating through the ups and downs of the past two seasons, a time frame that's included five player dismissals, the loss of his top assistant to an FBI investigation and a narrow miss at an NCAA Tournament berth. But when Boynton turned to the two coaches he played for at South Carolina, Eddie Fogler and Dave Odom, and longtime coach George Raveling for advice on his present circumstances, they couldn't provide much help. “I asked them if they had ever coached seven players through a season,” Boynton said, “and none of them had any advice for me.” From a recruiting standpoint, Boynton has seen some benefits of this recent stretch, believing it shows the Cowboys' signees what the program's standards are and the importance of following them. With the dismissals, Boynton has two more scholarships available in his 2019 recruiting class, and he said OSU's coaches have remained “very transparent” with prospective athletes. “I've gotten advice from a lot of coaches that it's a big part of the job, discipline, and if you have standards, they only mean something if you enforce them,” Boynton said. “If you don't, then the standards change, and now you're being run by the people in the program and not necessarily leading. Sometimes, we have to take hard stances, but I think it's gonna be beneficial for us moving forward.” Among those benefits is that the Cowboys figure to return all seven of the remaining scholarship players next season. “We can talk about all the bad things that are going on right now,” junior Lindy Waters said. “But the best thing to do is just stay positive, think about the success we've had in the past and just look forward to making more success.”
No. 15 TEXAS TECH AT OKLAHOMA STATE
When: 8 p.m., Wednesday Where: Gallagher-Iba Arena, Stillwater TV: ESPN2 (Cox 28/HD 721, Dish 143, DirecTV 209, U-verse 606/HD 1606) Radio: KXXY-FM 96.1
Three things to know
• Oklahoma State's sixgame losing streak in Big 12 play is its longest since losing 12 conference games in a row between the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons. The Cowboys haven't lost seven consecutive Big 12 games in the same season since 2013-14. • Texas Tech is one of the nation's premier defensive teams. The Red Raiders lead the country in opposing shooting percentage at 36.2 percent and are fifth in opposing 3-point percentage at 27.3 percent. At 57.4 points allowed per game, they have the No. 3 scoring defense. • The Red Raiders are 4-23 in Stillwater, having lost 14 of their past 15 games in Gallagher-Iba Arena.