Following a season that exceeded the expectations of even the most biased Cowboy faithful, one glaring question remained: can Boynton recruit? Mike Boynton spent the next month and a half erasing that question beyond any shadow of a doubt.

If you’re keeping score at home, in 14 months on the job, HCMB has recruited 11 young men to play basketball in Stillwater, America — 12 if you consider the retention of Zack Dawson. Six of those have come in the 52 days since the end of the 2017-18 season. Bananas.

Lets dive into the stellar recruiting week that was.

Offers

Earl Timberlake, ★★★★ 2020 CG // 6’5 // 175, Hyattsville, MD

Timberlake is currently the 31st ranked prospect in the class of 2020 and is a borderline 5-star talent. He possesses an elite ability to drive and either finish or dish and has incredible size for the position as a sophomore! His talent has been noticed early as in addition to OSU he has already earned offers from Maryland, Florida, Georgetown, KSU, and more.

Oklahoma State is still looking to grab one or two players for 2019, but as things currently stand they would need to lose scholarship players to open up spots for this class. Look for the staff to really start pushing for 2020 guys as they’re slated to have five open spots for that class.

Targets

Jalen Wilson, ★★★★ 2019 SF // 6’6 // 185, Denton, TX

Wilson is the perfect example of the difference between good talent and elite talent. He plays with amazing grace for any size really and truly looks the part of a pro prospect forward.

He is currently on an unofficial visit to Michigan after listing Oklahoma State in his top six. We talked a little about Jalen in our recruiting roundtable, but this level of recruit represents the next step in Boynton being dubbed an elite recruiter.

Tyrese Maxey, ★★★★★ 2019 PG // 6’3 // 185, Garland, TX

We mentioned in the previous installment that Tyrese Maxey had included Oklahoma State in his top five. It was a testament to Boynton’s increased presence in recruiting circles, but he was a longshot at best as Kentucky had already gotten everything short of an actual commitment. He made it official on Wednesday.

Commitments

The recruiting game is fun to follow and speculate on, but the commitment at the end is the substance you’re really looking for. This week was full of substance.

Maurice Calloo, ★★★ 2018 PF // 6’8 // 210, Huntington, WV

Calloo started his visit on Wednesday and it look less than 24 hours for him to ink in favor of the Cowboys.

We discussed his commitment here, but his combination of size, ball skills, and shooting is impressive. He has one of the more high major ready bodies, and could legitimately see a solid share of playing time at the 3, 4, and maybe even 5 in a small-ball lineup.

He also offered some Kool-Aid of the Brightest Orange variety in an interview with Kyle Boone of PFB:

“I feel like we can win a national championship,” said Calloo. “Me committing to OSU is me visualizing us winning a national championship.”

Isaac Likekele, ★★★ 2018 PG // 6’4 // 205, Mansfield, TX

Likekele had his visit this past weekend and all of the rumors before and after seemed to be focused around Texas Tech as the leader for his signature (and his 247 crystal ball still reflects that). Fortunately for the good guys, this didn’t come to fruition and the Cowboys landed their highest rated recruit of the class.

I discussed the importance of getting Likekele in the aforementioned roundtable, but here’s another reason getting him was huge: this reopens the pipeline to the DFW hotbed for hoops that has supplied 5-stars Byron Eaton, Le’Bryan Nash, Marcus Smart, and Jawun Evans for the Pokes. Don’t take my word for it though:

With only one more scholarship open for 2018, the fact that the scholarship is being taken by a Boone twin in 2019, and Mike Boynton already stating they’d like to keep a spot open for a mid-season transfer, I think we’ve rounded out the 2018 recruiting class. We now have plenty of time to speculate on lineups before opening day in November, and plenty of options to speculate on.

Coach Boynton has proven emphatically that he can recruit, the next step is pulling in elite talent. For me, the doubt it gone; it’s not a matter of if, but when.

Stay tuned, and #LetsWork.