Basketball Notebook: a busy day for Boynton and company

Big 12 Basketball Tip-off:

The Cowboy Basketball starters along side head coach Mike Boynton put in quite a few airline miles today as they headed to the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Tipoff. Boynton took the podium and talked about what it takes to get a program to the next level, his respect for his seniors and more.

“In my mind, I have a responsibility as the head coach at Oklahoma State to hold the program’s standards, to protect the integrity of the people who have basically come before us, who are very proud to know that Oklahoma State has been a great program over the course of its time. Maybe had a tough up-and-down stretch the last decade or so, but a program that they should be proud of.

“The first-ever back-to-back national championship basketball program is Oklahoma State University. I’m not lost on that. We can achieve at that level again, but we can’t take shortcuts in doing it. We have to continue to keep the standards high, keep people accountable when necessary, and keep bringing guys in who understand what it takes to get us back there.”

I’ve always bought into Boynton and what he’s doing at OSU. Despite last year’s personnel issues. He did what he needed to do to handle those situations. He kept the program to a high standard and eventually the wins will come. The future is bright in Stillwater.

On the three Cowboy seniors:

When you look at everything that Thomas Dziagwa, Cameron McGriff and Lindy Waters on have been through together you can only respect their loyalty and perseverance. Their head coach gave them some high praise during his press conference,

I’m excited to what the last chapter in the stories of these three hold.

The Boone Twins:

Guerin Emig asked Boynton about the possibility of red shirting either of the Boone twins. Boynton said barring injury he didn’t see it happening.

This is a welcomed surprise. It was talked about that they weren’t necessarily ready but Boynton said they were both making strides in practice.

After hopping back on a plane from Kansas City to Stillwater, The starters along with their teammates had a practice that was open to public. I was in attendance to lets talk about that shall we?

Avery Anderson:

This kid is good. They scrimmaged for a bit and he went toe-to-toe with sophomore Issac Likekele. He was keeping up with him and were Likekele had the ball and looked like he’s gonna be able to keep up with the Big 12. I like his energy his ability to keep track of what was going on. He can shoot too. We already knew most of this about the Freshman but it was interesting to see it person.

Yor Anei has glo’d up:

So ya know how Anei tended to have some issues knowing where his body was and things like that? That was starting to improve last year but he looked more confident in movements tonight. He used his sized and didn’t look as awkward as I’ve seen him look in the past. He still has some work to do fouling but overall I was happy with his performance.

Buy in to Boynton:

If you haven’t bought into this team...what are you doing? I am 100% all in on Boynton. I’ve been at OSU for the end of the Ford era, the Underwood season and then Boynton and no one has been more involved on campus that Mikey B. He loves students and wants to interact with them and it was awesome to see tonight. He went and shook students hands and was asking a bit about them. I think we need a coach like him to get people to buy into this program.

The starting 5:

Barring something happening *knocks on wood* we should see a starting lineup of Dizzy, Lindy Waters, Cam McGriff, Issac Likekele and Yor Anei. We saw those guys run some plays tonight and they were communicating well, making their passes and getting down the court well. This squad had to grow up in a hurry and it’s been good for them I believe. They’re going to be a force to reckoned with after that a season of working together.