Boynton Says Pokes Hit ‘Reset Button’ After Loss to TCU Last Week

After Oklahoma State got blown out at TCU last Saturday, Mike Boynton knew what all of us knew. If OSU was going to make a late-season desperation lunge at the NCAA Tournament, they would likely have to win at least three of their last four games, and two of those would be against the top two teams in the Big 12.

“What I told our team after the game on Saturday and leading up to the game … when we started preparing here on Monday was that I haven’t held them to the standard necessary to have success, and that’s on me,” said Boynton.

“With that in mind, I got them back to that pretty quickly starting with practice on Monday, and the message was simple. It wasn’t, ‘we have to be heroes or do anything outside of our ability.’ (It was) ‘we have to be unselfish. We have to be the hardest playing team on the court.’ When we do those things we make shots better and feel better about how things are going. I take responsibility for how we played on Saturday, and I’m proud that they responded and played the way they did.”

To Boynton’s point, the 42 percent shooting mark OSU held Texas Tech to was the best defensive mark they had posted since beating Iowa State in overtime at home back in January. The 13 assists the Pokes notched were their third-most in the last nine games and one of their top five games in the Big 12 this year in terms of assists.

“We kind of hit the reset button after Saturday,” added Boynton. “I told them I was a little concerned whether the sun was going to come up on Sunday morning, but once it did I put in my mind I was going to try to encourage them to focus on this one. You can’t win four without winning three … you can’t win three without winning two … and you can’t win two unless you win this one. We got this one, and we look forward to getting ready for Saturday.”

And this one was their third win over a top 10 team in 2018, which is an absolutely preposterous mark — and ties the most in school history according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Oklahoma State notched its 3rd win over an AP top-10 team this season, tying the most such wins in a season in school history.

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) February 22, 2018

It also improves their record against top 25 teams to 5-5. That might not sound that great until you remember that Brad Underwood was 1-9 last season and Travis Ford was 2-8 against such teams in his first year as head coach.

“We made some adjustments,” said Kendall Smith after his electric performance. “From top to bottom, we were just locked in the last couple days of practice. We really got after it defensively. We had a lot of energy and intensity. I think it carried over into tonight.”

But it wasn’t just on defense. OSU shot 50 percent from 3-point range, and its 52 percent overall from the field was the best mark Boynton’s squad has posted since playing Mississippi Valley State back in December. I should probably point out that MVSU is 3-25 on the season.

“Some of them were in transition,” Texas Tech coach Chris Beard said of OSU’s shots. “So, that’s a sign of a well-coached team. They try to basically get down and get good shots before we can set our defense.

“We have a good half-court defense. We take a lot of pride in it. But tonight, there was a lot of possessions where we couldn’t even get set because they were running the floor and getting quick threes on us. We didn’t help ourselves with our offense. Too many turnovers tonight. And just as bad as turnover, we would take a quick shot. We had some missed assignments. Who was supposed to be getting back. And who was going to the board.

“We just didn’t play well tonight. You have to give Oklahoma State credit. They are the reason we didn’t play well. They had four guys in double figures. They out rebounded us. They got to the free throw line more. The played better than us.”

It’s unfortunate that it took getting drilled by Kansas State and TCU (two games OSU really needed for its tournament resume) to affect the Pokes’ effort, but it seems to have worked. Now the big question is whether they can maintain the intensity over the final three games.

“I don’t know how to bottle (our hot second half start) up and take it on the road to Austin with us on Saturday, but I sure will try the next two days,” said Boynton. “We played Oklahoma State basketball today. It was grinding out on defense, forcing them to be uncomfortable and offensively being very unselfish.”