How Two OSU Senior Transfers Almost Came to Stillwater Out of High School

STILLWATER — Eight of nine the seniors on the Cowboys roster are in their first season with the program, but two of those guys were close to coming to Stillwater right out of high school.

Devo Davis and Khalil Brantley both picked up offers from Oklahoma State under Mike Boynton as high schoolers. Davis was actually committed to the Cowboys for almost a year. Both found their way to Stillwater this season under first-year OSU coach Steve Lutz and will take part in Senior Day festivities when the Cowboys host Cincinnati at 2 p.m. Saturday in Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Davis committed to the Cowboys in December of his junior year at Jacksonville High School (Arkansas). He backed off that pledge in October of the next year and shortly thereafter committed to in-state Arkansas.

Thinking back on that time in his life, Davis said his decommitment was caused by the postseason ban that was looming over the OSU program at that time. Davis credited Boynton with being transparent about the situation, but he ultimately wanted the opportunity to play postseason basketball. That decision certainly worked out for him, as Davis played a ton of postseason ball with the Razorbacks.

Arkansas made the Elite Eight in Davis’ freshman season, with Davis playing about 24 minutes a game and averaged 8.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.1 assists a contest. The Razorbacks got back to the Elite Eight in Davis’ sophomore season, a year in which he averaged 8.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.8 assists a game. Then Arkansas made the Sweet 16 in his junior season, where he averaged a career-high 10.9 points a game.

There are two side stories to Davis’ recruitment, as well.

About a month after Davis’ decommitment, Cade Cunningham — the No. 1 player in the class and a future No. 1 NBA Draft pick — pledged to the Pokes. The looming postseason ban got delayed a year, and the Cowboys made the NCAA Tournament with Cunningham leading the way. OSU was, though, banned the next season.

“Once he came here, the postseason ban went out the door,” Davis joked. “I would’ve obviously loved to play with Cade. We played against each other all the time — different Pangos camps and when he was on Texas Titans and I was on Woodz Elite. It would’ve been fun, but also everything happens for a reason.”

The other side story involved Jaylin Williams. Now a fan-favorite on the Oklahoma City Thunder, Williams (now often referred to as J-Will) was in that same recruiting class with Davis and Cunningham. Davis and Williams were the top two players in the state of Arkansas and played AAU ball together. OSU was pursuing Williams pretty heavily, as well. But not long after Davis’ decommitment, Williams nixed the Cowboys from his top group, and the two ended up at Arkansas together.

So, there might be an alternate timeline out there somewhere where Williams took the Lindy Waters route of OSU to OKC.

“We definitely talked about it all the time,” Davis said. “My senior year (of high school), right before basketball season started, I decommitted from here. Then Jaylin was like, ‘So, where we going now?’ in a sense. We had a lot of fun with it. I think if I would’ve came here, maybe Jaylin would’ve came. We don’t know, but we knew he was a big Arkansas guy, as well.”

Brantley was one of Boynton’s first New York offers, which felt prevalent at the time with Boynton being from New York. Brantley wasn’t the highly touted recruit Boynton usually pursued, finishing as the No. 255 player in the 2021 class, but Brantley averaged a ridiculous 34.2 points, nine rebounds and four assists a game as a junior at Boys & Girls High School in Brooklyn.

Brantley had a visit scheduled to Stillwater, but it got derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Cowboys ended up not taking a high school player in the 2021 class, with Boynton citing how tough to was to get reliable scouts on prospects because of all the shutdowns.

Brantley played three seasons at La Salle, leading the Explorers in scoring in his final two seasons. Then when he hit the portal, OSU, under a new staff, was interested again.

“It was kind of like a deja vu moment for me,” Brantley said in October. “It was an exciting moment, but at the same time, I looked at it as, it’s a new coach, a new system, it’s another school looking at me. It did kind of feel like it would be crazy if I ended here when I was supposed to come here top start off my college career.”