OSU Newcomers Explain Why Recruits Want to Play for Mike Boynton

Mike Boynton has secured a top 10 recruiting class before his second season as a head coach has even started.

Marcus Watson’s addition to Oklahoma State’s 2019 class gives the Cowboys three four-star recruits to go along with three-star Keylan Boone to create, depending how you look at it, one of OSU’s best recruiting class in program history.

Boynton is getting them from all over the country. His 2018 class included players from Texas, Kansas, Florida and Canada/West Virginia. The 2019 class brings in Watson from Georgia, the Boone twins from Oklahoma and Avery Anderson from Texas.

Boynton’s recruiting strategy with his 2018 class seemed to revolve around honesty and the family atmosphere OSU offers.

It might have been easier for Boynton to preach family atmosphere to Watson, who is Boynton’s cousin, but it also got through to Duncan Demuth, a former three-star prospect who Boynton plucked out of Florida. Demuth had an offer form Florida State, but he chose to leave the Sunshine State for Oklahoma.

“What he preached, everything has come true,” Demuth said. “It’s a family atmosphere. I really like it.”

Mike Cunningham is OSU’s only senior. He wasn’t highly recruited out of high school, but after playing in 96 games in the past three seasons at USC-Upstate, Cunningham pointed to the OSU staff as to his reasoning for coming to Stillwater as a grad transfer.

Boynton’s honesty is what stood out to Cunningham. He scored 1,181 points and had 281 assists in his career as a Spartan.

“(The coaching staff) was so real with me from the jump,” Cunningham said. “I knew they were being genuine with me. I didn’t want anybody being kinda fake because once you get there, it might be a totally different story.”

Former-three star recruit Yor Anei was the first signee of the Boynton era. Anei said he liked how personable Boynton was during his recruitment process.

“He would call, text, check up on me, not even about the basketball part just about school, life, girls,” Anei said. “He’s a great person and coach.”

Isaac Likekele was a late addition to OSU’s 2018 class, but he ended as the class’ top commit. Likekele was a three-star guard from Texas who was originally committed to Fresno State before a coaching change.

Likekele has been the standout freshman of OSU’s early practices. When asked why he chose OSU? Again, Boynton.

“He’s very honest,” Likekele said. “He’s not going to tell you any lies. Everything he told me whenever I got here, he said he wouldn’t hand it to me, but everything he’s told me when I got here has been up for grabs as long as I worked hard for it.”