Back in the pre-season, Oklahoma men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton got his team to do what he did every pre-season: practice cutting the nets. Each player climbed the ladder with scissors and snatched a piece of net.
For freshman Cade Cunningham, it was the first time he’d done that in college. For junior Isaac Likekele, it wasn’t new, but it felt different.
“There was actually a vision,” Likekele said. “I don’t know how to explain it, it was a different feeling this year … Coming this year, everyone from 15 to 15 had the same faith.”
After the upset victory on Friday night with 83-74 over Baylor, head of series in the Big 12 tournament and team no. 2 in the country, the Cowboys are now 40 minutes away from fulfilling this fall vision.
“I believe in the law of attraction,” Boynton said. “You have to believe that something can happen and you have to see how you do it before you can put it into action. I wanted to set the tone with this team pretty early on about what I expected to be able to do. And then I went to work … and here we are. “
Oklahoma State has continued its race as one of the strongest teams in the country, winning eight of the last nine games and entering Saturday’s fight for a Big 12 tournament championship and potentially a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Cowboys had failed against Baylor in the previous two games this season, the first without Cunningham and the second without Likekele. With both players Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, Boynton finally had a full set of players ready to take on the Bears.
Cunningham, the No. 1 seed in this year’s NBA draft, showed why he is such a sought-after talent at the next level. He finished with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists, with 20 of those points in the second half.
“He’s the best player in the country,” Boynton said. – I don’t think it’s close.
After the match, the Baylor players expressed their frustration over their defensive defeats against Cunningham and his teammates. MaCio Teague said Cunningham was “free” too often.
“They marked 80 years for us,” he said after the game. ” [We have] bigger problems than shooting “.
Mark Vital said he wanted Davion Mitchell to have Cunningham’s defensive task on the stretch, suggesting he might not have agreed with the rotations late in the game. And Baylor’s coach, Scott Drew, said that his team needs more practice, which they missed from the three-week break, so that the Bears can “return to the elite” in defense.
However, he is not convinced that any team would have had answers for choice no.
“Cade is one of those guys where you can do everything right and he still gets a bucket,” Drew said.
Avery Anderson, with 20 points, was a major factor with Cunningham, and two other players scored in double figures. The Cowboys also got stuck in the defensive end, keeping Baylor in one of the least effective offensive outings of the season. Drew’s team shot just 6-for-28 from behind the arc, the worst shooting effort since Iowa’s Jan. 2 win.
“I hope we continue to dispel this notion that we’re Cade and a bunch of puppets, like there,” Boynton said.
There are few teams in the country that play better right now than Oklahoma State, and with the exception of an amazing round of NCAA events in the next 48 hours, the Cowboys will be eligible to play in the NCAA tournament. In the summer, they were given a one-year post-season ban, but they appealed that decision, and the NCAA has not yet responded to the appeal.
Assuming they play next week, the Cowboys are a team no one will want to face.
“I guess [it’s] our union as a unit, “Cunningham said of the team’s recent game. Everyone is stepping up. Everyone is trying to find ways to perfect that role, whatever it is. The staff gives us great game plans and only we buy into them, which really translates into earning more. Once we won a few big games, our confidence grew. It’s on the roof now. It’s still working. We are trying to see how far we can go. “
Prior to that, Oklahoma will face Texas in Saturday’s Big 12 title game.
“I didn’t come here to win a game in the semifinals,” Boynton said. “I came here to try to win a championship.”
And if the Cowboys do, it may not be the only time this month they’re cutting nets.
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.