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Back in preseason, Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton asked his team to do what they do every preseason: practice cutting the nets. Each player climbed the ladder with scissors and cut a piece of the net.
For freshman Cade Cunningham, it was his first time doing this in college. For junior Isaac Likekele it was nothing new, but it was different.
“There was actually a vision,” Likekele said. “I don’t know how to explain it, it was a different feeling this year. … Coming in this year, everyone from one to 15 years old had the same conviction.”
After the 83-74 win over Baylor, the Big 12 seeded and the nation’s second-team, the Cowboys are now 40 minutes away from realizing that fall vision.
“I believe in the law of attraction,” Boynton said. “You have to believe that something can happen and you have to see yourself doing it before you can put it into action.” I wanted to set the tone with this team early enough on what I expected us to be able to do. And then we went to work … and here we are. “
Oklahoma State continued its run as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning eight of its last nine games and entering on Saturday fighting for a Big 12 tournament championship and potentially a seed 2 in the tournament. NCAA.
The Cowboys had failed against Baylor in their two previous meetings this season, the first without Cunningham and the second without Likekele. With both players in the fold on Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, Boynton finally had a full complement of players ready to face the Bears.
Cunningham, the expected first pick in this year’s NBA Draft, showed why he’s such a sought-after talent at the senior level. He finished with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists, including 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 game, Baylor players expressed frustration over defensive breakdowns against Cunningham and his teammates. MaCio Teague said Cunningham was too often “free”.
“They scored around 80 against us,” he said after the game. ” [We have] bigger problems than shooting. “
Mark Vital has said he wants Davion Mitchell to have the defensive mission over Cunningham down the stretch, suggesting he could have disagreed with late-game rotations. And Baylor coach Scott Drew said his team needed more training, which they had been lacking since their three-week hiatus, so the Bears could “go back to being elite” in defense.
Still, he’s not convinced any team would have had answers for the projected No.1 pick.
“Cade is one of those guys where you can do everything right and he always has a bucket,” Drew said.
Avery Anderson, with 20 points, was a major factor alongside Cunningham, and two other players scored in double digits. The Cowboys have also grown strong on the defense, holding Baylor on one of their least effective offensive outings of the season. Drew’s team shot just 6 for 28 from behind the arc, their worst shooting effort since a Jan. 2 victory over Iowa State.
“I hope we’ll continue to dispel this idea that we’re Cade and a bunch of puppets, like, out there,” Boynton said.
There are few teams in the country playing better right now than Oklahoma State, and barring an astonishing turn of NCAA events in the next 48 hours, the Cowboys will be eligible to play in the tournament. NCAA. They received a one-year ban after the summer season, but they have appealed that decision and the NCAA has yet to respond to that call.
Assuming they play next week, the Cowboys are a team that no one is going to want to face.
“I think [it’s] our unit as a unit, “Cunningham said of the team’s recent play.” Everyone is stepping up. Everyone is trying to find ways to perfect this role, whatever it is. The staff give us great game plans and we just buy into those it really translates into making more. Once we won a few big games, our confidence only grew. It’s through the roof now. Still fine. We are trying to see how far we can go. “
But before that, Oklahoma State will face Texas in Saturday’s Big 12 title game.
“We didn’t come here to win a semi-final game,” Boynton said. “We came here to try to win a championship.”
And if the Cowboys are doing it, it might not be the only time this month that they’ve cut the net.
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.
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