Already in the preseason, Oklahoma State men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton made his team do what they did each preseason: practice net cutting. All the players went up the ladder with scissors and pulled a piece of net.
For freshman Cade Cunningham, it was her first time doing it in college. For young 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 … When we arrived this year, all the individuals from one to fifteen had the same belief.”
After Friday night’s 83-74 victory over Baylor, the Big 12 tournament series leader and the country’s No. 2 team, the Cowboys are now 40 minutes away from fulfilling 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 how you do it before you can put it into action. I wanted to set a tone for this team pretty soon on what I hoped it would be able to do. And then we went to work … and here we are “.
Oklahoma State continued its career as one of the hottest teams in the country, winning eight of its last nine games and entering Saturday to fight for a Big 12 tournament championship and potentially a 2-seed in the NCAA tournament.
The Cowboys had fallen short against Baylor in their previous two meetings 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 face the Bears.
Cunningham, the No. 1 seeded in this year’s NBA draft, proved 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 game, the Baylor players expressed their frustration at the defensive end of Cunningham and his teammates. MaCio Teague said Cunningham was “free” too often.
“They scored 80 points for us,” he said after the game. ” [We have] bigger problems than shooting “.
Mark Vital said he wanted Davion Mitchell to have the defensive assignment to Cunningham throughout the stretch, suggesting he might have disagreed with the rotations at the end of the game. And Baylor coach Scott Drew said his team needs more practice, which they have been missing since the three-week break, so the Bears can “become elites again” on defense.
However, he is not convinced that any team would have had answers for the projected No. 1 election.
“Cade is one of those guys where you can do everything right and he still has a bucket,” Drew said.
Avery Anderson, with 20 points, was a major factor alongside Cunningham, and two more players scored in double figures. The Cowboys also closed out their defensive side, keeping Baylor on one of their less efficient offensive outings of the season. Drew’s team shot just 6-for-28 from behind the arc, their worst shooting effort since winning Jan. 2 at Iowa State.
“I hope we continue to dispel that notion that we’re Cade and a lot of puppets,” Boynton said.
There are few teams in the country that play better right now than the state of Oklahoma, and unless there is an impressive turn of NCAA events in the next 48 hours, the Cowboys will be eligible to play in the NCAA tournament. . In the summer they were banned from a postseason year, but they appealed against that decision and the NCAA has yet to respond to that appeal.
Assuming they play next week, the Cowboys are a team no one will want to face.
“I think [it’s] our union 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 offers us great game plans and we just buy from each other, this really translates into earning more. Once we’ve won a couple of great games, our confidence has only grown. It is now on the roof. It still works. We try to see how far we can go. “
Before that, however, Oklahoma State will face Texas in Saturday’s game for the Big 12 title.
“We didn’t come in here to win a semifinal game,” Boynton said. “We came here to try to win a championship.”
And if the Cowboys do, it may not be the only time this month they cut nets.
ESPN’s Myron Medcalf contributed to this report.