NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - OKLAHOMA ST. VS LIBERTY

March 19, 2021

Mike Boynton

Oklahoma State Cowboys

Indiana Farmers Coliseum

Postgame Media Conference

Oklahoma State - 69, Liberty - 60

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach.

MIKE BOYNTON: First, congratulations to Liberty on a great season. Got a lot of respect for Coach McKay and his program and what they have been able to do the last several years. I think they're only rivaled by Gonzaga in the number of wins in the last three years, in the 70s somewhere. We had a hard fought game and we know knew that. But really happy for our kids that we fought and scrapped and clawed. None of our guys had been in this moment before, and for them to have to figure out a way to have success against a really good team was pretty special.

Also, congratulations to coach Paul Mills and Oral Roberts Eagles from the good state of Oklahoma on their win today.

Q. You got a lot of contributions all over the place today and it took a lot of work and you mentioned young guys. Do you think there were jitters? Do you think there were just some things they had to work out being in that environment?

MIKE BOYNTON: There's no question about it in my mind. This is the biggest and best sporting event in any sport. I mean, this is the biggest. This is the biggest stage you can be on, and most of these guys have never been on a stage like this, and I certainly know that they were excited to play, but we made some boneheaded mistakes and we were playing against a really good team. So I didn't expect to win by 20, no matter what the seed lines looked like in here. But it was a hard fought game and I'm glad our defensive carried us at the end of the day.

Q. I know you're a Yankees fan. Is Cade your Mariano Rivera?

MIKE BOYNTON: That's high, that's high praise now. I'm going to give him more like Derek Jeter. He's really good late, but I'm not sure he's quite Mariano Riviera. If he gets me a few more wins, he can get that crown.

Q. That's fair. Last one from me. About Avery, you've talked a lot about him and how improved he is. Are you shocked at all that he comes into this situation and still thrives?

MIKE BOYNTON: Not at all. In fact, Avery was really, really disappointed and really hurt that he didn't play better in our conference tournament championship game. Took that one really hard. At the end of the day what happened with him was he just ran out of gas. We had Cade and Ice out for a couple of games there late and that guy was carrying us in many situations. So I'm not surprised that with a few days to get his mind right and to get some rest that he came out and played the way he did today.

Q. You guys were -- Liberty came in as the third best scoring defense in the nation. How did you guys game plan to combat that and did you attribute that to some of the beginning of the game woes?

MIKE BOYNTON: Yeah, I actually thought we got off to a pretty good start and it was our defense that was leading us. But, yeah, you're playing against really good teams. There are no bad teams in this event. And obviously we played a team that's used to winning and has a great identity that they play to all the time. So it took a little bit for our guys to get adjusted to it, but I thought we made the proper adjustments to start the second half and trying to just Will ourselves to the basket and get ourselves to the free throw line and it ended up paying big dividends for us.

Q. I wanted to ask you about trust. As you look at whether it's offense or defense today, it was different guys at different times. When did you sense this team starting to really trust each other?

MIKE BOYNTON: I got a date for you. It's February 10th. We got back from Lawrence, Kansas, probably on one of our worst games, to be perfectly honest, in our approach. We actually didn't play poorly, we just didn't play the game the right way. And we had a meeting on February 10th that the guys kind of made a decision that no matter what, how it ended the last few weeks of the season, that we were going to play the way we have been trained to play and the way that they were recruited to play. And since then, I think you've seen a different team, and that's been pretty consistent, everybody's been willing to sacrifice the things necessary for us to have the success, and so here we are a month later, continuing to play in the NCAA tournament.

Q. Did you think a meeting where guys said we're going to do that would end with that kind of dividend? Were the guys close? Did you sense it? Because that's a little bit surprising that those guys could say, hey, we're going to do this and then they went out and did it.

MIKE BOYNTON: No, because I challenged them after that meeting. I think our next game after that was against K-State. And I told they them, Guys, that's great that we had this meeting on Wednesday and everybody said that they're going to do X, Y, Z, but the only thing that really matters is what we do when we take the court. And to their credit, we haven't always played great, but for the most part everybody's been bought in, whether they're playing a lot, playing a little, scoring, not scoring, having to guard. And I think you see that in the results. Today Kalib Boone didn't play a whole lot even though he started both halves. Bernie has been playing more. This was a different game for him. So I think they're really committed, that they said they were going to do something and they meant it and they are holding each other accountable to that.

Q. First off, what did you do well tonight and what did you not do well, just from what you saw out on the court?

MIKE BOYNTON: I thought we defended at a really, really high level. I thought our rotations, our ability to kind of disrupt their rhythm offensively, specifically Darius McGhee, who is a tremendous scorer, certainly capable of scoring 30 points easily, making him inefficient was a big key today. I thought that after, in the second half, particularly I thought we rebounded the ball really well. I still think we're a little careless with the ball. We didn't shoot the ball well, but that's not something that I really worry about as much because sometimes that happens. You're not going to shoot the ball well, it's the first experience for these guys here, and I feel like we have guys taking the right shots. But at the free-throw line we got to convert better as well.

Q. Second of all, when you see, Cade obviously struggled, offensively, a good chunk of the game, how much does it help to know a guy like Avery is capable of sort of, not for the whole game, but for 10 or 12 minutes, he sort of put your offense on his back and made the first half not a disaster. What kind of a relief is it to have a secondary guy like that?

MIKE BOYNTON: It's huge. It's why you recruit depth, it's why you recruit really talented guys, and it's why I keep saying that I understand the narrative, I get why, but it's not totally true. Like, Cade's really good. He's going to be a terrific NBA player. We have a lot of really good college basketball players and Avery Anderson is at the top of that list. At some point I would hope that people would just accept that he's a good player and not just assume that he's like pulling this stuff out of his butt because he's been doing it pretty consistently here for the last month or so.

Q. How good does it feel to know that you can still win a game like this despite maybe not going totally according to plan with Cade, only having around 10 points and you not shooting well from three?

MIKE BOYNTON: It's huge. In this tournament you got to find a way to win no matter what. The alternative is the season is over. So in our minds no matter how the game is going, we have to make adjustments. Cade obviously got in some foul trouble early. That kept him a little out of rhythm to start the second half. But having Avery, having Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe step up and play as aggressive as he was, having Rondel Walker get to the offensive glass for two huge plays, and then what carried us was our defense. A lot's been said about Liberty's defense and it's really, really good, one of the best in the country, but I think tonight we showed that we can win the game on the defensive end if that's what's necessary as well.

Q. Was it one of those things where you just felt like if others could step up, that would kind of make it easy for Cade to kind of get comfortable and find his game as he did in the second half?

MIKE BOYNTON: Yeah, I don't really worry about Cade. I think everybody else worries about him a lot more than I do. First of all, I've known the kid since he was 14. I know how he's wired. And I know that he wants to play to win. And if that means he's good got to score 10 points and get other guys involved and allow other guys like Avery Anderson or Matthew-Alexander or Ice, kind of carry the load offensively, he's comfortable with that. That's what's given us a chance to have a really successful season. He hasn't been so self-absorbed that, just because he's a scorer, that he's not completely engaged. He had some big defensive plays for us in the second half, and that's the reason why he's special. He's not one dimensional and the most important thing to him is that his team gets a chance to play again on Sunday.

Q. To that point about Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe, when you look at his stat line, one rebound away from a double double, a block, a steal. How much is your trust is just elevated with a young kid like that when he comes in and alongside Avery can provide when obviously Cade isn't able to score and were there any lingering effects from his fall too?

MIKE BOYNTON: I don't know, I haven't gotten a report on that, I wish I could, but I just don't have information. It happened here late. But I've got a ton of confidence. We recruited these kids believing that they could help us have success in this event. And it's not just Cade, it's guys like Matthew who really believe in themself, who came here because he felt like he could impact winning. And the truth is the reason he played well is because he had an unbelievable week of practice since we got here. So we always talk about the work winning and the work certainly was on full display for Matthew today by his effort.