The Oklahoma State Cowboys will take to the court to challenge the No. 13 seed Liberal Flames at Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Friday evening. For those who miss the headlines of last summer, it seems at least curious, perhaps downright baffling, to see OK State ready to compete in the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
“Oklahoma State receives postseason ban, 3 years probation, other penalties from NCAA.”
On June 5, 2020, SportingNews.com held the title.
And if it is not clear, the text of the article states that the postseason ban was determined to serve immediately, such as right now. There was no report in 2022 to serve your sentence. The Cowboys were supposed to play their regular season and then the activity stopped when March started going crazy.
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They are here, however, and this is how it should be, even though the process by which they have maintained their qualifications to compete in the NCAA is also complicated by exceptional standards of NCAA justice. They are in play because the state of Oklahoma appealed the penalty of a one-year Postson ban, and because a hearing on that appeal was not heard until February, and because a decision on that appeal has not yet been granted.
All-American freshman Cade Cunningham chose to remain on the program with coach Mike Boynton and his brother, Cannon, an assistant coach, even after sentencing. Cade is well aware of all the technicalities. However, he says that OK State is in the tournament for a more fundamental reason: it was too good to be excluded.
Cunningham told reporters on the zoom call this week, “To be completely honest with you, we knew that if we were to do what we do in our regular-season games – I know how it works – I have to I know. “So we had that chip on our shoulder. Every game, we were trying to prove something. “
“Obviously, with the ban, we think the school did nothing wrong. They handled it well. But it was implemented, and we knew that if we proved every game, they would Will put us in it. “
Cunningham, understandably, hasn’t been around the NCAA for long, so he hasn’t seen anything that we have.
However, there came a point in the season where OK State was so clearly one of the best teams in the nation and Cunningham, and clearly one of the best players, and the decision on appeal was so close to the start of the tournament, the Cowboys Any decision to exclude was resulting in a wave of negative publicity that the NCAA did not need at this juncture. If the appeal was denied on 20 February or 1 March, or on Selection Sunday, the response from the public would have been cruel.
The NCAA has enough hashtags to deal with at the moment.
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Whatever the reason the appeal was not heard until the regular season was a month from its finale and the decision was not presented more than a month after that, it is for the best. This is how it should be.
Oklahoma State should never have been banned from the postman. Is clear in Fine south carolina It consisted of the same person (former Gamecocks and Cowboys assistant coach Lamont Evans) who was reportedly doing similar things (accepting money from agents / financial manager to influence players’ representation decisions).
Athletic Director Mike Holder immediately announced that the penalties were exaggerated, given the nature of the allegations. “It is impossible to crush,” Holder’s words were, And he was right.
Punished in February, South Carolina did not receive a postseason ban, nor the same as the scholarship penalty against OK State. The NCAA offered reasons to do so, but they were not sufficient to explain the difference.
A one-year sentence delay, if all of that comes from this, at least gives the Cowboys a chance to compete in the NCAA when they’ve got their best team in 15 years and their most talented player, at least, Bob Kurland His last season as a three-time All-American came in 1946.
Instead of Kentucky to attend OK State, in which he was heavily recruited, Cunningham became one of Rare’s most recent one-off stars, bringing significant success to his team in a place that hardly such players Attracts you. The top NBA did not make the tournament as recently as Anthony Edwards (Georgia), Dennis Smith (NC State) and Ben Simmons (LSU).
The Cowboys earned the No. 4 seed – in fact, they earned No. 3, but were not assigned one by the selection committee – and reached the Big 12 title game.
“Because I hate losing,” Cunningham told reporters. “I know Oklahoma State didn’t have the year they were most proud of last year. But my brother always told me, whenever he was hired – he didn’t recruit me for the longest time, Unless some time ago to make a decision. Because they said, ‘I’m not going to enroll you in a school that I don’t think is ready for you.’ He gave it a long analysis. And finally he said to me: Yes, I think this is a place where you can come and succeed.
“And that was because the groundwork coach Mike had already put in. He told me how much the players wanted to win, how much the staff wanted to win, and were ready to win.”
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Bouton expressed his gratitude when he had the opportunity to compete in March, although he prepared it as an honor for NCAA vice-president Dan Gavitt and the team of staff and volunteers, likely in the NCAA Tournament with some interruptions from COVID Were working to work.
One can almost hear a hint of relief from Boynton, however, given the odds stacked against the Cowboys last summer as a chance to take this team to the court.
“I think I think the best event in the game is an opportunity to play,” Boynton said Wednesday. “Our people are excited and eager to be a part of it
“I think we have a team that can beat anyone in the field. There is no one we can play that I wouldn’t go to thinking that I have the best player in the game.”
We all need to see Cunningham take his shot. It will only be this one, but it is better than none. And “None” seemed highly favored when the season began.
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