Cowboy Quotables: Bedlam Edition

Oklahoma State gears up for the first men's basketball installment of the Phillips 66 Bedlam Series this weekend. Head coach Mike Boynton Jr., graduate guard John-Michael Wright and Oklahoma natives Brandon Garrison and Connor Dow sat down with local media Thursday to preview the matchup. Read on for some of the highlights.

Head coach Mike Boynton Jr. on….

… Oklahoma:
"Collectively, this group looks pretty in sync, particularly on defense. Certainly, the best team Porter (Moser)'s had. They're more athletic. They can really make plays at the rim in a way that they haven't been able to, on both ends of the floor. Offensively, they can get downhill on you and can finish. Jalen Moore and Otega Oweh's improvements are evident. Javian McCollum's added another dynamic playmaker, shot-maker, to go with (Milos) Uzan. They're really good."

… Garrison:
"We need him to play really well. It'll be his first experience in this rivalry, from that standpoint. Obviously, he's watched a lot of these games, but we need him to play well. He's a big part of us being able to have success. When he's played well in conference games -- Again, I'm not making a direct correlation to wins and losses, because we've had a lot of factors -- But we've played better when he's played well. So we need that to happen on Saturday."

… Houston:
"They're really, really good. I think part of it is that they have what I feel like our past few years' teams have had defensively. They have the ability to make it hard for you to score anywhere on the floor… They're not as dynamic, in terms of the length and mobility, but athletically, strength, experience. It's really hard to get a team to do what they do, which is get everybody in constant motion on defense.
A lot of people work at it on offense, and people that get really good at it are hard to defend. But very few people can do it on defense, where everywhere you turn feels like -- every answer you reveal, they present another problem… They're better than I thought they were going in, and I thought they were really good."

… Rebounding:
"Defensive rebounding is always a major emphasis, because it does a few things: You stay on defense longer if you don't rebound the ball. You tend to foul more, because those plays happen around the basket. And also you give up more layups. And if you aren't giving up layups, you ultimately are giving up wide open threes, because teams have gotten really good at kicking the ball out…. Defensive rebounding is a team deal. Offensively, we don't always send everybody, but everybody has a responsibility to help us rebound. We don't have a great deal of size across the board. We're smaller in the backcourt than we've been in previous years, and so it's got to be a team rebounding mentality for us to have a chance on the glass."

…Whether his past Bedlam success will carry over to this new group:
"It'll be new for a lot of guys, but the emphasis will still be great to us. No matter what kind of year we're having, and obviously we're not having the type of year we wanted to, it's a big deal. Obviously, it will be made that way to our team. Not that we're gonna practice longer or do anything crazy, but they'll understand the gravity of it to our fans and former players and just people who love Oklahoma State around here. We need to make sure that we're fighting for the school on Saturday."

… His goals for the remainder of the season:
"My goal is today, for two hours, we'll be in the gym. Like, let's be better. Let's leave there feeling like we got better at something, as individuals but also as a team. And make sure that those things carry over to the game. Whether today it be rebounding a little better or making better passes or blocking out communicating more. That'll be the way we approach this thing until we don't get to play anymore. And then we'll evaluate the whole at the end."

… The moment he first began to understand the Bedlam rivalry:
"When I was an assistant (in 2016-17), I'm pretty confident that the first Bedlam game was in Norman that year. And they had been kicking our butts, from what I understood. Buddy Heild and that group. The team we had hadn't had much success… I remember beating them down there. Jawun Evans gets a steal and throws it down to Phil Forte. And seeing Phil Forte and Layton Hammonds, who were seniors that year, how much relief and joy they felt from winning that game. And then to turn around and have to come home and follow it up against a team that was pretty good. And I think Jawun scored like 15 straight to win the game. This building was unbelievable that day. And that was the first time that I felt like – 'oh, this is different.'"

… His most memorable Bedlam:
"The Mitchell Solomon one – that was my first win in Bedlam. And Mitchell Solomon's effort, because that's what I want this program to be about, is out-working people."

… Whether he worries about the Oklahoma kids like Garrison feeling too much pressure:
"We'll try to focus on just enjoying it… Perspective it really important. It's a big deal what we're doing, but it's still a game. I want him to enjoy being a part of something that feels really important to a lot of people. In life, you don't get to that very often… (But) I don't want it to feel like a burden. I want him to have fun on Saturday because it should be fun."

Graduate guard John-Michael Wright on…

… His second go-around with Bedlam:
"Last year Bedlam was a great experience. We went 3-0 against them… We are just hoping to use that (momentum) to get a dub against a good OU team this year. I'm excited, the fans are excited. I always look forward to this game."

… Oklahoma:
"I know they're a fiery team. They like to get up and down."

… On Eric Dailey Jr.'s transition to a sixth-man role:
"Eric is a very versatile player. He can shoot, he can dribble and pass. And his ceiling is very high. He continues to work on his game every day. And it really speaks to his character, how he's handling this and still being able to give us his all 100% throughout the games with no attitude and nothing but positive messages towards his team and coaches."

Freshman center Brandon Garrison on…

… Being forged in the fire of the Big 12 Conference:
"Just playing against them, me getting better in practice, coaches getting after me, not taking days off and just playing against the best players in the league. I feel like it's making me better. My offensive game [has improved], just scoring the ball more."

Freshman guard Connor Dow on…

… The bedlam environment:
"I mean, obviously, since it's Bedlam, everybody's gonna want to show out and support their team. It's going to be a hostile environment, so you've just got to go in knowing that it's just us in there. We've got to stick together to get this win."

Oklahoma State University Athletics

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Eric Dailey Jr.

Connor Dow

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John-Michael Wright

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