STILLWATER — When Mike Boynton first saw his team would play his alma mater in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, he wasn’t stoked.
Oklahoma State will play South Carolina on Saturday in Gallagher-Iba Arena. Boynton, OSU’s coach, played for the Gamecocks from 2000-04. To some, it might be a cool experience to play the team you used to play for, but Boynton said it’s hard playing people he knows well.
Boynton was an assistant on South Carolina’s staff from 2008 to 2013, current coach Frank Martin’s first season. Although Boynton wasn’t on Martin’s staff, Martin worked to get Boynton a job as South Carolina’s director of student athlete development where he worked with athletes from all sports with everything from planning for graduation ceremonies to working with athletes on job interviews to setting up networking seminars to etiquette dinner training.