Sutton Suspends Boggan

Oklahoma State’s road to the NCAA Tournament appears to have gotten a little tougher Wednesday when leading scorer Mario Boggan was suspended for one game and will not play in Saturday’s contest against Baylor at Waco. Boggan, the Cowboys’ leading scorer (20.1 points) and rebounder (7.9), is being disciplined after head-butting Kansas State’s Cartier Martin in Tuesday night’s game in Stillwater.

The 6-7 Boggan was getting ready to leave the court to a standing ovation on Senior Night at Gallagher-Iba Arena when he walked over and intentionally head-butted the Wildcat player. Boggan was ejected from the game for a flagrant foul – and not fighting, which would have led to an automatic one-game suspension under Big 12 Conference rules.

But OSU head coach Sean Sutton has decided to suspend the Cowboys’ top scorer, which makes Saturday’s trip to Waco for a thin-benched OSU team even that more perilous. OSU’s win over Kansas State ended a four-game losing streak and improved the Cowboys’ record to 20-9 overall and 6-8 in Big 12 play.

"After reviewing the film numerous times, there's no question that Mario used extremely bad judgment in head-butting Cartier Martin," Sutton said in a news release. "We're certainly not going to condone this kind of behavior."

Boggan, whose mother was in the crowd to see him play his last home game at Gallagher-Iba Arena, apologized in a statement released by OSU>

"This is not the way I would like to be remembered on senior night, and it's certainly not the way I was taught to play basketball," Boggan said. "I feel bad that my mother was in the crowd and saw this in person."

Conventional wisdom indicates that OSU must win its final two Big 12 games – at Baylor and at Nebraksa on Monday – and claim at least one victory in next week’s Big 12 Tournament to have a chance at earning an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Winning in Baylor without Boggan is not going to be easy. He had 26 points and 13 rebounds in the Cowboys’ 81-77 victory over the Bears in Stillwater on Jan. 6.

The good news for the Cowboys is that freshman Obi Muonelo is expected to return to the court Saturday for the first time in more than two months. The 6-5 freshman averaged 11.1 points in his first 11 games before breaking a bone in his leg that required surgery in mid-December. Muonelo returned to practice Monday and should be able to provide some minutes off the bench against the Bears.