Why Mike Boynton Should Get One More Year At Oklahoma State
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You’re an Oklahoma State basketball fan, and you love coach Mike Boynton Jr. as a person. But that’s not the issue right now.
It’s his record as a coach that is driving you nuts.
The Cowboys’ 77-62 first-round Big 12 Tournament loss to UCF on Tuesday put an end to Boynton’s seventh season as head coach. It come with a six-game losing skid to end the year and the lowest win total since his 12-win campaign in 2018-19.
He has one NCAA Tournament appearance, which came with Cade Cunningham. He has two NIT bids. He got screwed by the NCAA after a four-year investigation into recruiting violations he had nothing to do with and was banned from the 2022 postseason, which set the program back.
But the bottom line is he is barely over .500 after seven seasons, and you have to squint to remember the glory days under Eddie Sutton.
So, do you keep him? That’s the question of the offseason. His team’s performance on Tuesday made that conversation more uncomfortable.
Boynton is so darned transparent that he’s addressed it a few times this offseason with both the Tulsa World and the Oklahoman. He gets it. He’s as ticked off as anyone that OSU is among the top teams in the conference. He admits some of that is on him.
But he’s also taken the opportunity to note that OSU is well behind most of the conference in NIL expenditures for men’s basketball. He’s also talked about a lack of facilities improvement for men’s basketball during his tenure. So he’s acknowledging and nudging his administration, which is a delicate line to walk when you have one NCAA Tournament win to your name.
After Tuesday’s loss, he acknowledged that this year’s record of 12-20 “isn’t good enough.” He also admitted that he was less focused on the future, at least for that day than he was on his players, who won’t put on an OSU uniform again. But he’ll be thinking about that in the next day or two.
Money is part of the equation for administration. The Tulsa World reported that Boynton is paid $2.5 million per year and has a deal through the 2027-28 season. After April 1, his buyout drops to $6.7 million. That’s still a lot of money to buy out a coach.
OSU fans probably believe they’ve been patient enough. Seven years is a good sample size in most cases. Why should Boynton be any different?
The buyout is part of the reason why I think you keep him. It goes down after another season and puts less financial strain on the athletic department. Another is that I really believe, deep down, that Boynton can coach. He’s won 20 games three times with OSU, both with players he inherited and players he recruited.
There is undeniable talent on this team. The problem is the vast majority of it is young. His last freshman class was No. 14, according to 247Sports.com. That’s the class that was on the floor on Tuesday. He committed to playing many of them big minutes this season. It’s the sort of trial by fire that should pay off next season.
“I think we played the youngest team in our league in terms of people who weren’t experienced in college basketball playing,” Boynton said. “That’s a difficult thing to learn.”
Some of those players, like true freshman Eric Dailey Jr., were already thinking ahead to next season.
“I think for me just consistently doing the things that impact winning,” Dailey said. “Just being a leader as well. Those are the things I need to work on coming back next year.
Dailey hit the caveat to all of this. It assumes Boynton can keep them in Stillwater. That’s the rub. In an era where everyone gets one free transfer, it would be easy for any of them to choose to make a move to a different program. Boynton acknowledged that. After comforting his seniors, that’s his next job.
It’s why I don’t expect the Cowboys to make a move on him right away. The administration may wait to see if any of these talented freshmen decide to leave the program before weighing in on Boynton.
Why? Because, if there is an exodus of players, then it stands to reason that the majority of players will transfer out if there’s a coaching change and the new coach gets to start fresh. Think of what happened two years ago Kansas State with Jerome Tang. He wanted players to stay, but 11 of the 13 that were there under Bruce Weber left.
Boynton wants to keep this band together. Only time will tell if he can — or if he’ll be around long enough to enjoy the tune. From here, I think he should get one more chance.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
