It was no secret that after Dusty May left the Michigan Wolverines for the Dallas Mavericks, the Wolverines were going to have an interim head coach. Well, they have more than that now, as Mike Boynton Jr, who was serving in that exact role, has been named the permanent head coach. Not only that, but the Wolverines announced a two-year deal for the former Oklahoma State head coach, who groomed Cade Cunningham during his lone season in Stillwater.
Now, it appears everyone is all in on Mike Boynton Jr as the man at the head of Michigan Basketball.
Is Mike Boynton Jr The Right Man For Michigan Basketball?
Evaluating The Hire
He’s got a few positives already going for him, which is why Michigan likely made this move. He helped tremendously with the defensive part of the game, as the Wolverines won the National Championship this past season. Not to mention, he was able to keep everyone on this season’s roster in the fold even after Dusty’s departure in June. It makes things easier for a team, especially when Michigan was kind of blindsided by May.
Now they can put their full focus into this season, and they don’t have to worry about roster turnover right before the season. His connection with the players is certainly being felt thus far, as each of the players shared their sentiment about Boynton’s hiring.
Ex-coach Dusty May also spoke about the hire.
” You couldn’t ask for a better person to lead Michigan basketball.” May said. “Mike has poured everything he has into this program from the day he got here. He’s an outstanding coach an even better person, and our players believe in him because they see the work he puts in every single day.”
That’s high praise from a coach who kind of left them high and dry, but it is what it is.
A championship foundation. A familiar leader.
Mike Boynton Jr. has been appointed head coach of Michigan Men’s Basketball.
Read more about the next chapter in Ann Arbor. ⬇️ https://t.co/RRpjUwYEnH#GoBlue pic.twitter.com/JQmm2giggo
— Michigan Men's Basketball (@umichbball) July 10, 2026
Previous History Is A bit Of A Warning
There do have to be some concerns, however. He spent seven seasons as the head coach of the Cowboys at Oklahoma State. He only made one NCAA Tournament, and that was primarily due to having Cunningham. Outside of that, he’s 119-109 overall as a college head coach. He’s shown he can carry on a culture that was built by keeping the players together for this season, but what happens when things go south?
I’m not fully writing him off, but history at Michigan athletics lately has proven that the guy, after ‘the guy’, hasn’t been the best choice. Football, recently, for the university, had a pretty nasty issue with the guy they hired after winning a National Championship. However, this is basketball, so the other option here is to cite some other issues that have happened after the Wolverines have had success in the sport.
When the scandal in the late 1990’s occurred for Michigan, and National Championship-winning coach Steve Fisher was let go, Michigan went through some of its worst periods in the sport with coaches Brian Ellerbe and Tommy Amaker. They made the wrong hire once again after John Beilein left in 2019. Yes, Juwan Howard was the prodigal son because he was a member of the Fab Five, but his anger issues and lack of real development of players proved not to work out, before going 8-24 to end his tenure at the end of the 2023-24 season.
It isn’t a knock on Boynton by any means, but if Michigan got this wrong again, they could easily spiral as they did 30 years ago. Who knows in this age of college basketball, but time will tell for Michigan.
Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
