Basketball
Oklahoma State’s former coach could soon reach the top of the college basketball mountain.
On Monday night, former OSU coach Mike Boynton will be on the sidelines for Michigan in the national title game. After being fired from OSU in 2024, Boynton has spent the past two seasons on Dusty May’s staff in Michigan as a lead assistant and could cap off his Wolverines’ dominant season with a championship.
After beating Arizona in dominant fashion in Saturday’s national semifinal, Michigan enters Monday night as the favorite against a UConn program looking for its third national title in the past four seasons. While Dan Hurley’s Huskies are sure to put up a fight as they always do, the former Cowboy coach could soon find himself atop the college basketball world.
Of course, Boynton spent seven seasons as the head coach in Stillwater and is beloved by the community, which will surely be rooting for him to take home the title on Monday night. While circumstances well beyond Boynton’s control often thwarted his hopes of building momentum within the OSU program during his coaching tenure, some things have finally fallen into place for Boynton to secure a national championship with one more win.
Regardless of Boynton and Michigan’s outcome on Monday night, his tenure in Ann Arbor has been undeniably successful. While he’s got one of the best jobs in the college basketball landscape as the lead assistant for a national title team, it also wouldn’t be surprising to see Boynton back on the bench somewhere else as a head coach in 2026-27.
While the Cowboys moved on from Boynton after he was unable to lead the program to more than one NCAA Tournament appearance in seven tries, he has plenty of coaching skills that clearly translate to the head coaching position. While Boynton’s long-term future is unknown, his short-term future includes a national championship game against UConn on Monday, and it’s hard to imagine he has anything else on his mind with the matchup only a few hours away.
After former OSU head coach Brad Underwood was eliminated with Illinois’ Final Four loss to UConn on Saturday, Boynton is the final remaining tie to OSU left in the NCAA Tournament. Considering Boynton has never been shy to show he still has love for the school he was head coach of for seven years, OSU is surely ready to see its former coach become a national champion.
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