How the past 2 years prepared Mike Boynton Jr. to succeed as Michigan Basketball’s head coach

Michigan head men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton Jr. has been coaching for more than two decades, but the past two years as an assistant coach under Dusty May have prepared him to find success as the program’s leader for years to come.

“In the last two years working alongside Dusty and seeing things from a different perspective, I feel like I’ve evolved,” Boynton told the media on Tuesday. “I’ve learned how to delegate, manage the staff and be more convicted in the things I believe in.”

Boynton was head coach at Oklahoma State from 2017-24 before becoming an assistant coach with the Wolverines. His stint at Oklahoma State was underwhelming, but the past two years have been a valuable learning experience for him.

“One of the things I take the most pride in is learning from every situation I’m in,” Boynton said. “As you go through different situations, you learn and you stub your toe a little bit, and then you have some success, and you learn from it all.”

Not only was he the lead assistant under May since 2024, but Boynton was dubbed the leader of the defense and he excelled in that role, helping build an elite defensive unit and proceeding to manage the nation’s top-rated defense in 2026. He knows exactly what it takes to dominate defensively, and it showed the last two seasons since Michigan led the country in defensive efficiency rating by allowing just 88.5 points per 100 possessions last year.

“I came from Oklahoma State with a defensive background, and I leaned into that with our staff here,” Boynton said. “That was something we did at a really high level but you can’t be a good defensive coach unless you know offense as well.”

Boynton had an opportunity to learn from and work with one of the nation’s premier coaches the past couple seasons at Michigan. He was able to absorb May’s blueprint on the court and vision off the court, and that should pay dividends moving forward.

Despite losing May to the NBA last month, Michigan was able to retain 13 of the 14 players on the roster, which speaks volumes to the program’s belief and confidence in Boynton to keep the recent momentum going. Boynton also retained most of the coaching staff by bringing back multiple assistant coaches, including Kyle Church, Akeem Miskdeen and K.T. Harrell, while hiring Brown head coach Mike Martin to solidify the offensive attack.

“If you look at my teams offensively, it wasn’t a thing of beauty. It was an area that I’ve grown over the last two years by watching what we do here,” Boynton said. “So I wanted to hire guys who can be creative and evolve as our team evolves.”

Even though his time as the head coach at Cowboys didn’t go as planned, Boynton has grown and learned since then, and there’s nothing that has prepared him more than the last two years. Now, he’s ready to excel.

“It’s a tremendously well-respected program with a great amount of momentum right now, and so I’m thankful for the opportunity,” Boynton said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge. It’s a great challenge but I’m excited about it.”