Report: Oklahoma State parts ways with head coach Mike Boynton

The Oklahoma State Cowboys have parted ways with men’s head basketball coach Mike Boynton, per a report from college basketball insider Jon Rothstein on Thursday.

Boynton had just completed his seventh season with the program, leading the team to a disappointing 12-20 overall record and a 4-14 regular season record in conference play that tied for worst in the Big 12. With the Cowboys being eliminated from the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday to conference newcomer UCF in a 77-62 loss.

All-together Boynton had a 119–109 record as Oklahoma State’s head man, highlighted by an NCAA Tournament appearance as a No. 4 seed in 2021 and two NIT quarterfinal appearances.

The 42-year-old Brooklyn, New York native worked his way up in the coaching ranks following an impressive playing career. Playing four seasons of college basketball at South Carolina where he ended his career finishing in the top ten in three-pointers made and fourth in career games played in program history, helping lead the Gamecocks to the NCAA Tournament in 2004.

Oklahoma State represented the first head coaching job for Boynton, making stops at Coastal Carolina, Wofford, his alma mater, Stephen F. Austin, and then Oklahoma State in 2016 before being named the 20th head coach of the Cowboys following Brad Underwood‘s departure for Illinois.

Boynton led the Cowboys to a 21–15 season in Year 1 with the program, which would go on to represent one of three 20-win seasons during his seven-year tenure. Ending his Oklahoma State career with 24 wins over nationally ranked teams, 11 against top-10 opponents, and five postseason victories.

He also coached 10 All-Big 12 selections including Cade Cunningham, a consensus First Team All-American, National Freshman of the Year, Big 12 Player of the Year, and No. 1 overall selection in the 2021 NBA Draft.

Boynton recently spoke about the challenges that now come with recruiting players that are the caliber of Cunningham (No. 1 overall recruit for the 2020 class per On3’s Industry Ranking) in the new college basketball landscape. As Oklahoma State will now search for a new head man at the helm of their men’s basketball program.

“Recruiting’s never been a challenge. Until recruiting became not recruiting anymore. Like, what I had to do to get Cade Cunningham here was way more difficult than what it takes to get players on campus now. It’s not even the same thing,” Boynton said.

“That took four years of making sure I was there more than Bill Self and making sure I was there more than Roy Williams. And making sure I was there more than all these other coaches who had national championships and Final Fours and all these NBA guys. I had never coached a guy in the NBA as a head coach. I hadn’t coached in the NCAA Tournament. But over time, the relationship mattered enough that he believed that I was gonna do the right thing by him. I can’t work that hard anymore. Not when you can say, ‘Hey here’s $500,000 to come spend nine months over here.”