Mike Boynton Jr. named Michigan basketball head coach on two-year deal

Michigan took the internal route to find a new permanent men’s basketball coach.

Athletic director Warde Manuel announced Friday that he has dropped the interim tag on Mike Boynton Jr. and hired him as the program’s head coach.

Boynton agreed to a two-year deal, according to a release sent out by the program. The terms were not disclosed.

“Mike is a veteran assistant with strong head coaching experience and a clear understanding of the standard we expect at Michigan,” Manuel said in a statement. “Over the past two seasons, he has been an invaluable member of our staff, bringing stability, leadership and perspective during an important period of success.

“Our players and staff believe in his vision, are committed to his leadership and are excited for the opportunity to pursue great success together this season.”

Boynton, 44, served as the top assistant on Dusty May’s staff and played an integral role in bringing the Wolverines back to national prominence the past two seasons — a stretch that featured 64 wins, a Big Ten tournament title, a Big Ten regular-season championship, a Sweet 16 appearance and a national title.

As the de facto defensive coordinator and a top recruiter, Boynton’s fingerprints were all over the team’s historic 2025-26 season that recorded a program-record 37 wins, set a Big Ten record with 19 conference victories, netted the Wolverines’ first national championship in 37 years and produced three lottery picks in the NBA draft.

In his third year with the program, Boynton was named interim head coach by Manuel on June 23, a day after May left for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. In the weeks since, Boynton has worked to keep what’s viewed as a top-10 roster together for next season, with 13 of Michigan’s 14 players reaffirming their commitment to the Wolverines.

Initially, Manuel didn’t specify how long the interim arrangement would last. That clarity finally came Friday with Boynton officially being tabbed as May’s successor and named the 19th head coach in program history.

“I'm grateful to Warde for his confidence and thankful for the opportunity to lead this program,” Boynton said in a statement. “We have built a championship culture and a standard that everyone associated with this program takes great pride in.

“We have an outstanding group of players, and I'm excited to get to work and continue the success we've established together.”

Prior to Michigan, Boynton was head coach at Oklahoma State for seven seasons before he was fired in March 2024. During Boynton’s tenure from 2017-24, the Cowboys went 119-109 and made one NCAA Tournament in 2021, when they were led by No. 1 recruit and No. 1 NBA draft pick Cade Cunningham.

That 2020-21 campaign — in which the Cowboys went 21-9 and 11-7 in Big 12 play — was Oklahoma State’s best season under Boynton and the lone season it finished .500 or better in conference play.

Despite that middling success, May trumpeted that Boynton deserved another head-coaching opportunity in the future.

“He's an elite basketball coach,” May said of Boynton during the Final Four in April. “He's just as good as I am. He's just as prepared. He's been invaluable for me. The best part about him is he covers my blind spots before they're blind. There's not a day that goes by that he doesn't call me and want to take something off my plate that I haven't thought of, and that's what he is. He's a forward-thinker. He's got a great feel for people.

“I don't know if I've ever met anyone that didn't say positive things about him, especially in this climate when we love to say negative things about anyone and everyone.”

Boynton received endorsements from former Michigan coach John Beilein, former star forward Yaxel Lendeborg, and Pistons star Cunningham in the program’s release, with Beilein calling Boynton “the right guy at the right time.”

Former Michigan guards Nimari Burnett and Roddy Gayle Jr. also voiced their support of Boynton in recent weeks. Burnett, while speaking on the program’s “Defend the Block” podcast, called Boynton a “perfect fit” and Gayle lauded him as a “great option” to replace May.

“Coach Mike has been there every step of the way. I think he was as much as a head coach alongside Dusty as anybody. So, I think them two working in tandem was what made us as great and as powerful as we were,” Gayle said recently on former Wolverine and current college basketball analyst Tim McCormick’s “Go Blue Hoops” podcast.

“I think Coach Boynton has the experience, he has all the characteristics to keep this machine going.”

Former Michigan assistant Justin Joyner, who was hired as Oregon State’s head coach in the spring, called Boynton the “best people manager” he’s ever been around and described him as someone who’s “elite at managing personalities.”

“Professionalism, maturity, experience, all the things you would think from a veteran assistant that's been a head coach at the highest level (he brings to the staff),” Joyner said this past season.

“Whether it's offseason, whether it's game planning, whether it's messaging going into a game, messaging going into a practice, his decision-making (stands out). He's had so much experience. I think he's done a great job of putting his imprint on our staff from an X's and O's perspective but also laying back and being a sounding board.”

Boynton began his coaching career in 2004 as a graduate assistant at Furman and spent time as an assistant at Coastal Carolina (2005-07), Wofford (2007-08), South Carolina (2008-13), Stephen F. Austin (2013-16) and Oklahoma State (2016-17), with the last four years spent under Brad Underwood. When Underwood left Oklahoma State for Illinois in 2017, Boynton was promoted to the top spot and his first head-coaching gig.

After working alongside May during one of the greatest two-year stretches in Michigan's program history, Boynton is getting his second shot to take over a top spot again.

“You couldn't ask for a better person to lead Michigan basketball,” May said in a statement. “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.

“There's nobody more deserving of this opportunity, and I know he'll do an outstanding job leading this program.”