Mussatto: Mike Boynton isn't dodging questions about future with Oklahoma State basketball

STILLWATER — After Mike Boynton finished his media availability Thursday with a half-dozen reporters, I introduced myself to the Oklahoma State basketball coach and asked if he had a few more minutes to chat. Before I could explain about what, Boynton asked if I could wait around for a half-hour. He first needed to set up a film session.

Thirty minutes had not yet passed before Boynton returned. He grabbed a seat next to me in the media workroom, and after exchanging pleasantries, I told him I was there to ask about his job. About the uncertainty surrounding it.

Most coaches would have gone on the defensive. Boynton is different — open and honest.

“It’s a fair question,” he said.

The Cowboys (9-11, 1-6) finally notched their first Big 12 win Saturday, beating West Virginia 70-66. In his seventh season as head coach, Boynton is 48-67 in conference play. At a once-proud program like OSU, that’s not good enough. Not nearly good enough. Which is why some have called for his job, inevitably leading to discourse about his $8 million buyout.

When asked how it feels to be sitting on that bright orange hot seat, Boynton didn’t squirm.

“I like that people, not that they want to call for my job, but that they expect our program to be good,” Boynton told The Oklahoman. “That’s where this is borne out of, right? Most of the people that are fans of Oklahoma State went to school here. There are very few random Oklahoma State fans.

“And so when it’s something you care passionately about, yeah, it bothers you when you don’t see it the way you want it or the way you remembered it, and so I respect that wholeheartedly, no different than I hate when I watch the Yankees go through a season like they went through this year. Now, I’m a coach, so I don’t question coaches because I know the coach is probably the most vested person in the entire operation. But there’s a thought out there, somehow people convince themselves that they care more.”

More: Oklahoma State basketball beats West Virginia for first win in Big 12 play

Mike Boynton's contract runs through 2027-28 season

Boynton, 42, is from Brooklyn, N.Y. — a long way from Stillwater geographically, an even longer way culturally.

As a young Yankees fan, he grew up in the wrong era. The Yankees didn’t make the playoffs from 1982 — the year Boynton was born — to 1994. Then, from 1996 to 2000, the Yanks won four World Series in a five-year stretch.

The Knicks and New York Football Giants were Boynton’s other teams.

“Before I ever coached, before I ever played any sports, I was a fan,” Boynton said. “... I get the notion of riding the waves of wins and losses, what I do also understand is there’s only so much that I can control, right? I try to do the very best every day at the things that I can control. And then, I live with outcomes once I believe I have a good process in place, once I believe I’m doing the right things for our kids, first and foremost, for the program, for the alumni here, the people who blessed me with this opportunity.

“And so I respect all that, but I don’t give much thought to, when does it end? It’s insignificant to me, actually. Not because I don’t care, but because I don’t decide that.”

When does it end? How much longer will Boynton be given to revive a sleepy program, to make Gallagher-Iba Arena roar again?

That’s a decision to be made by OSU’s administration, led by athletic director Chad Weiberg.

Eight days after the Cowboys’ 2020-21 season ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament — OSU’s only tournament appearance under Boynton — Boynton signed a seven-year, $21 million extension that would take him through the 2027-28 season.

Weiberg was deputy athletic director to former AD Mike Holder when Boynton signed the extension.

Boynton, by all accounts, is beloved by the OSU administration and his players, but some fans are rightfully getting restless. OSU is No. 140 in the NET rankings, ahead of only West Virginia (No. 157) in the Big 12. Entering Saturday, the best team OSU has beaten, per the NET rankings, is Tulsa, which checked in at No. 189.

If OSU were to fire Boynton before April 1, Boynton would be owed a buyout of just under $8 million, The Oklahoman reported. On April 1, Boynton’s buyout will drop to about $6.7 million.

Wins and losses aside, firing Boynton before the season ends would be financial negligence. Might as well put that $8 million into an NIL fund than use it to fire a coach. Edge rushers and wide receivers aren’t cheap, after all.

More: Focus is bigger than basketball for Oklahoma State's Mike Boynton in Remember the Ten game

Are there silver linings with Cowboys' roster?

And here’s a silver lining in what looks to be another lost season: Point guard Javon Small, the Cowboys’ leading scorer and distributor, has another season of eligibility left. Two freshmen, forward Eric Dailey Jr. and center Brandon Garrison, rank fourth and fifth on the team in minutes. Both were four-star prospects in the 2023 class, as was forward Justin McBride, who’s played sparingly.

Now, developing a young roster is a dangerous game to play in the portal era, but there’s at least hope on the horizon if Boynton returns and keeps his young core intact.

The music is going to eventually stop, though, with Boynton left standing if the Cowboys don’t make it back to the Big Dance soon. OSU qualified for the NCAA Tournament just once in Boynton’s first six seasons, and you can already uncap the Sharpie and mark off the Cowboys this season.

OSU is amid its leanest seven-year stretch of basketball since 1983-90, when Paul Hansen and Leonard Hamilton were coaching the Cowboys. Then came the legendary Eddie Sutton, whose name graces the court at Gallagher-Iba Arena.

Travis Ford took the Cowboys to the tournament in five of his eight seasons, and Brad Underwood led OSU to the tournament in his one season, but the Cowboys haven’t qualified for the Sweet 16 since 2005 — when Chris Paul was playing in Oklahoma City … for the Hornets.

When Underwood bolted for Illinois after one season at OSU, Boynton, an Underwood assistant, was promoted. The misdeeds of Lamont Evans, a fellow assistant on Underwood’s staff in 2016-17 who was charged in a federal bribery scheme, became Boynton’s boulder to carry.

Boynton’s only mistake was keeping company with Evans, whom Boynton once called his “co-coach.” Evans stayed on staff as a Boynton assistant until September 2017, when OSU fired Evans after allegations of his violations surfaced.

OSU, even after an appeal, was banned from the 2022 postseason. The Cowboys were also dealt a scholarship reduction and recruiting restrictions. Boynton and Weiberg were outraged, understandably so given the pass more prominent programs received from the NCAA.

“There’s not enough time right now to go through it all, but there’s a couple books that could be written about the last seven years, and they would all probably be top-10 best sellers if you got into the details,” Boynton said Thursday. “But, like I said, my faith drives me, and so that’s what I focus on, is not all the things that may have gone wrong, but how was I better?

“What did I learn going through all of it, whether it be the NCAA being here for five years, or having the best player in the country (Cade Cunningham) for a year or being close to winning a conference tournament championship? All those things, good and bad, have gone into helping me become a hopefully better coach, hopefully a better father, better husband, better friend, better son. And I think of this as a holistically developmental operation that’s a part of my life.”

More: Big 12 basketball power rankings: Iowa State making case for top spot in loaded conference

Boynton living 'blessed' life in Stillwater

Boynton has ingratiated himself in Stillwater as he has wherever his career has taken him.

His wife, Jenny, is a sports nutritionist at OSU. Jenny and Mike have raised two children, son Ace and daughter Zoe, in Stillwater.

Aside from his New York accent, Boynton doesn’t seem out of place.

“At the core of it is me trying to be my authentic self. That’s who I am,” Boynton said. “I would hope that the people in Nacogdoches, Texas, where I was prior to coming here, would say, ‘I’m not surprised.’ Or the people in Columbia, South Carolina, or Myrtle Beach or Spartanburg — or the people back in New York where I grew up. They would say ‘Yes, that’s exactly who he’s been his whole life.’

“And trying to stay true to that even though I get the pressure of having this position and how it can affect people. I’ve seen it. But I try to fight that natural tendency to be driven by other peoples’ opinions of how I do my job or whether people necessarily agree with the decisions I’ve made from time to time.”

Boynton said his support system in Stillwater has been “tremendous.”

“I truly believe I’m the single-most blessed person to ever walk this earth.”

I snickered, but Boynton was serious.

“I believe that, all the way down to the crux in my soul,” he said. “And so I just try to walk around and live a life filled with gratitude. And it’s not because I became the head coach here, it’s because I’ve got an unbelievable family, I’ve got great people I work with every day, I get to impact the lives of 18- to 22-year-olds in a way that many people wish they could. I look up and see guys sending me cards to come to their weddings and telling me about their children. Those things really have value to me.”

Boynton is still confident — in himself and in the program’s future. That’s why he doesn’t dodge difficult questions.

It’s why, after preparing a film session, he graciously discussed the delicate nature of his job with someone he didn’t know.

“I think we’re gonna get it done,” Boynton said. “I think we’re gonna turn this thing around.”

More: Oklahoma State basketball may be struggling, but buyout of Mike Boynton would be costly

Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Mike Boynton discusses Oklahoma State basketball criticism, his future