Defend the Block 393 - Mike Boynton Jr. Transcript
7/21/2026 9:47:00 AM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Brian Boesch • 00:00
A common refrain from last year's national championship run while it was in progress, was that all glory is fleeting. Two of Mike Boynton Jr.'s most important conversations with his family this calendar year showcase that reality. Back in May, here on the podcast, Boynton shared the story of his family, his wife Jenny, son Ace, daughter Zoe sharing time together on the court in Indianapolis soon after the Wolverines won the national championship, confetti littered the floor. As emotion flowed, Boynton noted that Jenny and Ace were rarely emotional, but they were in that situation. I'm pretty certain that Boynton will remember those moments for the rest of his life. And that stretch of time, according to Boynton, was about two minutes. Two and a half months later, at the end of a Father's Day basketball, prompted the four members of the Boynton household to have another conversation that would have long lasting impacts.
Brian Boesch • 00:52
Boynton was posing to the family a possibility that would become reality for less than twenty four hours later, whether or not he could become the head coach in an interim capacity of Michigan men's basketball. And he did accept that opportunity because he got the blessing from the other three in that conversation. Now, the chat was longer than two minutes, but it still wasn't long, especially compared to Boynton's days and weeks ahead. And his work in the last four weeks have put him officially in the head coaching role at Michigan. It is far from perfect, but in the areas he can control, Boynton has succeeded at a much higher percentile outcome than the average in this type of a spot, both in player and staff retention. After joining the Michigan staff, Boynton told me that as he surveyed options in the aftermath of his firing as the head coach at Oklahoma State, he questioned himself.
Brian Boesch • 01:42
He asked himself, was he good enough? For two seasons in Ann Arbor, Boynton proved to be an elite assistant who had as big of an impact on a national championship journey as any one person. During his transition back from assistant to head coach, sure, there were very little moments in time to ask a whole lot of internal questions, but the early returns reflect someone who was very comfortable in his own skin, returning to a role and in a role that he inherited. Much more is to come, no question, but an unprecedented off season has calmed to relative normalcy. Boynton a big reason for that now. The goal moving forward is to maintain the norm over the last two seasons. Once November rolls, let's catch up with Coach Boynton as we recap the last few weeks and look ahead a little bit here on Defend the Block.
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Jeff Laurence • 02:35
We're talking Michigan basketball. Welcome to Defend the Block, where we'll take you inside the basketball programs with interviews, analysis, and so much more. Now here's your host, Brian Boesch.
Brian Boesch • 02:48
Great to visit with the new head coach of Michigan men's basketball here on Defend the Block. That's Mike Boynton Jr. Can you just take us back to that Sunday night, coach calls you. Coach May says that the Mavericks thing might be a possibility, that it became. What are your next few minutes, few hours, few days?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 03:06
Like, man, so much has happened since then, Brian. I'll be honest, I don't really remember all of it, but I do remember thinking, wow, what a unique situation I'm in. You know, Dusty and I developed a tremendous relationship, not only as colleagues, but as friends. And I knew that Daniel would probably be in his future at some point. He's just that good. The dude's a stud. He's good at every part of the job. He's best at finding people who are good at something and putting them in a position to be good at it, allowing them to tinker, grow, develop. And for me, that was obviously helping lead our defense. But every part of our staff was really, really good. And that's a testament to him and his ability to identify those things in people. But the next couple of hours was me talking to my wife about, how do we proceed? And the next morning, obviously, the news breaks and it became real.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 04:09
It became a great opportunity literally right in front of us. But it was a great challenge as well. The timing was such that, you know, you know, every player on the team had an opportunity to decide that this isn't what they wanted to do. And so it was a great amount of time and effort and work and conversations put in over the following three to four weeks of helping them see what the vision was going to be moving forward. And, you know, I'm grateful to each player and their families that they continue to believe in Michigan, believe in the university's mission, to continue to believe in what they can do as a group, but also that they can all still achieve their personal goals moving forward. And it's the thing I'm excited about most is I've got a great responsibility to them individually, but to this program, to our leadership, to our fans and alumni, to continue to put this basketball program in position to be successful and compete for championships.
Brian Boesch • 05:11
Something I've appreciated about you over the last two years, getting to know you, is that you have such unique and strong individual relationships. So I have no doubt that there were plenty of things that were specific to a player in each conversation. You had. But what were the overlapping or the consistent items, elements you wanted to get across in each conversation? Because I'm sure there were a lot of people coming to them. Every player has a circle now. Every player has a lot of decisions to make. What were the key tenets you wanted to reiterate with any player right after that news?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 05:45
I think the thing I leaned into the most was on Sunday night when those guys went to bed, they believed they were a part of a team that they chose to be a part of that could accomplish a lot of great things together, that they were going to be a part of a team that allowed them to be successful on an individual basis as a part of that team. And on Monday night when they went to bed, those things were still on the table. That when we huddled for our first team workout on Tuesday morning, which we did the next day, the huddle looked exactly the way they thought it would look, minus one person. And again, they all had a choice to make on whether they still believe that that group could collectively do those things. And obviously, most of them have decided that that was the circle they still wanted to be a part of. And so that was the overarching team message. And I'm thankful to Trey and Elliot for stepping forward first and deciding, hey, we can still do this, guys.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 06:49
And then themselves taking that message through the locker room, and then JP and Moustapha and then all the way down the line. And I'll be honest, like, even for lj, as disappointed as I am that I won't be able to coach him, I wanted him to be able to make that choice for himself. That kid's given this program a lot. He's a champion. He'll forever be a champion. He'll forever be a champion at the University of Michigan. We wish him great success moving forward. We hope he gets as healthy as possible and continues to be the type of player that we all know he can be. We'll miss him for sure, but he had an opportunity to make the choice that he thought was best for him, and we wish him well moving forward.
Brian Boesch • 07:30
You mentioned Trey and Elliot. One of the many things that was so unique about last year's team was, yeah, there were some leaders, but a lot of the new guys grew into leadership roles as the season went on, where you had a quote rotation, all those guys had some sort of vocal stake in it. As Trey and Elliot step into now being kind of the two core pieces, they've been here before, how ready are they not only to elevate their leadership, but also Empower others to bring it out.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 07:58
Yeah, I've seen this with those two guys in particular literally since about two weeks after the season was over, once it became fairly clear that the front line for sure would look different. You know, I told this story before Dusty and I drove over to Chicago for the NBA combine. We left the Monday of testing and I think of the four hour drive, let's say, to Chicago. We spent fifteen minutes of the ride talking about the possibility of mres coming back and what the team might look like if he returned. And by the time we got there, Mraes had tested and also had a shooting exhibition that we saw the results of and we both looked at each other and I think the sentiment was, you know, we wasted about fifteen minutes of that car ride.
Brian Boesch • 08:50
At least it wasn't the whole car ride.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 08:53
But yeah, these two guys in our backcourt, first of all, they're great humans. That's a credit to their families, the way they've been raised, but also their competitive desire to be great individually and their collective desire to be winners. They both made great sacrifices for our team last year, playing roles that they hadn't played before, and our team was better because of it. And now we need them to play different roles for this team and be more vocal and be more of the example of what it looks like to compete and work hard and practice and prepare for the opportunity to win a championship. Because you don't just get to do it because you want to. You have to prepare yourself in a way that gives you a chance to be on that stage in early April when the lights are the brightest and the most is at stake. And those guys have a blue blueprint that these young guys need to follow for you.
Brian Boesch • 09:51
In the now month since you have assumed either interim and now official head coaching duties, what have been maybe the easiest parts of the transition and what have been the most challenging.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 10:04
The most challenging was literally just keeping the group together. That was the biggest mission that I had when I first started. The easiest part would be just the basketball is still normal. You know, the workouts are still the workouts. Guys need to get better at things that they needed to get better at. That we knew the advantage I had was, you know, we helped recruit this team. We recruited them to play away. And so a lot of those things are still the same. You know, the way we want to play, the way we need to get these guys competing together, playing unselfish basketball, competing as hard as we can defensively. Like those things have been fairly normal. The other stuff Outside, getting the staff together, finding a couple people that can complement the skill set that we have currently within our program to continue to elevate our ability to be successful.
Brian Boesch • 11:00
You alluded to Dusty's ability to delegate and empower. I've always felt like in this new era of college basketball, that's the big question. I know how much you know basketball. I know how much a lot of people in this building and other buildings know basketball. What are the unique steps you have to take now to where you won't be focusing percentage wise as much on basketball in this role, in this seat, in this very nicely decorated office? Well done, by the way, versus the office you had down the hall. How prepared and what ways do you have to adapt to that reality?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 11:32
Yeah, I think that's why I'll lean on the things that I both experienced both positively and negatively in my first opportunity to be a head coach. I probably didn't know as well how to delegate, how to identify my own weaknesses and have people that can cover those for me. And now, you know, with the first hire I made, Mike Martin from Brown, tremendous teacher of the game. A guy who's been able to do a lot with not a whole lot of resources at a place that's really challenging to win, that, you know, he's somebody that will have a great level of input in how we operate moving forward, particularly on the offensive end. But even just from a. From a holistic head coaching perspective, he'll be able. Somebody I can lean on to ask questions, to bounce ideas off. And then, you know, we'll move some other things around within the staff with the guys that we have returning.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:28
But we have great people still in the building who are really, really good at helping guys get better, teaching the game, being tacticians in terms of game execution, recruiting, all the things that it takes to be successful. And so I'm excited to work with these guys that we have here.
Brian Boesch • 12:43
What else we'll get into Coach Martin, but what else can you share about those who are still here? Can you get into the others who have been decided? We know Drew Williamson going with Dusty, but what else can you share about the complexion of the staff?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:55
Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, our strength conditioning coach, Matt Aldred. I'll start there as much responsible as much as anybody for, you know, the growth and development of our players. From a physical standpoint, obviously the players have to put the work in, but somebody's got to put a plan together for them because they really don't know that part. In fact, they know the basketball part a lot more than even how to develop their bodies. Injury prevention, stretching, recovery. Matt Aldridge's elite, I think one of the best in the country by far. He's innovative, he's very thoughtful, he's thorough. He's always thinking of ways to challenge these guys. So him being back was a major win because he's a very highly sought after person in the market. And then KT Harrell, who we're likely going to move into an assistant coaching role from our director of operations.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 13:49
He's been around the game, was the leading scorer in sec. Get him a chance to be on the court with our guys, being able to teach and coach them and challenge them. He's still younger, so he can get out there with and he can still hoop.
Brian Boesch • 14:02
He's pretty good.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 14:03
And then Akeem Miskdeen, who's been with us, high level basketball thinker, really good talent developer, great recruiter all around good person. He'll stick around. Kyle Church, who's been assistant and GM with us, obviously plays a critical role being that he's handling responsibilities on both sides, both internally and externally. Him sticking around is going to be big for us. Jacob Cohn, our analytics director, having him here to be another, you know, brains of some of our operation, I think his success rate on challenges last year is pretty doggone good. So you talk about games that are going to be played in the conference, which is. Are the most important games we play. Right. The number of possessions that he saved us, you know, didn't go unnoticed by our staff, that's for sure. And then Brandon Gilbert is kind of a jack of all trades, does a little bit of everything.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 14:58
He'll stick around as well. So the crux of the staff is still here and I'm excited to work with all those guys.
Brian Boesch • 15:03
So Mike Martin, fourteen years at his alma mater. What was the initial conversation like and how long did that process go before getting him signed on?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 15:14
Yeah, it was a couple weeks of just, you know, it's not easy to do what he did. It's one thing to do it the way I did it, right. I was not working at the time Dusty gets here and I've got. I still have to think about if that's what I want to do in the immediate, do I want to take some time off. But he's actively, you know, in a position where he's got a very stable situation. He's well respected, the all time winningest coach at his alma mater. He's got a family that's got great roots there we're excited to get them all here. So we're appreciative that he wanted to take on this challenge, which is a great challenge, you know, his opportunity to coach at the highest level, be a part of a team that's coming off of a national championship with all the expectations that come with that. And so the conversations were wide, they were deep. We watched film together, we shared ideas about how we teach the game, the best practices on how to approach scouting and how to approach player development.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 16:15
Some of the things that we do at this level will be new to him. I'm not sure they would necessarily deal with the nil market the way we have been, the transfer portal market the way that we have have been. But he's also coming from another highly respected academic institution and so being able to recruit smart guys from great academic backgrounds is something he's going to be very, very used to. But also somebody, like I said that I can lean over and ask a question that won't be foreign to him because he started as a head coach before.
Brian Boesch • 16:43
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Mike Boynton Jr. • 17:39
The guys to their credit have all been, have handled this really well, probably better than some of the adults maybe that are connected to either them or the program. And that's not saying anything. It was just a lot of confusion for a little while for a lot of people. But the guys have put in all the work that they've been expected to and then some. You know, to see the numbers that we get from our NOAA reports every day, the amount of time these guys are putting in outside of what we're doing as A team has been really, really impressive. And it's almost to a person, we don't have one guy that doesn't come in extra and shoot with our managers or just shoot on the gun. They're very intentional group. They come in with a plan, they work the plan, and then they get on to the next thing. And so I've been very, very appreciative, but thankful for their dedication to the game, for their desire to get better, and I look forward to seeing how they all can gel as the season evolves.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 18:37
I think the trip to europe will be a positive development for us. Getting some time on the court in the, you know, real game environment will be a great, great advantage for this group.
Brian Boesch • 18:47
And foreign trips going on as expected, no changes. Was that ever in doubt?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 18:53
I'll be honest, I think everything was kind of in doubt at some point.
Brian Boesch • 18:56
Fair enough.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 18:57
But it's part of it. You worked through it all. It wasn't the most important. It wasn't the highest priority thing for us. And if we had to postpone, it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. But we do plan on taking a trip and giving these guys an opportunity to play the games. And more importantly, as important as the time and the game reps will is just giving these guys time to get to know each other and to start develop what that personality will be. Because I don't know right now what the personality of this group will be. It'll evolve as the season evolves. I mean, I remember Yax showed up here as a very quiet person a year ago. No one would believe that today.
Jeff Laurence • 19:33
Correct.
Brian Boesch • 19:33
But he was.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 19:34
But last June, he showed up here. Unconfident, very quiet, sort of introverted in terms of, like, being with his team. And then to watch, specifically the relationship that Trey and Roddy developed, the close brotherhood that they developed. But also watching him, Morez and Aday and the way they have reacted to each other's success individually, and it all flowed from our team being as good as we were collectively. Those are things that evolve as the season went along. And the same thing will happen with this group.
Brian Boesch • 20:11
I mean, there were guys who told me at the middle of big ten play last year, they didn't think Trey McKenney liked anybody early on because he was so quiet.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 20:17
And now Yax will tell you that he doesn't think Trey liked him. And now they're best buds and, you know, so it's awesome to see. But that's what happens when guys are committed to winning and Willing to do the work that it takes. Because when you win with a group, especially the way we did last year, it's hard to separate yourself. So I think those guys will always
Brian Boesch • 20:41
have that bond among the players who are new to the program or even some of the guys maybe we haven't seen as much an Oscar, a Ricky, etcetera. Any surprises, any standouts here early on? Again, knowing that it is just a
Mike Boynton Jr. • 20:53
few weeks in, I mean, I don't know if anyone stands out, like in a. In a major way. I think. I think we had high expectations for the group already. I'll say this about maybe Quinn Costello. He's bigger than he was. I think he's grown here in the last couple months, and he picks up things really fast, really, really smart. And so maybe a guy who. People aren't maybe as in tune with what he can do and how much he can help, and we don't know for sure. Right. We still got to get out there. He's got to react to it in a real game setting with people in the building. But in terms of a guy, maybe that's flying under the radar a little bit. I mean, you say that for a guy who was a McDonald's All American, but I think he's going to have an impact on our team that maybe some people haven't anticipated.
Brian Boesch • 21:41
Roster retention wise, in this spot to keep all but one. And I echo your statements on LJ, his leadership when he was injured for those six weeks during the most important run of the season. Truly, I mean, he is a Michigan man. Does that in his departure, does that make you really want to try to add somebody to the roster? Do you feel like you need to. Do you feel like that's not really an option this time of the schedule, or how do you look at that departure into context and you might not have the answer to that?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 22:07
Yeah, ten years ago, it probably wasn't an option. You know, it's. It's mid July. You know, there are a lot of different factors that go into adding somebody to your roster and people being available also. But we're in a different climate. And so there actually are several people potentially available with either a court ruling going way on the other or this, you know, just somebody transferring from another school because something happens there. So we're very. We're very much in tune to who's available. We would like to, in a perfect world, add another veteran piece if we could. Maybe another ball handler, decision maker, a playmaker, somebody who could help, you know, just add some element of playmaking to our team. But we do like the team as it presently is constructed. And so we'll do both. We'll continue to work with this group and develop the guys that we have.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:07
But we'll always, we'll keep our ears to the ground as to maybe you know, how some of this stuff is playing out there in the market.
Brian Boesch • 23:13
Quick hitters before we get you out of here. Non conference schedule that close to being done. Was that one of those things you kind of had to wait on for a few weeks to focus on what's important?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:22
Yeah, I kind of target targeted this week as as that I would really try to dive into that along with trying to finish up the last couple spots on the staff. Still got one more assistant spot and obviously with KT moving up, the director operations position is now open as well. So the schedule we'll get to, we'll start searching. I need to find out if contracts have been signed, things that have been kind of rumored out there, how concrete are they? And so we'll work on that this week.
Brian Boesch • 23:54
I remember talking to you after the national championship. You still did your morning workout. Have you missed a workout in this stretch?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:59
I have not and it hasn't been easy. I flew to Slovenia to watch Elliot play. I took off from Detroit at six thirty and landed at noon PM six thirty PM from Detroit on Sunday, landed at noon. I was so exhausted I tried to try not to sleep, but I wound up taking a quick nap before I watched the game and I had a six AM flight the next morning to come back. But I got up at four thirty and got my workout in before I went to the airport.
Brian Boesch • 24:28
Well done. Well done. The family aspect you mentioned your wife Jenny, your kids Zoe and Ace, they have to be a part of this and leaned in no matter what your role. But how have they helped in all of this last four plus weeks to be there for you, be supportive and understand that dad might not be home as early for a few weeks as he normally is.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 24:53
Well, just to go back to the first part of this conversation you asked about the Sunday night that became a family conversation immediately and obviously with my wife. We were actually at the dinner table. It was Father's Day so we were having a Father's Day dinner and I said hey kids, just so you know this could happen. You know, just give me your thoughts. And both the kids were unequivocal that they would they wanted to stay here in Ann Arbor versus the potential opportunity to go to Dallas and so have an opportunity to do that and have them have some more stability in their life. My son will be in eighth grade. Obviously, it's a challenging time to be moving. My daughter's going to middle school, and so for her, they've got some roots here, got some friends, and so we're excited about doing this together. They're around all the time. They will continue to be.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 25:41
They'll be as much a part of this program as I will. They'll be very visible. My son's fairly quiet, so don't be alarmed if you don't get a whole lot of words out of them. My daughter's never met a stranger and so don't be shocked if she's not.
Brian Boesch • 25:54
Maybe she's a candidate for that DOBO job.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 25:55
Yeah.
Brian Boesch • 25:56
Good personality for her.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 25:57
Yeah, absolutely. But no, we're excited about it. My wife being from Michigan, this is a, obviously a huge, huge thing to her and her family that we get to be a part of this great institution and this great program, and we're excited to represent it.
Brian Boesch • 26:09
Coach, appreciate you making the time during such a busy stretch, and we look forward to seeing what the rest of these summer workouts hold.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 26:14
Thank you very much.
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Brian Boesch • 26:23
Great stuff with Mike Boynton Jr. Appreciate his time here during a busy stretch. We will have Mike Martin coming up in the coming days on Defend the Block. Also, get to know some of the additional newcomers we've already visited with JP Estrella, with Jalen Reed. Excited to share more of those player conversations with you as the summer rolls along. Thanks to Tom Wywrot and Lisa Nicholson for their help in making today's conversation happen. And as always, thanks to you. Still a little bit more of summer vacation on the football side of things here on M GO Blue Podcast. We'll have more conquering heroes as we get close start of the academic season as well. All right, for Coach Boynton, I'm Brian Boesch. Thanks so much for listening and go blue.
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Jeff Laurence • 27:02
Thanks for listening to today's edition of Defend the Block, part of our Michigan Athletics Podcast network, M GO Blue Podcasts. The preceding has been a Learfield presentation of the Michigan Sports Network.
