Defend the Block 400 - Mike Boynton Jr. Transcript
9/4/2026 7:50:00 AM | MGoBlue Podcasts
Brian Boesch • 00:00
Our plan was to catch up with Mike Boynton junior closer to the start of the season here on Defend the Block. But plans change. That's because unfortunately, Michigan's original plans must change from a rotation standpoint. Star freshman Brandon McCoy junior Is out for the season with an ACL injury suffered early on in the Wolverines third and final game in Europe on the summer tour for the team, it is impossible to know what must change specifically. And Boynton his staff are busy working on that as you listen to this. But. But it's not as if there were concrete guarantees about much at this juncture because McCoy's potential impact was so wide ranging, which speaks to his talent and upside, he was going to have a role, probably a very significant role. The only positive for the team in all of this is the timing. And a quick preface. The timing from Brandon's standpoint is crushing.
Brian Boesch • 00:53
It is never good to get injured, but what a gut punch for this young man who was a joy to catch up with just before the trip here on Defend the Block to be injured and be out for the year, really before the year ever started. But for the team, if this happens two months from now, right around the start of the regular season, or four months from now, at the turn of the calendar when Big Ten play revs up, things could get nicer. The ability to shuffle around and adapt would become even more difficult. And no matter when it happens, the margin for error on this team now is smaller. The ceiling case is lower. Yes, last year's team absorbed a late season LJ Cason season ending injury and a Yaxel Lendeborg injury in the Final Four. That team also beat Gonzaga by forty and led Arizona by thirty in Indianapolis and went on a twenty one zero run in the Elite Eight. And on and on and on.
Brian Boesch • 01:47
That was a cyborg. That does not mean though that expectations change for this coming season. But obviously the how must change how that happens between now and some exhibitions in five ish weeks. That's the assignment for the staff and for the players. Coach Boynton doesn't know all the answers, but he shares some with us here in this bonus episode of Defend the Block.
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Jeff Laurence • 02:14
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 • 02:27
Pleasure to be joined by the head coach of Michigan men's basketball, Mike Boynton junior After a lengthy trip to Europe and obviously after some disappointing news, we'll get into the fun and the team camaraderie of all of that but obviously the Brandon McCoy junior News is the headliner. How's he doing? What you can share physically but probably more importantly mentally after such a tough break.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 02:48
Yeah, you know from my perspective the trip was you know, ninety plus percent successful. The one being a pretty significant setback for our team. No question. Brandon McCoy is a guy we expected to have a major impact on our team. A guy who worked his butt off this summer to put himself in position to earn that right and certainly disappointing but injuries are unfortunate part of sport. We see it every year with most teams. We've been really fortunate here the last couple of years. We sure we stay fairly injury free. Uh, and so it's just, just certainly disappointed for him. He's got such a bright future that he still will have. That kid is a rock star as a person, as a player, from a work ethic standpoint, from a winning standpoint, a three time gold medalist and so understanding who he is from a character standpoint, he's going to bounce back from this just fine.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 03:42
It's going to take a little bit longer probably than he hoped to, to get back to the top of his game. But at the same time I know he's going to put the work in that it requires. He'll have a procedure here in short order. He's kind of, you know, if anybody knows anything about ACL swelling gets into the mix and you don't want to have surgery while that's happening. So as the swelling in his knee subsides, he'll then have the procedure to repair it and then he'll be on the road to recovery. And we certainly believe that he'll, he'll be in the best care that he can possibly be in and he'll get back to being the explosive, great athletic player that he's always been.
Brian Boesch • 04:20
It was interesting the LJ Cason scenario last year it was late February. He'd been in the program for two years. There was a sweat equity that frankly not a lot of players in college basketball have anymore. For Brandon, how can this staff, how can the players help him even if, yeah, he hasn't been here as long but, but he's a part of the family.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 04:38
Yeah, I mean, you know, the truth of the matter is, you know, Brandon's been a part of our program probably for a lot longer than maybe the public even knows. We've been recruiting him for a long time. His recruitment went a little bit longer than a lot of high school players recruitments typically go because it went well beyond his even high school season and right up until the end of our national championship run. And so he's been around. He understands what it means to put the block him on and represent it. And he was certainly excited to do so. And he's still going to have a great influence when he's back here with our team on a more consistent basis. And the guy who I trust to understand what work ethic looks like and continue with the other freshmen to, you know, at least from a communication standpoint, express what he sees from what our team is doing.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 05:30
And so maybe not in terms of game playing experience in sweat equity. I'll tell you this. You know, I've been around. This will be my twenty third year in college basketball. There's been very few guys that have even come close to putting in the type of time that Brandon was willing to put in this summer working on their games. And that was even more reason why we were so optimistic about what he would be able to do from a production standpoint. Also came out of there with a four point zero in class, got two A's in the classes he was in. So he was, he was well on his way to having a successful year overall. It'll just look a little bit different for a while.
Brian Boesch • 06:02
Sure. What else can you share about Moustapha Thiam, who left early in the first game out in Lithuania and then Ricky Liburd who did not play out in Europe.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 06:10
Yeah, I'll start with Ricky. Ricky kind of had a little bit of a setback in terms of he had a hip impingement, nothing super major, but we did a small procedure with him, nothing invasive, right before we left. And it was the recommendation of the doctor that he have some time to rest and, and recover from that. He's been back in the gym since we've been back. He's doing the rehab and the necessary forms to get himself back in position to play. But, you know, nothing long term that should have any kind of impact on our playing season or even our practice season, which will start in a couple weeks. Mustafa very, very similarly like something minor, but it was enough that we didn't want to take a chance. We saw the six minutes that he did play that he's going to have a chance to have a great impact on our team on both ends of the court. Thiam, I think that one thing that was fairly evident not only was his rim pressure and ability to be a good pick and roll threat with Elliott was pretty obvious in the first few possessions, but also his defensive presence, his ability to protect the Rim and play in our drop ball screen coverage and be kind of a menace around the basket defensively was something that was evident while he was there, but also when we had to see what it looks like with him off the court for two games.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 07:31
And so with the setbacks both from Ricky not playing, from Bees being injured, from Mustafa not playing as much, even from sitting Trey out for a game, we got to see some things that maybe otherwise we wouldn't have been able to see because we had to put some personnel out there in positions that we didn't necessarily expect them to have to be in. I think Quinn wound up playing like twenty minutes a game.
Brian Boesch • 07:56
Sure.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 07:57
I mean, even, even Marcus, who I talked about how impressed I was before we left. I didn't expect to play him as much. I thought I would get a chance to see him out there, get him some reps. But he ended up being basically the backup five and played, you know, sixteen, seventeen minutes a game when he probably under different circumstances wouldn't have got as much experience on that trip in terms of playing. So there are some positives that come out of it and we've been studying the film and doing some, you know, I guess, debriefing on our, with our staff about what we saw and what we can expect to do moving forward.
Brian Boesch • 08:31
Yeah, along those lines. So knowing Brandon's out for the year, obviously good news on Ricky and Moustapha. That doesn't seem to be anything long term by any stretch of the imagination. How do you structure conversations with the staff, practices and workouts leading up to that full time practice about three and a half weeks away? Is it maybe more experimental now with, you know, players five through X in your rotation because someone you had high expectations for did get injured and out for the year?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 08:58
I mean, obviously as your team evolves, the conversations need to shift, but that's where, you know, having several really talented people in the building that can fill in different roles, maybe they've got to be put in position to do things a little bit earlier and you got to kind of speed them up. But it's also early September right now. And so as a staff, we have time and the experience dealing with these things to make those adjustments. I think there was some really, really positive things that came out of seeing some of those young guys have to play the minutes. I mean, I looked out there and totally unexpectedly saw five freshmen on the court about five or six times. And I was looking at our staff like, okay, this is good, but that's
Brian Boesch • 09:41
what August is for.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 09:42
But that's what this is for, and I'll say this, even aside from playing maybe Sweet sixteen Elite eight level teams now, we could not have played tougher competition for this time of year. No one plays the Lithuanian national team on their front trip. Like, it just doesn't happen. Lithuania's national team has never played a college team before. They played us in Arizona this past couple weeks. And that's a team that's trying to prepare themselves for the World cup next year and subsequently the Olympics two years from now. So it was tremendous. The physicality, the hostile road environment, the tough whistles, like all the things that our guys maybe we could have talked to them about before. We have to make these trips to, you know, Boston and Philly and early the part of season to, you know, Columbus and East Lansing and all the places we've gotten on conference play during the season.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 10:39
Like, that was a tremendous, tremendous learning experience for those guys because it'll be something we can reference back a little bit further sooner than maybe some other teams who haven't put themselves in that position will be able to do during the season.
Brian Boesch • 10:52
A few players I want to ask about that. You haven't referenced Oscar Goodman a few times during practice over the last twelve to sixteen months. I've watched and several people have said some variation of man, he just makes winning plays. It's been a while since he's been able to go up against guys that aren't his teammates in a game that has some juice to it and the game is in doubt. How do you think he played?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 11:14
I thought he did well, you know, the game is a game that you have to play. I mean, it's a rhythm game. It's a confidence game. It's a game that over the course of time, with your ability, you learn how to be impactful. And the reason Oscar makes winning plays is because he plays to win, you know, And a lot of times guys can't make winning plays because they're not necessarily playing to win. They're playing for other individual accolades to score, to put themselves in better position personally to make money, whatever it is. And we don't begrudge those guys. But guys who play to win often usually make winning plays because they understand the sacrifice that it's maybe the cut that they need to make or the extra pass or being a good screener, the kind of unseen plays that coaches understand go into winning. And we think that those three games are going to really, really bode well for him moving into the season because he's a piece we can move around on the court.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:08
We can play him as a small ball five occasionally. We certainly can play him at the four. We can play him as a three. He's a good shooter. Didn't shoot the ball great, but he showed the ability to make shots from the perimeter. He can drive the basketball and make plays for his teammates. He's going to be a really good rebounder for us.
Brian Boesch • 12:24
Two of the freshmen we haven't touched on yet. Malachi Smith and then Joseph Hartman, or, sorry, Malachi Brown and then Joseph Hartman. Thoughts on what those two guys brought? Again, spots where they were thrown in. Probably a little bit more than you would have necessarily anticipated.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 12:39
Yeah, Malachi in particular. You know, we've seen some things in practice that give us confidence that over time he's going to become a really, really good player. He's. He's got some great defensive instincts. He's physical for a guy who's young and inexperienced and really hasn't played this level of competition much. And he's not afraid. He doesn't have a ton of confidence on the offensive end right now. Uh, but we. We talked to our team about his impact on our team on the defensive side of the ball. In our third game, he had four or five deflections. He got some rebounds. Uh, he made a cut out of the corner to get himself a dunk. Uh, he's really, really smart. And so just again, over time, that kid's going to be a really, really good player. A guy that, you know, Michigan fans will come to love because he plays with great effort, great heart, great toughness.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 13:24
And another guy who plays to win. He doesn't really. He's not out there hunting a shot. He. He's not out there looking to be something that maybe he's not or being told he should be. He's just trying to blend in and be a part of a team where we have some really good guys who are in front of him right now and who've got a lot of experience. He's trying to learn as much from them, but also challenge those guys to get better so he can get better in turn.
Brian Boesch • 13:45
Mike Boynton, junior Michigan men's basketball.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 13:47
If I can just. Just quickly about Joe, because I didn't get to him. Another guy, I mean, he. He's a. He's a confident kid. He is a guy who has earned his confidence by the amount of time he's put in. He can really shoot the basketball, which is probably our biggest takeaway from a. Like, what are big, big picture things. Like, we can really Shoot the basketball. We're a team that can shoot it. We can offensive rebound. And we think of Marcus, we can think of Quinn, we think of Joe, we think of Trey and Elliot even. Like, we have a lot of guys who can make shots which will bow well for us being an effective offensive team. But I was really pleased with his effort. His commitment to trying to play on both ends of the floor just got to continue to grow with it.
Brian Boesch • 14:27
Yeah, you mentioned the Quinn shooting too. I mean, what games one and three, even game two, where the shot wasn't falling, he was having an impact. But I felt like him. And maybe a JP Estrella example too, as a veteran guy, he was going in thinking maybe his. His time would be a little bit less. Moustapha goes down. How did JP handle being kind of the focal point in the front court in those games?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 14:47
Yeah, it was different from for JP Than probably he anticipated. And the fact that all summer we talked about him and Mustafa playing together, and six minutes in, he's never on the courtroom. Mustafa again. So it was kind of an adjustment on the fly again. Things that you just gotta go through. Right. We could be doing these things for the first time on november third or november sixth, or maybe some of it in January when we talk about these road environments and to do it in August. And these guys really have an idea of like, wow, this is what it takes. Not. Not Elliott and Trey. They know they've been through this stuff. JP Estrella has been the three straight Elite Eights. He knows what being in the trenches is like. But having Quinn out there and Oscar and some of our other younger guys to be able to just experience, that was a tremendous bonus for us.
Brian Boesch • 15:36
Mike Boynton junior Michigan men's basketball head coach with us on Defend the Block. You mentioned Elliott and Trey. We all know the importance they'll have on this season. No matter who are the other three players on the court with them, I'm curious, more of their leadership, their team building, them taking on greater roles. Certainly, you know, Trey was coming off the bench last year, which, you know, pretty crazy when you think about it. That's how good last year's team was. Any takeaways from them on this trip and as a whole, as they have gotten into a higher profile spot.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 16:06
Yeah, I thought the first game and even some of the second game for Elliott, they. They kind of. They didn't necessarily lead as well as I hoped that they would. You know, some of it was they were frustrated with the foul calls. They both were in foul trouble most of the time. Elliot had fourteen fouls, and in three games, we got to figure that out pretty quick. But again, the game's called differently, you know, and so. But I thought the third game when. When our team said, we're getting out of here with a win, yeah, the way those guys led, not from a necessarily vocal standpoint, but they were examples of what it looks like when the game is on the line. You know, Dusty's references. The last couple of years, like, when it's winning time, our guys have had this unbelievable ability to really, really focus in and do the little things that matter. Like, even in Game two, Elliott dives on a loose ball, which I kind of cringe a little bit.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 16:54
And August thinking, like, sure, easy, young fella. Like, we. We don't need this right now. But it also shows that Joe Hartman, this is what the starting point guard for the national championship team is willing to do for our team to have success in August. In August, and for Trey to lead the way he did in game three, from a scoring standpoint, like, giving the guy some confidence that he's earned the right to have the ball in the big moments. Those two guys will certainly be, you know, staples for us offensively and defensively.
Brian Boesch • 17:24
And from a leadership standpoint, Another name that we. We mentioned here. And I know there's the legal side of this we can't really get into, but Roddy Gayle junior Was with the team. A lot of purgatory in all of this. What can you share about the circumstance?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 17:40
I mean, not a whole lot. I mean, this. This stuff is fluid. I mean, something could have changed in our last ten minutes that we've been talking, literally, and we thank you for.
Brian Boesch • 17:49
Thank you for giving me full time.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 17:50
I know that's literally how this thing is going. The positives, I'll say, are, Roddy, if. Ha. If the opportunity presents itself, this is not a. He's going to go into the market and try to figure out where the most money he can make. Like, he wants to be at Michigan. He feels very, very much attached and connected to this program and the people he's built a relationship with the last two years. And he wants to be a part of continuing to build what's going to stabilize Michigan for years to come. And if he's able to do so, we'd love to have him back. We actually have had communications with our team about his presence. He's been in this league for four years. He's been in this program for two years, and he's. He's been one of the guys who's made as many sacrifices as anybody for us to do what ultimately we were able to do the last two years of reestablishing Michigan's presence as a.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 18:42
As a real championship program. And so we hope that it all works out. We know, again, he's going through the process. There's a hearing in a couple weeks, so we're mindful and we're. We're very cognizant of everything that's going on. We just don't have a whole lot more to share in terms of how the finality of a looks. But if it could happen, we want it to happen, and we'd love to have them.
Brian Boesch • 19:03
Highlights of the trip. Outside of basketball, what stood out to you individually? Team building, anything like that?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 19:10
I mean, I always try to really kind of engulf myself into the culture wherever I am. Lithuania, beautiful country. Totally different climates from the two countries this time of year. Lithuania was a little cooler. Never cold, but a little cooler. Croatia was in dealing with the real European heat wave that we've all heard about, but very different countries in the same, like, one's on the coast, one's more inland. The food, not a whole lot different, A little bit more seafood, as you would expect, near the coast, a little bit more just meat and potatoes in Lithuania. But all in all, great experience. We got to visit a couple museums, do some walking tours. Our team got to really, really bond together. I think that was the most important thing for us, was with as many new guys, particularly freshmen, who've never done this, and I'm talking about this as in college basketball and going through the grind of a season for those guys to look at each other every day and know that this is the group we're going to grow with.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 20:05
That's what the ultimate goal of the trip was, is to get those guys to spend ten days with each other out of the country, unfamiliar environments in some unfamiliar circumstances, deal with some adversity and learn how to overcome it together. And I thought that, you know, seeing those guys in different grouping throughout the week, sitting with different guys on the bus, sitting with different guys at team meals and meetings, none of that was forced that happened? No, we were very intentional that we were going to try to plan as little of that as coaches, ourselves as possible, because we knew as we got into the season there'd be much more formal settings like that that we would create. But we wanted the trip to take on as much organic team building and bonding as possible. And I think the guys did a great job of it.
Brian Boesch • 20:53
I feel like now the staff is complete, correct. Buzzy Caruthers announced as the director of player development. And Nick Szczechowski, who's done an incredible job as a manager, now the director of basketball operations. Your impressions of those two guys?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 21:05
Yeah, two guys who again, I mean, the mission with the staff is to have as much competency, high level work ethic, humility and guys who are committed to. We have two missions here. Our jobs are to serve our players as a staff. We're here to serve our players every day in every way possible, help them get better and then to win at a high level. You know, Buzzy's been around high level winning. He's been around great programs both as a coach, as an administrator, as a director, player of development for Fred Hoiberg at Nebraska a few years back. Nick Szczechowski has been in this program through the ups and downs. Knows what it's like to represent the. Block him everywhere you go and to add him to Dylan Murphy and Mike Martin, but then also to Kyle Church, Akeem Miskdeen and KT and Matt Aldred and Brandon Gilbert. Like, I feel like we have a great mix of people who understand what the mission is but are committed to the mission and committed to doing it together, just like we want our team to.
Brian Boesch • 22:03
I've told people I gotta watch out for Buzzy and his voice. Terry's gotta watch out for Buzzy and his voice. It booms if we ever need a fill in, I might have to yank them off the bench. Next weekend, Oklahoma is in town for football. It'll be a special weekend for the program. National championship team is coming back. What can you share about the plan? And all that'll be internal, but they'll also be honored in the game on Saturday.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 22:23
Although I don't work there anymore. Still have a disdain for Oklahoma. And if athletic programs linger, huh. But they linger. We had some great battles. No, but it'll be a tremendous opportunity for our football program. First, right. To play on the national stage against another blue blood of college football. A team that's well respected, that, that was in the playoff last year, that has a lot of guys coming back, from what I understand. But also for our former players, the national championship team that has as many guys. I don't, I don't have an exact number, but I know many of them I've talked to. Expect to be back here in Ann Arbor next Friday and go on the field and be honored as we give them their well earned rings. And there'll be three rings that they'll get, which is pretty astounding. Like the a Big Ten regular season championship ring, Final Four ring, and the ultimate the National Championship ring.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:17
So excited to have those back. We hope our fans show out and show them love to the degree that they're able to. But those guys are excited to get back in Ann Arbor because they feel very, very much a part of this place.
Brian Boesch • 23:26
Will you be at the game this weekend?
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:28
I'll be at the game. My family and I go out looking forward to, you know, taking in the sights and sounds and seeing what Coach Whittingham does with this team. And we're excited to support him and his players and staff, no doubt.
Brian Boesch • 23:39
Well, Coach, I appreciate you carving out so much time for us. Glad to have you back in the States and we'll be catching up soon.
Mike Boynton Jr. • 23:44
Thanks a lot.
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Brian Boesch • 23:54
Always appreciate Coach Boynton for stopping by. Thanks to our friend Tom Wywrot for his help in making the conversation happen. Didn't expect it again, but once Coach Boynton wanted to chat, that's an easy decision. So glad we could fit him in during a crazy week on M GO Blue Podcast. Hope you've been checking out everything we do. Open to any feedback, thoughts, ideas for more. The one thing I would say is that if you like the podcast and you've only been with us on the audio side, strongly encourage you to check out the YouTube page. Michigan Athletics YouTube the live stream on Tuesday within the Trenches Some of the interviews we've posted on there. Looking to do more and more of course, of course. Last year we had some of the post game live streams and every game recap in the NCAA Tournament. We're continuing to add and enhance our coverage and it goes a long way when you share, when you like subscribe, repost, join us live.
Brian Boesch • 24:54
All of that. It's crazy. We started this with just in the Trenches and on Saturday night or Sunday morning, In the Trenches turned six hundred episodes old. This is episode four hundred of Defend the Block and also Conqu'ring Heroes. More than two hundred episodes of that. And we did a new format first ever time doing in essence, an update on everything that's going on in season for Michigan Athletics. If you not necessarily are interested in a certain interview or sport, but you want to know just what's happening, the key stories of ongoing Michigan teams. Just catch the first five ish minutes of Conqu'ring Heroes this year and I think you'll feel like you really have a grasp on pretty much everything that's going on in and around Michigan's athletic department. I hope you'll give it a shot on Conqu'ring Heroes again. Thanks to Mike Boynton junior thanks to all of you, football Saturday Night Michigan and Western Michigan.
Brian Boesch • 25:50
You heard Coach Boynton. He'll be there. And we'll be there, too. Thanks for listening and go Blue.
Jeff Laurence • 25:54
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.
