Michigan names Mike Boynton full-time coach on 2-year deal: Interim tag eliminated for Dusty Might’s alternative

After shedding Dusty Might to the Dallas Mavericks 18 days in the past, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel has eliminated the interim tag from Mike Boynton and is selling the 44-year-old to full-time head coach of the Wolverines’ males’s Basketball program, the school announced Friday. 

“Mike is a veteran assistant with sturdy head teaching expertise and a transparent understanding of the usual we count on at Michigan,” Manuel stated in a press release launched by the varsity. “Over the previous two seasons, he has been a useful member of our workers, bringing stability, management and perspective throughout an vital interval of success. Our gamers and workers imagine in his imaginative and prescient, are dedicated to his management and are excited for the chance to pursue nice success collectively this season.”

Boynton and Manuel negotiated over the course of two weeks earlier than agreeing to phrases on Thursday. Boynton is signing a two-year deal, although the second season is just not absolutely assured, per a supply. Michigan was reticent to commit an excessive amount of cash and too a few years after the awkward lack of its coach days earlier than the NBA Draft. Boynton, in the meantime, has labored across the clock to not lose a single participant to the switch portal. The transfer is greater than symbolic: By absolutely committing to Boynton transferring ahead, it offers U-M the perfect probability at retaining its extremely regarded roster after shedding Might to the NBA on a deal price someplace within the neighborhood of $8 million. 

“I am grateful to Warde for his confidence and grateful for the chance to steer this program,” Boynton stated in a press release. “We’ve constructed a championship tradition and a typical that everybody related to this program takes nice pleasure in. We’ve an impressive group of gamers, and I am excited to get to work and proceed the success we have established collectively.”

By rule, the switch portal will open 5 days later for all of Michigan’s gamers, who will then have a 15-day window to enter in the event that they so select. Remaining 4 MOP Elliot Cadeau was first to publicly decide to staying on with this system, notably adopted by sophomore guard Trey McKenney, Cincinnati switch Moustapha Thiam, Tennessee switch JP Estrella and incoming five-star freshman guard Brandon McCoy Jr. 

Michigan was capable of reload once more beneath Might within the weeks following its dominant NCAA title run; the Wolverines have been universally projected to be among the many prime 5 for 2026-27. If Boynton can hold each participant in Ann Arbor (which continues to be no assure), U-M will possible stay a preseason top-10 staff, regardless of the teaching change. Dozens of faculties contacted the brokers and oldsters of most of Michigan’s gamers instantly after the Might information broke on June 22, sources stated. Holding the roster intact has been Boynton’s and the remainder of the Michigan workers’s job description on daily basis for the reason that information broke in Might.

Boynton was Might’s prime assistant and the defensive coordinator the previous two seasons. Along with Michigan’s 37-3 title run, the Wolverines have been additionally successful instantly beneath the Might regime change of 2024-25, when Michigan made the Candy 16. This system went 64-13 in two seasons — these 64 victories coming simply two years faraway from the eight-win catastrophe within the ultimate season of Juwan Howard’s tenure marked the most important two-year win improve within the historical past of males’s Division I. Underneath Boynton, Michigan had the No. 1 protection within the nation final season.

With Dusty Might’s departure, Michigan continues paying steep worth for its championship period

David Cobb

The Michigan alternative will probably be Boynton’s second probability at working a high-major program. In 2017, he acquired his first head job when he was promoted in-house at Oklahoma State after Brad Underwood left for Illinois. Boynton had an up-and-down tour in Stillwater, going 119-109 in seven seasons. OSU was burdened for a number of seasons early in Boynton’s tenure as a consequence of an NCAA investigation that predated his tenure. His greatest 12 months was 2020-21, when the Cowboys made the NCAA Event as a No. 4 seed because of Boynton’s recruitment and improvement of future No. 1 NBA decide Cade Cunningham.

This marks the second time in three years that Manuel has promoted a prime assistant quickly after successful a nationwide title. Jim Harbaugh’s 2023 nationwide title in soccer vaulted him again to the NFL. That led Manuel to advertise Sherrone Moore in January 2024. Moore misplaced his job in December 2025 following an arrest and after the college decided he’d had an inappropriate relationship with a workers member. 

However not like the Harbaugh state of affairs, which infamously was ensnared within the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal, Michigan’s males’s basketball staff is just not burdened by scandal on the time of the change. It is simply the other: Michigan is working at one in all its highest ranges in program historical past. If Boynton can hold each participant on the roster, the Wolverines will probably be anticipated to tussle with Michigan State and Illinois atop the Large Ten subsequent season.