Michigan State’s biggest rival has (unfortunately) had one of the better two-year runs in program history thanks to its last head coaching hire.
Dusty May was arguably the best coaching hire in Michigan basketball history, passing up John Beilein who turned the program around in the 2010s. May was hired before the 2024-25 season and immediately turned the Wolverines back into a contender after Juwan Howard ran the program right into the ground.
As one of the hottest coaching commodities in the country following a national title in year two of his Michigan tenure, May decided to take the Dallas Mavericks job.
The move was shocking and it came at a rough time for Michigan, right before the 2026 NBA Draft, forcing the university’s hand to find a head coach quickly. A couple of months into the offseason and after the transfer portal window had already closed, it just wasn’t ideal timing for the coaching change, but Michigan quickly moved to make Mike Boynton the interim head coach.
Boynton has head coach experience at the power conference level, spending seven years at Oklahoma State where he coached Cade Cunningham to the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2021.
Unfortunately for Michigan, he was just 51-75 in Big 12 play in his seven years with the Cowboys. He was also just 119-109 overall and made just one NCAA Tournament in his tenure which isn’t exactly the perfect follow-up hire to a national title-winning coach like May. Fortunately for Michigan, he was just the interim coach.
On Friday, he was named the permanent head coach, signing a two-year deal with the Wolverines.
The move was not very popular among the Michigan fanbase with many Wolverine fans taking to Twitter to call it a step in the wrong direction, comparing it to the Sherrone Moore hire for the football program. They were essentially saying that the program would be set back a few years because it settled on Boynton for two years instead of just letting the 2026-27 season play out before making a final decision.
Michigan State fans are pretty pleased with this turn of events.
Michigan is still going to be Michigan State’s biggest threat in 2026-27
Although the hire is underwhelming and I don’t see it working out in the long run, Boynton is being handed the keys to one of the most talented rosters in the country and arguably the top team in the Big Ten. The Wolverines just won the national title and have another solid roster, led by Moustapha Thiam, Elliot Cadeau, and Trey McKenney, so this could very well be an early days of Juwan situation when he inherited a really good roster from Beilein and contended for a national title right away.
No matter who the coach is, Michigan is going to have the talent to contend in 2026-27 so Spartan fans shouldn’t get too excited about the interim tag being removed from Boynton’s title.
Michigan State still has to prove itself and Tom Izzo knows that. He’s going to take the Wolverines just as seriously as he would if May were returning as head coach. He respects his opponents, especially when they have elite levels of talent.
In the long run, however, this could be a great development for Michigan State.
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