Oklahoma State fired men’s basketball coach Mike Boynton after seven seasons Thursday, according to multiple reports.
The Cowboys’ season ended with a 77-62 loss to UCF in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament Tuesday. Boynton, 42, exits with a 119-109 overall record and a 51-75 mark in conference play. Oklahoma State went 12-20 this season.
The Cowboys reached the NCAA Tournament only once in Boynton’s seven seasons in Stillwater. Led by No. 1 NBA Draft pick Cade Cunningham, Oklahoma State lost in the round of 32 against Oregon State in 2021. The Cowboys reached the NIT twice, advancing to the quarterfinals in 2017-18 and 2022-23, when they were the first team out of the NCAA Tournament field. They were a bubble team in 2020 when the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments were canceled because of COVID-19.
But OSU posted a winning record in Big 12 play just once in seven seasons. Oklahoma State also served a one-year postseason ban in 2021-22, the result of the NCAA’s investigation stemming from the FBI’s 2017 probe into bribery and corruption in college basketball recruiting.
Oklahoma State’s four Big 12 wins this season were its fewest since 2015-16. The Cowboys ended the season on a six-game losing streak.
Boynton was previously an assistant at Oklahoma State under Brad Underwood, who led the Cowboys to the NCAA Tournament in his only year at the school before departing for Illinois.
In 2021, after the NCAA Tournament run, Boynton signed a seven-year contract extension through the 2027-28 season, earning $3 million annually. The university will owe Boynton roughly $7.7 million to fire him — 75 percent of the final four years of his contract, according to The Oklahoman.
This story will be updated.
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