Originally published at: Daily Bullets (Mar. 30): Former OSU Coaches Climb to Final Four
Thanks for stopping by – here’s your daily dose of Oklahoma State sports news. OSU Bullets • The Cowgirls completed their sweep of Utah, beating the Utes 4-2 on Sunday behind Ruby Meylan’s hot pitching (PFB) • Mike Boynton’s (he’s an assistant there) Michigan squad clinched a Final Four trip yesterday, where he’ll be joined by Brad Underwood’s Illinois team. The way the bracket is set up, the pair could meet in the title game (MGoBlue.com + CBS Sports) • Nolan McLean started slow in his season debut but rounded into form for the Mets: McLean struck out eight batters over five innings in his 2026 debut, allowing two earned runs and taking a no-decision in the Mets’ 4-3, 10-inning loss to the Pirates. Along the way, he continued to feature some increased fastball velocity, firing three pitches of at least 98 mph after throwing just one of those last year in the Majors. [MLB] The final line for Nolan McLean in his 2026 season debut pic.twitter.com/TItachAjPn — SNY Mets (@SNY_Mets) March 29, 2026 • Speaking of Mike Boynton, excellent piece here from a Michigan newspaper looking at how he builds relationships (Michigan Daily) • What an insane stat for an…
Not paying Underwood is maybe as stupid as paying Ford and Boynton. The one knock Underwood had was that he hadn’t made a deep run in the tournament.
He won a game 2 times at SFA. Of course he didn’t make a deep run, he was at SFA. The stars have to align for that to happen.
I meant after leaving Oklahoma State he hadn’t made deep tournament runs, so we could look and say, “well, he isn’t an upgrade over Travis Ford because Ford was fired for fizzling out in the tournament”. Underwood has had much better regular seasons than Ford had, so I didn’t subscribe to that, but I think some held onto that logic for a while.
He’s got an elite eight and now a final four. Either way even if he didn’t make any deep runs I’d still take a round of 32 exit every year over the absolute nothing we’ve gotten the past decade+.
Oh, I agree, but that’s about what we had with Ford. He’d make the tournament and bust out immediately or win one game. I’m not defending him. I wanted him gone, still glad he’s gone. We need to aim higher than that, though. I don’t know how we passed on Underwood and somehow found a way to regress even farther under Boynton. Truly craptacular hiring.
Selective memory. Easy to rip on past decisions when you don’t consider all the facts. You love to arm-chair quarterback. Hindsight is 20/20. Go back and read the posted article on Boynton’s tenure. That guy had character. Underwood clearly did not. I’d take a guy who has character, builds his kids into good fathers and husbands, and gets us to the tourney less frequently a thousand times over a disingenuous jerk like Underwood who gets deep runs.
How is it selective when I didn’t mention any of that? I didn’t mention it because I do not care. If you are bad at your job, it does not matter one whit if you’re a stand up dude.
I’d like a guy who has good character if that good character helps us win games and he instills that in his players and staff. As long as the guy isn’t committing violations or breaking laws, I will 100% take a jerk who wins over a nice guy who doesn’t.
However, why do you think Underwood didn’t have character? Because he left? He was over 50 at his first P5 job. He got offered a bag, Holder didn’t want to match. Age notwithstanding, why would anyone turn down a huge amount of money that they earned from their performance? When your current employer has signaled to you that they can’t or won’t pay you because they’re still dealing with the financial and reputational aftermath of their historically bad contract with your predecessor? Especially an older coach, though, who knows how much time he has left to earn and to advance his career? He pulled off an amazing turnaround and his market was hot.
Or is it because the Lamont Evans stuff happened while he was here? Maybe he should’ve known. Maybe he did know. We don’t know, but how can you hold him responsible, but give Boynton a pass? Boynton said Lamont Evans was like family to him. He didn’t know what his “family” was up to or he was able to dupe people closest to him, either Boynton is naive or the only villain in the story is Evans. Also, that punishment was nothing that benefited the school. It profited Evans only and our punishment was excessive and unjust. I don’t hold Boynton or Underwood responsible, but if one is, they both are.
I’m not going to get into a long drawn out thing with you again. I have other stuff to do besides debate with someone who takes little time to read and/or comprehend what I wrote. I’ll make just two points.
“As long as the guy isn’t committing violations or breaking laws, I will 100% take a jerk who wins over a nice guy who doesn’t.”
Well, that’s your opinion, and you can join the other legions of OSU fans (and sports fans, in general) who don’t care about the more important things of life. Here’s my shocked face. 
Further, we aren’t debating guys who “win” or someone who “doesn’t”. We are debating coaches with different levels of winning. You’ve been pretty quick to disparage Lutz, who has won more games each year than previous ones. It isn’t black and white.
“However, why do you think Underwood didn’t have character?”
Because of how he left, and how he negotiated with Illinois while he was “coaching” us in the NCAA tourney. Did you read anything I wrote? I didn’t reference the Lamont Evans deal. But I’m glad you brought it up. I find it pretty telling that you can’t tell the difference between a head coach’s responsibility to know what an assistant is doing illegally versus one of the other assistants.
Success is pretty easily definable here. Make the tournament, finish in the top half of the conference. Boynton rarely did either. Lutz hasn’t done either. Underwood has done it consistently, even winning the Big Ten and Big Ten tourney. I’m not disparaging Lutz but he’s provided no results yet. Winning more than an awful team and then more than a slightly less awful team doesn’t move the needle.
So, is Eric Morris a low character individual? He’s trying to advance his career. I don’t like it, but it’s the nature of the sports cycle. It doesn’t stop for you.
Underwood didn’t accomplish that at OSU. He was as middlin’ as anyone else. He went to the tourney and lost the first game while he was negotiating behind OSU’s backs.
Morris did nothing of the sort.
You are the king of nonsequitur straw-man arguments.
Underwood finished the season with his team, Morris did not.
Middlin’? The morale of the fanbase was low after Ford and he miraculously made the tournament. Illinois clearly saw what he was worth.
Wow. This is ignorant. UNT was still vying for a playoff spot when Morris signed with OSU and was actively recruiting for OSU while he was supposedly still coaching at UNT and some of that recruiting was… recruiting his team to go with him to OSU. You don’t think that was a distraction? Then he left the team when they lost their conference title game. Underwood at least finished out the postseason.
The ignorance is yours. You can’t comprehend that Morris was in a completely different realm than Underwood. He was expected to be sought after for a coaching position. Underwood was not even finished with his first season with us and during the NCAA tourney was negotiating with other schools for more money (marginally) than what he was being promised over time at OSU. He didn’t even give us a chance at decent renegotiation. He was a selfish, self-serving snake.
Done debating with you. You refuse to see the whole picture and simply want to argue for argument’s sake.
Your distinctions are arbitrary. Who cares if it was one year? If we had offered Morris after one year with a huge pay boost, would he have come? Obviously, yes. It doesn’t matter if Underwood didn’t prove himself to us. He proved himself to Illinois. Illinois tripled Underwood’s salary when he left. Holder had offered to double it. How is that just marginally better? Underwood now makes over $4 million a year. He knew Illinois valued him more than we did or could.