Mike Holder Says It Took ‘Intestinal Fortitude’ To Hire Mike Boynton

Mike Holder has been in the spotlight for the last nine days in a way he probably wishes he did not have to be in the spotlight. Writers on this blog have both praised him and critiqued him, and in the Sunday Oklahoman Holder spoke about his decision to hire Mike Boynton as the 20th men’s basketball coach in Oklahoma State history.

“I think it takes some intestinal fortitude to hire someone that’s not going to be necessarily the most popular thing in the press conference,” Holder told The Oklahoman.

That is one way to describe it, although not the way I’ve most often seen it described on Twitter. He’s not wrong, though. Holder is on an island, and he is completely isolated. At best, national and local media think this is an odd idea that could potentially work given the right circumstances. That’s at best.

“One tempting way to do that was someone who immediately would be accepted by the fan base,” Holder continued to The Oklahoman. “That’s why people hire head coaches. They’ve done what you envision or dream about for our basketball program. But the emphasis should be on hiring the best coach available.”

The best coach available.

The key word there is “available.” Nobody — including Holder … and Boynton for that matter — thinks that Boynton is a better coach than, say, Buzz Williams. But the options just weren’t there for Oklahoma State for a variety of reasons (including money, whether Holder ever admits that or not).

Robert Allen pointed this out, and I agree with it.

I can tell you absolutely that there were outside candidates contacted and asked about their interest. I’ve been told that the interest was not extremely high. The departure of Brad Underwood did not leave scorched earth in Payne County, but it did leave scorched opinions, a lot of those in the college coaching community.

This is going to hurt the feelings of a lot of Oklahoma State fans, but right now Stillwater, Oklahoma State, and hallowed Gallagher-Iba Arena are not high on the list of places to coach for head coaches at the major and mid-major Division I level. [Go Pokes — $]

And that’s how you end up with someone Allen, of all people, didn’t even really know until this week.

In a lot of ways, this is Holder doing something I wanted him to do with Gottlieb. He’s taking a (monster) risk on somebody with (presumably) a lot of upside. Tim Jankovich (SMU) is a known commodity. You understand what you’re getting. There is a ceiling. There is a floor. There’s no ceiling with Boynton (which is great), but, gulp, there is also no floor.

The ironic thing is that OSU was not progressive enough to hire someone who had never coached before (Gottlieb) but it was progressive enough to take on that risk (no head coaching experience) and take out the floor Gottlieb offered in terms of fan support. A lonely island indeed.

Holder likely does think Boynton was the best coach available (again, key word), and that might end up being prescient. Remember, Holder knows a thing or two about coaches who have never held a head job before (including The Mullet and Holder himself who was hired in his early 20s as OSU’s golf coach).

But for now it feels like this hire says a lot more about the state of the Oklahoma State basketball program than it does about Mike Boynton.