What is a Successful First Year for Mike Boynton?

Oklahoma State will introduce its 20th men’s head basketball coach on Monday. A name most OSU fans probably didn’t know before Friday (though he’s been on the Cowboys sideline for a year) will now be the face of the program.

He starts his childhood dream job in an unenviable position. While there was no clear-cut answer or direction the fan base could agree on, few expected (and even fewer supported) the decision to promote from within.

Fans were let down by the hire. But that has less to do with Boynton than it does with the bigger names that either were or weren’t interviewed for the job. How quickly can the fan base can disassociate Boynton from the head coach he’s worked with the last four years?

Boynton has a lot to do in the coming weeks and months. Somewhere towards the top of that list is trying to win over that fan base whose collective head is still spinning from the events of the last week plus.

“I don’t want to be insensitive to people’s feelings,” Boynton told The Oklahoman on Saturday. “People are invested into this thing. People believed that the sun was not coming up. It’s up. It’s shining. The sun’s going to shine for a long time. I’m here to tell you, it’s still there.

“I have to get the people that buy tickets, the fans to understand that the sky is not falling,” he added to other reporters. “It rained a little bit, but the sky was a little cloudy and the sun is coming back. Our current players are the priority always.”

Boynton has the luxury/curse of following a dramatic turnaround in fan support by his mentor-turned-public enemy No. 2, Brad Underwood. How will the fan base accept him?

He can’t sell himself as a local guy. He’s not from “around here.” Any advertised connection to the Iba tree would be laughable. This won’t be like Underwood’s press conference a year ago — full of Bill Self stories and Big 8 banter. In fact, Boynton’s introductory press conference will not be open to the public.

But that was all fluff, anyways. Filler to drum up support. The only question that really matters is whether he can coach. Can he lead the program? Can he move OSU basketball forward?

Boynton should get at least three years to prove his coaching chops. But how much patience will he be afforded by a fan base that has been burned in one way or another by his last two predecessors? A fan base that’s shown it will support a winner but is also not afraid to make their point by watching from the couch.

The fastest route to fan acceptance comes by adding to the left side of the win-loss column. Winning is a cure-all.

And that heavily depends on his roster. Both Jawun Evans and Jeffrey Carroll are going to test NBA waters. Evans may be more likely to leave, but if both somehow find themselves in Stillwater next year, Boynton can basically take right up where Underwood left off.

Without them, he’s looking at a rebuild.

Boynton knows the system and apparently will look to recruit towards the type of press defense that Underwood wanted to play. Before he gets his guys, he’ll need to try to keep the incoming talent incoming, if at all possible.

So what is a successful first year for Mike Boynton?

Does he need to match last year’s win total? That could be tough without Evans and/or Carroll. Does he need to sell as many tickets as last year? That’s not happening without a dramatic shift in perspective.

Expectations will need to be tempered, and there will likely be some bumps along the road. But maybe it’s just as simple as giving the fans a style of ball they can enjoy with some hope for the future. It feels like we’re a long way from that right now, but let’s at least give this thing some time to play out.