Everything Michigan basketball head coach Mike Boynton Jr. said on the Defend the Block podcast

Michigan basketball head coach Mike Boynton has made his first public comments after having the interim tag removed, speaking on U-M's Defend the Block podcast this week.

Here's everything Boynton had to say.

On the events leading after Dusty May taking the Mavericks job

Man, so much has happened since then. Brian, I'll be honest. I don't really remember all of it. Um, but I do remember thinking, wow, what a, what a, what a unique situation I'm in. Um, you know, Dusty and I developed a tremendous relationship, um, not only as colleagues, but as friends. And, uh, I knew that they may would probably be in this future at some point.

He's just that good. The dude's a stud. He's good at every part of the job. He's, he's best at finding people who are good at something and put them in a position to be good at it, uh, allowing them to, you know, tinker, grow, develop. Uh, and for me that was obviously helping lead our defense. Um, but, but every part of our staff was really, really good.

And that's a testament to him and his ability to identify those things and people. The next couple of hours were me talking to my wife about how do we proceed. The next morning, obviously the news breaks and it became real. It became a great opportunity literally right in front of us. But it was a great challenge as well. The timing was such that every player on the team had an opportunity to decide that this isn't what they wanted to do.

It was a great amount of time, effort, work, and conversations put in over the following three to four weeks of helping them see what the vision was going to be moving forward. I'm grateful to each player and their families that they continue to believe in Michigan, continue to believe in the university's mission to continue to believe in what they can do as a group. But also that they can all still achieve their personal goals moving forward. The thing I'm excited about most is I've got a great responsibility to them individually, but to this program, to our leadership, to our fans and alumni, to continue to put this basketball program in position to be successful and compete for championships.

On the key tenants he wanted to reiterate to the playerd

I think the thing I leaned into the most was on Sunday night when those guys went to bed, they believed they were a part of a team that they chose to be a part of that could accomplish a lot of great things together. That they were going to be a part of a team that allowed them to be successful on an individual basis as a part of that team. And on Monday night, when they went to bed, those things were still on the table. When we huddled for our first team workout on Tuesday morning, which we did the next day, the huddle looked exactly the way they thought it would look, minus one person. And again, they all had a choice to make on whether they still believe that that group could collectively do those things. And obviously most of them have decided that was a circle they still wanted to be a part of. And so that was the overarching team message.

And I'm thankful to Trey and Elliot for stepping forward first and deciding, hey, we can still do this guys. And then themselves taking that message to the locker room, and then JP and Mustafa, and then all the way down the line. And I'll be honest, like even for LJ, as disappointed as I am that I won't be able to coach him. I wanted him to be able to make that choice for himself. That kid's given this program a lot. He's a champion, he'll forever be a champion. He'll forever be a champion at the University of Michigan. We wish him great success moving forward. We hope he gets as healthy as possible and continues to be the type of player that we all know he can be. We'll miss him for sure. But he had an opportunity to make the choice that he thought was best for him, and we wish him well moving forward.

On Trey McKenney and Elliot Cadeau being ready to emerge as leaders

Yeah, I've seen this with those two guys in particular literally since about two weeks after the season was over. Once it became fairly clear that the front line for sure would look different. I told this story before. Dusty and I drove over to Chicago for the NBA combine. We left the Monday of testing, and I think of the four-hour drive, let's say, to Chicago, we spent 15 minutes of the ride talking about the possibility of Merez coming back and what the team might look like if he returned. By the time we got there, Merez had tested and also had a shooting exhibition that we saw the results of and we both looked at each other. I think the sentiment was, you know, we wasted about 15 minutes of that car ride. At least it wasn't two guys in our backcourt. First of all, they're great humans.

It's a credit to their families, the way they've been raised, but also their competitive desire to be great individually and their collective desire to be winners. They both made great sacrifices for our team last year, playing roles that they hadn't played before. Our team was better because of it, and now we need them to play different roles for this team and be more vocal and be more of the example of what it looks like to compete and work hard and practice and prepare for the opportunity to win a championship because you don't just get to do it because you want to. You have to prepare yourself in a way that gives you a chance to be on that stage in early April when the lights are on, and the most is at stake, and those guys have a blueprint that these young guys need to follow.

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On the easiest and most difficult aspects of his coaching transition

The most challenging was literally just keeping the group together. That was the biggest mission that I had when I first started. The easiest part would be just the basketball. The advantage I had was that we helped recruit this team. We recruited them to play away, and so a lot of those things are still the same. The way we want to play, the way we need to get these guys competing together, playing unselfish basketball, competing as hard as we can defensively, those things have been fairly normal. The other stuff outside, getting the staff together, finding a couple people that can complement the skill set that we have currently within our program to continue to elevate our ability to be successful.

On delegating his time to non-basketball things now that he's a head coach again

I think that's where I'll lean on the things that I've experienced both positively and negatively in my first opportunity to be a head coach. I probably didn't know as well how to delegate, how to identify my own weaknesses, and have people who can cover those for me. Now, with the first hire I made, Mike Martin from Brown, a tremendous teacher of the game, a guy who's been able to do a lot with not a whole lot of resources at a place that's really challenging to win at. He's somebody that will have a great level of input in how we operate moving forward, particularly on the offensive end, but even just from a holistic head coaching perspective, he'll be somebody I can lean on to ask questions, to bounce ideas off. And then we'll move some other things around within the staff with the guys that we have returning, but we have great people still in the building who are really, really good at helping guys get better, teaching the game, being tacticians in terms of game execution, recruiting, all the things that it takes to be successful. And so I'm excited to work with these guys that we have here.

On what he can share about his staff

Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, our strength conditioning coach, Matt Aldridge, I'll start there. As much responsible as much as anybody for the growth and development of our players from a physical standpoint. Obviously, the players have to put the work in, but somebody's got to put a plan together for them because they really don't know that part. In fact, they know the basketball part a lot more than even how to develop their bodies, injury prevention, stretching, recovery. Matt Aldridge is elite. I think one of the best in the country by far. He's innovative. He's very thoughtful. He's thorough.

He's always thinking of ways to challenge these guys. So his being back was a major win because he's a very highly sought-after person in the market. And then KT Harrell, who we're likely going to move into an assistant coaching role from our director of operations. He's been around the game, was the leading scorer in SEC. Get him a chance to be on the court with our guys, being able to teach and coach them and challenge them. He's still younger, so he can get out there with him, and he can still hoop. He's pretty good.

And then Akeem Miskadeen, who's been with us. High-level basketball thinker, really good talent developer, great recruiter, all-around good person. He'll stick around. Kyle Church, who's been an assistant and GM with us, obviously plays a critical role, being that he's handling responsibilities on both sides, both internally and externally. Him sticking around is going to be big for us. Jacob Cohn, our analytics director, having him here to be another brains of some of our operation. I think his success rate on challenges last year was pretty doggone good.

So you talk about games that are going to be played in the conference, which are the most important games we play, right? The number of possessions that he saved us, you know, didn't go unnoticed by our staff, that's for sure. And then Brandon Gilbert is kind of a jack of all trades, does a little bit of everything. He'll stick around as well. So the crux of the staff is still here, and I'm excited to work with all those guys.

On bringing Mike Martin in as assistant coach

Yeah, it was a couple weeks of just, you know, it's not easy to do what he did. It's one thing to do it the way I did it, right? I was not working at the time. Dusty gets here, and I still have to think about if that's what I want to do in the immediate, do I want to take some time off, but he's actively, in a position where he's got a very stable situation. He's well respected, the all-time winningest coach at his alma mater. He's got a family that's got great roots there. We're excited to get them all here. So we're appreciative that he wanted to take on this challenge, which is a great challenge, his opportunity to coach at the highest level, be a part of a team that's coming off of a national championship with all the expectations that come with that. And so the conversations were wide, they were deep. We watched film together.

We shared ideas about how we teach the game, the best practices on, you know, how to approach scouting and how to approach player development. You know, some of the things that we do at this level will be new to him. I'm not sure they would necessarily deal with the NIL market the way we have been, the transfer portal market the way that we have been. But he's also coming from another highly respected academic institution. And so being able to recruit smart guys from great academic backgrounds is something he's going to be very, very used to. But also somebody, like I said, that I can lean over and ask a question that won't be foreign to him because he started as a head coach before.

On his early impressions of the team

The guys, to their credit, have all handled this really well, probably better than some of the adults, maybe, who are connected to either them or the program. And that's not saying anything. It was just a lot of confusion for a little while for a lot of people. But the guys have put in all the work that they've been expected to. And then some, you know, to see the numbers that we get from our NOAA reports every day, the amount of time these guys are putting in outside of what we're doing as a team has been really, really impressive. And it's almost to a person.

We don't have one guy that doesn't come in extra, shoot with our managers or just shoot on the gun. They're very intentional group. They come in with a plan, they work the plan, and then they get on to the next thing. And so I've been very, very appreciative, but thankful for their dedication to the game, for their desire to get better. And I look forward to seeing how they all can gel as the season evolves. I think the trip to Europe will be a positive development for us. Getting some time on the court in a real game environment will be a great, great advantage for this group.

On whether the foreign trip was ever in doubt

I'll be honest. I think everything was kind of in doubt at some point. But it's part of it. You worked through it all. It wasn't the most important; it wasn't the highest-priority thing for us. And if we had to postpone, it wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. But we do plan on taking the trip and giving these guys an opportunity to play the games. And more importantly, as important as the time and the game reps will be, it's just giving these guys time to get to know each other and to start develop what that personality will be.

Because I don't know right now what the personality of this group will be. It'll evolve as the season evolves. I mean, I remember Yax showed up here as a very quiet person a year ago. No one would believe that today. But he was.

But last June, he showed up here, unconfident, very quiet, sort of introverted in terms of being with his team. And then to watch specifically the relationship that him, Trey, and Roddy developed, the close brotherhood that they developed. But also, they're watching him rise and die in the way they have reacted to each other's success individually. And it all flowed from our team being as good as we were collectively. Those are things that evolve as the season went along. And the same thing happened with this group.

I mean, there were guys who told me at the middle of Big Ten play last year, they didn't think Trey McKinney liked anybody early on because he was so quiet. And now. Yax will tell you that he didn't think Trey liked him. And now they're best buds. So it's awesome to see. But that's what happens when guys are committed to winning and willing to do the work that it takes, because when you win with a group, especially the way we did last year, it's hard to separate yourself.

On any standouts during the early stages of workouts

I mean, I don't know if anyone stands out like in a major way. I think I think we had high expectations for the group already. I'll say this about maybe Quinn Costello. He's bigger than he was. I think he's grown here in the last couple of months and he picks up things really fast, really, really smart. So maybe a guy who people aren't maybe as in tune with what he can do and how much he can help. And we don't know for sure. We still got to get out there. He's got to react to it in a real game setting with people in the building.

But in terms of a guy, maybe that's flying under the radar a little bit. I mean, you say that for a guy who was a McDonald's American, but I think he's going to have an impact on our team that maybe some people haven't anticipated.

On LJ Cason's departure and whether he will attempt to fill the role

Yeah. Ten years ago, there probably wasn't an option. It's it's mid July. You know, there are a lot of different factors that go into adding somebody to your roster and people being available also. But we're in a different climate. And so there actually are several people potentially available with either a court ruling going well on the other or this, you know, just somebody transferred from another school because something happens there.

So we're very we're very much in tune to who's available. We would like to, in a perfect world, add another veteran piece if we could, maybe another ball handler, a decision maker, a playmaker, somebody who could help, just add some element of playmaking to our team. But we do like the team as it presently is constructed. And so we'll do both. We'll continue to work with this group and develop the guys that we have. But we'll always keep our ears to the ground as to maybe, you know, how some of this stuff is playing out there in the market.

On things he had to wait out to focus on non-conference scheduling

Yeah, I kind of targeted this week as a time that I would really try to dive into that, along with trying to finish up the last couple of spots on the staff. Still got one more assistant spot. And obviously, with KT moving up, the director of operations position is now open as well. So the schedule we'll get to, we'll start searching. I would need to find out if contracts have been signed, things that have been kind of rumored out there. How concrete are they? And so we'll work on that this week.

Today's best reads

• Trey McKenney Breaks Down Dusty May's Departure, Michigan Hiring Mike Boynton Jr.
• Michigan Suffers Roster Loss Under Mike Boynton Jr. as LJ Cason Enters Transfer Portal
• J.P. Estrella on Why He Stayed at Michigan: A Head Coach Who 'Really Cares'
• Mike Boynton Jr. Extends Offers as Head Coach — One to Son of Former MSU Legend
• Predicting Michigan Basketball's Rotation Following L.J. Cason's Departure

This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/michigan as Everything Michigan Basketball Head Coach Mike Boynton Jr. Said on the Defend the Block Podcast.