Boynton Happy for the Opportunity to Talk Basketball in Big 12 Media Day Presser

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — With an aura of corruption wafting around the program and a horde of reporters ready to pounce on the opportunity to pounce on the intricacies of Mike Boynton’s mind, basketball seemed to serve as an elixir.

“Every team takes on a different personality, and obviously you’d like to have as many guys returning with experience as possible,” Boynton said at his first Big 12 Media Days as a head coach.

“Certainly going into my first season as a head coach, if I’ve got Jawun Evans to go practice with this afternoon I feel a lot better than not having him.”

Right there with those last few words, he smiled for the first time I’ve seen in months.

Boynton won’t give in. He won’t cave at the 10,000th question he is asked about the FBI investigation stifling his team and his first season as a head coach. But he is clearly tired of it, and how could you not be?

When you got in trouble with your parents when you were younger, you had your mom yelling at you, your dad probably spanking you and your brother and sister laughing at you. Boynton, at least not yet, isn’t even involved in the probe, so to a degree, he is being punished for another man’s job.

The first question out of the barrel was one he has been asked at least twice publically. “What was your reaction?” He gave the same “shocked” answer.

Unfortunately this won’t go away for Boynton. In fact, it will only ratchet up as more information is revealed. Who knows? Maybe he is even involved, but to this point, there is nothing more to say. Reporters are programed to want more. Even I understand that, but there isn’t anything more to say about it, at least from his perspective.

That leaves basketball, which right now is his bliss. And that’s where the press conference headed after that first question. He talked about his team’s makeup, his talks with other Big 12 coaches and his thoughts on being picked last in the conference preseason poll. And although talking about a meaningless poll wasn’t particularly riveting for him, it was clearly better than talking about bribery, corruption and a lost “brother.”

He was asked two questions about the investigation. The second was about providing an insulation around his players, and Boynton spoke through them.

“Kinds are pretty resilient, and really for the most part, all they want to do is play basketball and go to school,” he said. “Because of that, being able to get to practice pretty quickly after this all happened was something that was really beneficial to us because we got back to being able to focus on the things that we were trying to focus on before this ever happened.”