Mike Drop: Boynton, Gundy Take Different Approach to Recruiting, Winning

Kyle Boone said it well this morning in his look at the best classes in Oklahoma State basketball history after Mike Boynton snagged another top-100 recruit to go with his 21-win season in 2017-18.

I think Boynton can coach, and I thought he could recruit.

Now, I know he can do both. [PFB]

Boynton of course folded 4-star Georgia stud Marcus Watson into the fold on Sunday evening. Watson is the 13th-highest ranked recruit in Oklahoma State history. Ahead of JamesOn Curry, Stevie Clark and Markel Brown. He is also the third recruit Oklahoma State has in its 2019 class who doubles as a top 25 all-time recruit in the program’s history. Kalib Boone (No. 21) and Avery Anderson (No. 24) are also on the list.

Here’s a look at which coaches are responsible for those top 25.

Top 25 Recruits in OSU history

• Eddie Sutton (2003-2006): 7
• Sean Sutton (2006-2008): 3
• Travis Ford (2008-2016): 12
• Brad Underwood (2016-17): 0
• Mike Boynton (2017-Present): 3

Boynton has made good on the promise that Oklahoma State would pursue and land some of the best players in the country. Boynton now has two top-100 players in his 2019 class, which will be the first full recruiting cycle he has overseen. That’s more than they had from 2015-18 combined. This is what being obsessed with recruiting looks like.

It’s unfair to compare top-100 recruits in football and basketball because it’s far easier to land them in hoops, but I do think it’s worth noting that Boynton has one fewer top-100 recruit in next year’s class than Mike Gundy has had in his entire 14 years at the helm in Stillwater.

I think it’s fair to point out that OSU is currently ranked 7th in the Big 12 in football recruiting and 10th in the country in basketball recruiting. I think it’s fair to point out that OSU can reasonably expect to finish around 20th in basketball recruiting this season, a feat they have accomplished just one time in football during Mike Gundy’s tenure.

The juxtaposition is not difficult to see. In a year in which Oklahoma State football is getting exposed a little bit because it doesn’t have a quarterback currently capable of covering up its recruiting weaknesses (or maybe it does, but they aren’t playing him), Boynton is preaching culture, but he’s also filling up the coffers. Culture doesn’t win basketball (or football) games. It stabilizes programs and provides long-term success, but culture’s never run a 4.4.

Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Gundy has been a great coach and is far more accomplished than Boynton. But he hasn’t been good on the recruiting trail, has been getting worse and when he hasn’t had a NFL QB to cover for him, it has gone very, very poorly.

Why does this matter? Well it matters because recruiting is half the game. Maybe more. I talked to one source a few weeks ago who chuckled when he said, “If Gundy had even West Virginia’s talent, he would have won it all by now.” I don’t know if I would go that far, but classes ranked No. 34, 38, 45 and 40 over the last four years are not the stuff of Big 12 title hopes.

Boynton on the other hand has put his letters of intent where his mouth is. The exciting part about this is that, maybe unlike Travis Ford (hopefully unlike Travis Ford), it appears Boynton can actually coach. He’s 3-2 against Bob Huggins and Bill Self, and his roster hasn’t exactly teemed with talent yet (including this season).

Maybe all of this is a smokescreen. I’m willing to consider that. Maybe I’m disillusioned by Gundy’s inability to recruit top-tier talent to Stillwater and completely ignoring the 30 wins over the last three years (and top 12 winning percentage over the last decade).

Boynton has yet to make the postseason tournament. All Mike Gundy has done is play in bowl games for the last decade and a half. Maybe it’s just a little bit too easy to get excited about winning off the court rather than on it right now because, let’s be honest, we’re looking for Ws anywhere we can get them at this point.

But …. BUT … maybe Boynton is about to show us what it looks like to marry Gundy’s culture and philosophical stances with a level of recruiting that contends for conference (and national?) championships. Maybe we’re about to see what it would be like if Travis Ford could have coached. Maybe there’s going to be a FBI-sized void atop the Big 12 in hoops, and maybe Oklahoma State is perfectly positioned to fill it.

I have no idea what the future holds for either Boynton or Gundy, but I know that in the volatile world of college athletics, one is trending in the right direction and the other is not. Gundy of course is one more NFL QB (or improved OL or viable defensive scheme) away from having all his troubles potentially solved, but the damage done by mediocre to slightly above mediocre recruiting is sometimes tough to unwind.

Both of these men are building something in Stillwater, and I think both are pretty great at what they do. But they’re certainly going about it differently. Gundy with his culture and his 3-stars and his special teams coaching by committee. Boynton shares the culture narrative (this is clear), but the way he allocates his time and resources looks more like somebody who believes recruiting is the lifeblood of a college team (which it is). We’ll see if that works to the degree it’s worked for Gundy.

Maybe we’ll see that it works … even better.