Oklahoma State’s Past Two Basketball Coaches Are in the Final Four

As Cowboy fans await their basketball program to return to some sort of national relevancy, they’ll see their two former coaches play in the Final Four this weekend.

Brad Underwood led Illinois past Iowa in the Elite Eight to make his first Final Four as a head coach. Mike Boynton is the lead assistant at Michigan, and the Wolverines stormed past Tennessee to get into the final weekend.

The former OSU coaches are on opposite sides of the bracket, meaning a week from now they could do battle with a ring on the line.

Underwood’s Teams Still Offensively Efficient

There are some statistical similarities between Underwood’s Final Four Illini and his 2016-17 Cowboys — namely the fact that both rank top nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency.

The Jawun Evans-led Cowboys had a 126 offensive rating via KenPom, which paced the country, while this Illinois team has a 131.8. The biggest driving force in those similarities is likely the fact that both feed off the offensive glass.

OSU had a 38.3 offensive rebound percentage in Underwood’s lone year, which ranked fourth nationally. The Fighting Illini have a 39.5 offensive rebound percentage, which comes in third in the country.

Mitchell Solomon brought down 3.1 offensive boards a game back in 2016-17 — finishing the year averaging more offensive rebounds than defensive. Jeffrey Carroll, who actually led OSU in rebounding that season, chipped in 1.9 offensive boards a game. For reference, Parsa Fallah led OSU with 2.3 a game this past season.

This is an area Benjamin Ahmed showed promise in during his freshman season, as he led OSU with 5.6 offensive boards per 40 minutes.

There are some differences in how Underwood’s Cowboys and this year’s Illinois squad scored, though.

The Illini are attempting 30.7 3s a game, while OSU put up a little more than eight fewer triples a game in Underwood’s year. That OSU squad actually made a higher percentage though, as the Cowboys shot 40% as a team in 2016-17. Carroll and Phil Forte each had north of 50 makes above a 40% clip.

Where Underwood’s current team separates itself from his OSU team is on the defensive end, particularly when it comes to giving up free throws.

Illinois has a 19.4 defensive free-throw rate (free throws relative to field-goal attempts), which is the best in the nation. OSU had a defensive free-throw rate of 45.4 in Underwood’s year, which ranked 335th of 351. How does that look more practically? Opponents shot 834 free throws (25.3 per game) against OSU in 2016-17. Illinois has allowed just 441 free throws (12.3 a game) this season.

Boynton’s Defense Still Wreaking Havoc

Michigan has the best defense in the country, according to KenPom, a hallmark of a Boynton-coached team.

The first sentence on Boynton’s Michigan profile denotes the former OSU coach as the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator.

Despite going 119-109 as the Cowboys’ coach across seven seasons, the Cowboys ranked inside the Top 20 in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency three times under Boynton. OSU peaked at No. 4 in the stat in 2021-22 (the year after Cade).

Boynton loves a defensive anchor. While at OSU, Yor Anei, Kalib Boone and Moussa Cisse all led the Big 12 in blocks at one point. In Ann Arbor, Boynton has 7-foot-3 Aday Mara protecting the rim. He is stuffing 2.6 shots a game, which paces the Big Ten. Michigan ranks third nationally in block percentage at 16.8. OSU ranked seventh nationally in the stat in 2021-22 and 11th in 2022-23.

Michigan leads the country in effective field-goal percentage allowed at 44.9. OSU’s 2022-23 defensive ranked 12th nationally in the state at 45.6.

Where this Michigan team and Boynton’s OSU teams differ the most is on the offensive end. OSU’s best defensive team under Boynton (2021-22) ranked 345th nationally in 3-point percentage, and the Cowboys’ 21.4 turnover rate ranked 332nd nationally. Basically the Cowboys couldn’t shoot and had a hard time keeping ahold of the rock. No matter how good the defense is, that isn’t a good recipe for success.

Meanwhile, Boynton’s Michigan defense is complimented by a Top 5 offense, one that ranks in the top 30 in 3-point percentage and ranks second nationally in 2-point field-goal percentage.