NEW YORK — Mike Young became an R&B fan because of Mike Boynton.
On Sunday, Young will coach against Boynton, who is one of his friends and proteges.
Young will steer the Virginia Tech men’s basketball team against Boynton’s Oklahoma State squad at 2 pm at the Barclays Center, which is the home of the Brooklyn Nets. The game will air on ESPN2.
When Young was the head coach at Wofford, Boynton was one of his assistants in the 2007-08 season.
“He’s just a wonderful person and I care for him greatly,” Young, 59, said Friday in a phone interview. “I look forward to competing against him. It’ll be a lot of fun. I’ll look forward to looking down the sideline at some point and seeing an old friend.”
Their working relationship at Wofford developed into a friendship.
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“If there’s a list of my top mentors, allies, friends in the business, Mike Young would probably be somewhere in the top two or three of who I’m closest with,” Boynton, 40, said Friday in a phone interview. “I know his wife, Margaret, really well. I watched his kids grow up.
“Mike’s a dear, dear friend and somebody I have a tremendous amount of respect for, not only as a coach but certainly more so on a personal level.
“Outside of Sunday, I want him to win every game he coaches.”
Boynton, who played for South Carolina, joined Young’s staff after spending the previous two seasons as an assistant under Buzz Peterson at Coastal Carolina. Cliff Ellis replaced Peterson in the summer of 2007 and wanted to retain Boynton. But Boynton decided to go work for Young.
“Mike Young was only going to be able to pay me about half what I was making at Coastal,” Boynton said. “But after talking with him, … I remember leaving the meeting thinking, ‘It may be worth it to make that sacrifice from a financial standpoint because I believe I will have an opportunity to grow.'”
Young said it became “readily apparent” to him that season that Boynton had the makings of a future head coach.
Working together on a small staff at Southern Conference member Wofford made for a close bond.
“We spent a lot of time together,” Boynton said. “We didn’t have these crazy big budgets like we do at the schools we work at now. We did a lot of recruiting in cars with one another. We spent a lot of time in meetings in small offices, trying to help each other become good.
“With all due respect to all the other guys I worked for, Mike Young prepared me to be a head coach better than anyone I worked for because he gave me so many responsibilities and challenged me to get better.”
On three consecutive Mondays, Young and Boynton drove together from Wofford, which is in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Daytona Beach, Florida, and back to see a recruit.
“We listened to a John Legend album the whole way,” Boynton said.
“Michael is a big R&B guy. He turned me on to rhythm & blues,” Young said. “Great, great times.”
That season, Boynton dressed up as a throwback Wofford basketball player for Halloween and posed for photos with Young’s then-young daughter, who was dressed as a Wofford cheerleader, and Young’s then-young son, who was dressed as a Wofford soccer player.
“Good memories,” Young said.
Boynton left Wofford after that season to join the staff at his alma mater, South Carolina.
But Young and Boynton remained close. Eleven years ago, Young attended Boynton’s wedding.
Boynton later became an assistant at Oklahoma State. In 2017, Oklahoma State promoted him to head coach.
In 2019, Young left Wofford to steer the Hokies.
“I was kind of frustrated for him because I thought he should have gotten an opportunity to be a Power Five head coach long before he did,” Boynton said. “I never imagined I would be a Power Five head coach before he was one.”
Sunday will mark the first time the two have squared off as head coaches.
They had arranged for their teams to meet in a two-game series that was supposed to begin with a December 2020 game in Oklahoma City. But that series was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic. Tech played an abbreviated schedule in the 2020-21 season because of the pandemic.
Sunday’s game between the Hokies (9-1) and Cowboys (6-3) is part of a Basketball Hall of Fame quadrupleheader at the Barclays Center. It is not part of a tournament. The game was organized by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; the coaches’ friendship was just a coincidence.
The Cowboys have lost to Southern Illinois, to Central Florida (in overtime) and at nationally ranked UConn (74-64) this season.
Sunday’s game marks Tech’s return to the Barclays Center, where the Hokies went 4-0 in March to win the ACC Tournament.
“Can’t wait to get back up there,” Young said after Wednesday’s win over Dayton.
Tech women to host UNC Asheville
The seventh-ranked Virginia Tech women’s basketball team (9-0) will host UNC Asheville (4-3) at 1 pm Sunday. The game will air on ACC Network Extra.
This will be Tech’s second annual autism-friendly game, featuring special seating and ear plugs for autistic fans; lowered volume levels for the public-address system; and an area in Cassell Coliseum that autistic fans can visit if they need a break from the game.
Tech star Elizabeth Kitley has an autistic sister.
Wrestling team to host Missouri
The ninth-ranked Virginia Tech wrestling team (0-1) will host seventh-ranked Missouri (2-1) at 4:30 pm Sunday. The match will air on ACC Network Extra.
Missouri boasts defending NCAA champ Keegan O’Toole, who is ranked No. 1 at 165 pounds. He will wrestle Connor Brady or Drew Nicholson.
Other matches of note include No. 15 Tom Crook of Tech against No. 6 Allan Hart at 141 pounds; No. 12 Caleb Henson of Tech against No. 9 Brock Mauler at 149; No. 3 Mekhi Lewis of Tech against No. 11 Peyton Mocco at 174; and Tech’s Andy Smith (Christiansburg) vs. No. 1 Rocky Elam at 197.
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