Underwood’s coaching staff taking shape in Stillwater
STILLWATER — New Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood clearly sought some level of familiarity in filling his staff. But he sought recruiters, too.
Underwood’s full-time assistant spots appear filled, with reports that he’s hired Danny Henderson from Boise State. The hiring of Lamont Evans off the South Carolina staff was announced earlier this week and the hiring of Mike Boynton off his previous staff at Stephen F. Austin was announced Wednesday.
Both Henderson and Boynton jetted into Stillwater on Wednesday to finalize the details of their contracts and to prepare for an important upcoming task: recruiting, which goes
John Helsley
active Thursday through Sunday, before a brief dead period April 11-14.
For these Cowboys coaches playing catch-up, it’s a critical time. And it’s an immediate opportunity to make an impression.
Underwood worked alongside Evans at Kansas State and South Carolina and took Boynton with him from South Carolina to SFA. Henderson won big as a high school coach in Texas, which included back-to-back Class 5A championship runs with Phil Forte and Marcus Smart at Flower Mound Marcus High.
All three offer intriguing elements as recruiters — Henderson with a knowledge of the Dallas area, where the Cowboys have long plucked prominent players; Boynton, a Brooklyn native, with connections back east through stints as an assistant at not only South Carolina, but also Wofford and Coastal Carolina; and Evans’ reach extending overseas, through his time spent playing internationally with professional teams in Slovenia, Germany, Finland, Belgium and Venezuela.
“He’s got connections all over the United States and really the world, having spent so many years abroad,” Underwood said of Evans. “The world, literally, is his strength in terms of recruiting. He’s developed contacts everywhere.
“Having worked alongside him, having known him since he started out as sort of a student-assistant position with us at Kansas State and watching him grow through the business, knowing how he interacts with players, his days as a professional overseas and how he can help our players in individual workouts and on the court and off the court were all things I liked.
“Then you throw in the recruiting aspect and it’s a home run for myself and OSU basketball.”
Boynton was considered a candidate to replace Underwood at SFA before that job went to Kyle Keller, the former OSU staffer who had been working as an assistant at Texas A&M.
Henderson joined the Boise State staff prior to the 2013-14 season, following a run as a prep coach in the state of Texas that dates back to the 1980s.