Mike Boynton trashes rumors of Michigan tampering with players before national championship season: 'Complete bull****'

Last offseason, Michigan reeled in four players from the transfer portal: Yaxel Lendeborg, Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson and Aday Mara. Those same four players formed the most potent core in the country, and ultimately led the Wolverines to their first national title since 1989.

However, success doesn’t come without jealousy. Plenty of critics spewed hate at Michigan’s methods, accusing the program of tampering and other dirty schemes. In an interview with CBS Sports, Michigan assistant Mike Boynton disavowed these accusations.

“It’s nonsense,” Mike Boynton said. “I wish people would just write the truth. People are fairly envious of Dusty (May), and it’s because we’re doing this. The truth of the matter is, most of the people who are frustrated or angry or talking shit online are Michigan State fans, Ohio State fans, because Dusty came in and instead of trying his hardest to keep every player on an 8-24 team, he allowed the guys who wanted to leave to leave, and so then, what do you do?

“Who do you recruit to play at Michigan in April, six high school kids? No. So we went out and tried to be competitive (in the portal) and we were.”

Michigan was more than competitive. It was dominant. The Wolverines finished head coach Dusty May‘s second season at the helm with a 37-3 record. As excellent as Michigan was during the regular season, it only improved during March Madness.

Michigan won its six NCAA Tournament games by an average margin of 19 points per contest. Boynton believes the tampering narratives surrounding Michigan are lazy.

“People making up just complete bullshit lies about the guys we were trying to supposedly tamper with, like (Purdue guard) Braden Smith,” Boynton said. “The narrative was we were trying to recruit Braden Smith at the Big Ten Tournament last year.

“I’ll say this: If we could recruit Braden Smith and he went into the portal, we would, but we couldn’t recruit Braden Smith because you cannot get juniors into school at Michigan. And people just ran with it. They still run with it. It’s irresponsible. It’s sad, but because it’s a high enough profile name that it would draw attention, people are just lazy and go with it.”

Michigan doesn’t plan on backing down from its proven strategy. After the Wolverines hoisted the national championship trophy Monday night, Michigan assistant Akeem Miskdeen posted a photo of the staff checking out portal targets. The Wolverines don’t plan on their success slowing anytime soon.