Jeff Boals (born September 5, 1972) is the head coach of the

Ohio Bobcats The Ohio Bobcats are the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I Intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio University, located in Athens, Ohio, United States. Ohio University is a charter member (1946) of the Mid-Ame ...

men's basketball team. Boals spent seven years as an assistant coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball team under the tutelage of

Thad Matta Thad Michael Matta (born July 11, 1967) is an American college basketball coach and the current head coach of the Butler Bulldogs men's basketball team. From 2004 to 2017, Matta led the Ohio State Buckeyes to five Big Ten Conference regular seas ...

. In his first head coaching job, he replaced Steve Pikiell as the head coach for the Stony Brook Seawolves for three years.

Playing career

A 1995 graduate of

Ohio University Ohio University is a public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confederation and subseq ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in biological sciences, Boals was a four-year letterwinner on the Bobcats' basketball team. Also a two-year captain, he helped guide

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

to a

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MAC regular season and tournament championship to send the Bobcats to the NCAA tournament, the next season the program won the Preseason National Invitation tournament. In the preseason NIT, the Bobcats notched road victories over

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

and

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before edging

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...

and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

at Madison Square Garden. Boals suffered a torn ACL in his senior year of college that ended his playing career.

Coaching career

Boals landed his first coaching job as an assistant coach at his alma mater after graduating. He then took an assistant coaching job at the

University of Charleston The University of Charleston (UC) is a private non-profit university with its main campus in Charleston, West Virginia. The university also has a location in Beckley, West Virginia, known as UC-Beckley. History The school was founded in 1888 as ...

in West Virginia, where he stayed for three seasons before joining

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as an assistant coach from 1999 to 2003. Boals returned to Charleston as the associate head coach, for one season before jumping back to the Division I ranks with Robert Morris, then to

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...

. He joined the coaching staff of Ohio State in 2009, led by

, where he was a part of three

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

regular-season titles, four NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances, an Elite Eight, and a Final Four appearance in

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. The Buckeyes' record was 193–62 with Boals as assistant coach. Boals recruited players such as

D'Angelo Russell D'Angelo Danté Russell (born February 23, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was selected as a McDonald's All-American in 2014 and played college ba ...

and

Jared Sullinger Jared Sullinger Sr. (born March 4, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Shenzhen Leopards of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA). He played college basketball for Ohio State University before being drafted 21st overall ...

to play for Ohio State.

Stony Brook

On April 8, 2016, Boals was named the 11th head coach in Stony Brook men's basketball history, and its third since moving to Division I. In Boals' first season as head coach, the Seawolves finished 18–14 (12–4), second in the

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research ...

. Boals led the Seawolves to their first 20-win season under his tenure in 2018–19 after which they earned a bid to the CBI.

Ohio

On March 17, 2019, Boals resigned from Stony Brook to accept a head coaching position at his alma mater, Ohio University. Boals' contract with Ohio is for five years, with a $581,100 yearly salary. The Bobcats went 17–15 in Boals first season with Ohio. Following the 2019–2020 season, the MAC tournament was cancelled due to the start of the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...

. The next season Boals lead his 2020–21 team to a 17–8 record including 3 wins in the MAC tournament. They received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as the No. 13 seed in the West region. There they upset No. 4-seeded

in the first round before falling to No. 5-seeded Creighton in the second round. The Bobcats were led in the tournament by their point guard

Jason Preston Jason Preston (born August 10, 1999) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Ohio Bobcats men's basketball, Ohio Bobcats. High s ...

who declared for the NBA draft where he was the 33rd pick and acquired by the

Los Angeles Clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

His 2021–22 team opened with a school best 19-3 record but struggled down the stretch to finish 25–10.

Head coaching record

*Boals left for Ohio prior to the 2019 CBI and did not coach in the Seawolves' games.
** MAC tournament had to stop due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

References

External links

Ohio Bobcats coaching bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Boals, Jeff Living people Akron Zips men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Ohio Basketball players from Ohio Charleston Golden Eagles men's basketball coaches Marshall Thundering Herd men's basketball coaches Ohio Bobcats men's basketball coaches Ohio Bobcats men's basketball players Ohio University alumni Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball coaches People from Magnolia, Ohio Robert Morris Colonials men's basketball coaches Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball coaches 1972 births