Jeff Boals


Jeff Boals is the head coach of the Ohio Bobcats 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 before replacing Steve Pikiell as the head coach for the Stony Brook Seawolves for three years.

Playing career

A 1995 graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor of science degree in biological sciences, Boals was a four-year letterwinner on the Bobcats' basketball team. Also a two-year captain, he helped guide Ohio to a 1994 MAC regular season and tournament championship to send the Bobcats to the NCAA Tournament, the same season the program won the Preseason National Invitation Tournament. In the preseason NIT, the Bobcats notched road victories over Ohio State and Virginia before edging New Mexico State and George Washington 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 in West Virginia, where he stayed for three seasons before joining Marshall 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. He joined the coaching staff of Ohio State in 2009, led by Thad Matta, where he has been a part of three Big Ten Conference regular season titles, four NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearances, an Elite Eight, and a Final Four appearance in 2012. The Buckeyes' record was 193–62 with Boals as assistant coach. Boals recruited players such as D'Angelo Russell and Jared Sullinger to play for Ohio State.
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, second in the America East Conference. Boals led the Seawolves to the first 20-win season under his tenure in 2018–19. On March 17, 2019, Boals resigned from Stony Brook to accept a head coaching position at his alma mater Ohio University.Boals contract Ohio is for five years $581,100 yearly salary.

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.