Sandy Valley basketball icon Jeff Boals talks Bobcats, Buckeyes at Hall of Fame Luncheon Club

CANTON TWP. − Jeff Boals was recruiting a hot prospect.

The recruit's mom remembered something she heard about the leader of the Ohio Bobcats.

"You're the dancing coach!" she said.

Boals' kids tell him he is a bad dancer; his response nonetheless was, "That's me!"

He dances after victories, no matter how it looks. He'll take any recruiting edge he can get these days.

In a speech to the Hall of Fame Luncheon Club Monday, Boals spoke lovingly of his Sandy Valley roots and loathingly of the root canal effect of the transfer portal and "name, image, likeness (NIL)" market on college basketball.

He detailed headaches presented by turnstile transfers and nouveau riche NIL money. He scanned the audience and said, "Anybody want to be a coach?"

Boals, 51, might be the best basketball player Sandy Valley has seen. The conspicuously tall Magnolia native minimized his career.

As a Sandy Valley junior, he got dunked on by famed Gates Mills Hawken player O.J. McDuffie. As a senior, he missed a 12-footer that ended a chance to upset Youngstown Liberty.

"That shot haunts me to this day," he said.

Both moments came in regional tournament games at Canton Memorial Field House.

His Sandy Valley days were peppered by plenty of memorable moments en route to averaging 32 points as a senior, according to Steve Neisel, who introduced his former teammate to a crowd of 200 at Tozzi's on 12th.

"His basketball IQ," Neisel said, "was off the charts."

Boals seemed headed to a big-time college career. Surgery got in the way.

He blew out a knee in the North-South all-star game, forcing him into walk-on status at Ohio U.

He sat as a freshman and barely played as a sophomore before emerging as a two-time team captain. He helped the 1993-94 Bobcats beat UConn en route to a 25-8 record. He was a captain again the next year, which opened with wins over Ohio State and Virginia.

Teammate Gary Trent was a three-time MAC Player of the Year. At 6-foot-7, Boals was a foot taller than point guard Geno Ford.

His third of three major knee injuries ended his playing career. A biology major, he planned to be a physical therapist, influenced by his hard-knocks experience with knee rehabs.

Coaching found him. He was surprised to become an Ohio U graduate assistant. He went all in with a revised career path and soon concluded "head coach of the Bobcats" was his dream job.

He worked his way onto Thad Matta's staff at Ohio State and was with the Buckeyes for some of their best days since the Jerry Lucas era.

In consecutive years, starting with the 2009-10 season, Ohio State went 29-8, 34-3, 31-8 and 29-8. The roster included Jon Diebler, Jared Sullinger, Deshaun Thomas, William Buford and Aaron Craft.

The Ohio U job came open in 2012 when John Groce left to be head coach at Illinois.

"I didn't get it," Boals said. "I was crushed."

It opened again when Jim Christian left to be head coach at Boston College.

"I didn't get it again," Boals said. "I was crushed again."

He was in his 40s, running out of time to be a head coach anywhere, when he took over the Stony Brook Seawolves.

Stony Brook is an NCAA Division I program whose campus is on Long Island, about 50 miles from from Manhattan.

"It was beautiful," he said.

In his third season, 2018-19, the Seawolves went 24-9. The Ohio U job came open again with the firing of Saul Phillips after two 14-17 seasons.

"Finally, Ohio U called," he said. "At that point, neither my wife or our two kids wanted to go back to Ohio."

His parents, who were in the house Monday, were thrilled Ohio is where he landed. Boals said he has enjoyed "an awesome five years" in Athens.

His best season was 25-10 in 2021-22. His 2023-24 team went 20-13, falling 65-62 to Akron in the Mid-American Conference tournament semifinals. His overall record is 98-60.

He took over the Bobcats at the dawn of the transfer portal, whose wild-weed growth, combined with NIL money, has taken college team management from "crazy to crazier," he said.

After the 25-10 season, for example, star guard Mark Sears left for Alabama, where, in the recently completed season, he averaged 21.5 points for a team that made the final four.

On the flip side, the 2023-24 Bobcats' second-leading scorer was Shereef Mitchell, a transfer from Creighton.

"The portal and NIL has completely changed the dynamics of team-building," he said. "There's a lot of money flying around. A lot of times, kids are choosing schools for that.

"Now you have to worry about retaining your roster.

"Every day you have to stay on top of it, build relationships, stay in contact.

"Our two best players are returning. I think we have a chance to be really good next year."

NCAA Division I rules permit 13 scholarship players. Boals' spring roster includes 10 men in the fold, leaving three scholarships he'll figure out what to do with on the fly.

He declined to share specifics as to how Ohio U organizes NIL incentives.

"It's not huge on our level as it is at your Ohio States," Boals said. "That's a whole different ballgame. I would think that at the high major level, you would need $2 million-plus (as an NIL budget).

"Our roster last year, without going into details … there was a team in our league whose two best players doubled what my roster made. It's tough.

"It's not an even playing field. It's like Cleveland going against the Yankees. They're going to outbid you.

"The toothpaste is out of the tube. It's on the sidewalk. It's hard to put it back in.

"Right now, it's an open market."

Boals' son Chase has enrolled at Ohio U as a basketball walk-on. His daughter Sydney is a scholarship swimmer at Florida State.

He still follows the Buckeyes. In fact, he said he had agreed on two games against the Buckeyes, one in Columbus, one in Athens, when Chris Holtmann was head coach. Holtmann was replaced by Jake Diebler later this past season.

He is friendly with Diebler, but as to the Buckeyes playing a game at Ohio U, Boals said this is what he was told by the new coach:

"Holtman's not there any more."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Ohio basketball coach Jeff Boals speaks at Hall of Fame Luncheon Club