I know there have been many posts concerning our current situation.
Here are my thoughts;
1) We have endured many injures to our 3 best players this year.
2) Currently our 2 best players are out and we don't know when and if they will be back this year.
3) Jeff has made some coaching changes which are;
a) switching from man to man to zone defenses
b) subbing players in and out for offense and defense
c) timely using time outs at the end of the game
d) resting key players during key moments
These adjustments shows he is looking to offset for our 2 best players being out.
Yesterday's game showed how he gave our team the ability to tie or win this game.
For my money I think he is doing one heck of a coaching job.



GO BOBCATS

He's going to have to get a pass the rest of the season with Captain Chaos and Clayton down....but.....

1.) His career record against Akron/Toledo/Kent can't be ignored and it's atrocious.

2.) To go two consecutive years without having a BIG that can give us 25-30 solid minutes per game is unacceptable. Hell....I'll take 15-20 minutes from anyone 6'9 or taller that has athleticism. And I've had no issue with Vic. He wasn't brought here to start and play 25-20 minutes per game. He's been fine coming off the bench and better than what we had coming off the bench in that role the previous two seasons. It's just bad luck with the injuries that he now has to play a bigger role than what he was brought to Athens to do.

3.) Without breaking every signing class down, he seems to have more misses than hits. Looking at the current class....Evans is trending in the wrong direction. Nicol can't get on the floor with two guys out for a significant period of time. My guess is Nicol is on the first train to portal town as soon as Ohio's season is done. Looking at the next two classes of wings coming in, does anyone think Burris will break-through? He obviously gets a pass because of injury, so we'll find out about him next season.

I’m just going to repaste what I posted in the EMU thread about the subject.

It really just comes down to allocation of the budget he does have.

“According to this article, the average NIL budget for a mid-major is $291,667. Low majors are less than $100K. It also refers to mid-majors as the Missouri Valley, for example. Low majors are designated in the bottom third of KenPom rankings.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5644106/2024/07/18/colle... /

We were over $200K when I spoke with an AD member in the spring for this season. So, pending on how you view the MAC, we're right about where we were expected to be. Maybe a little lower, give or take.

Would more help? Yea, for sure. However, I don't think this is what's specifically hindering us rather than how we're choosing to allocate what we do have.”

I could be wrong, and maybe he needs to change his strategy moving forward, but I know for sure Boals considers players he recruits to be guys he's bringing in to become part of the family. Guys who are in it for the long haul (see: we've had generally fewer transfers out than many others). Another reason why he, along with many of the old school coaches, absolutely loathe the current climate in NCAA.

A big part of his recruiting strategy is going after guys who are good citizens, with good grades, from good families, who he's proud to bring into the Ohio family as representatives for our university for life.

I know this automatically eliminates a pool of players from the recruiting trail before it even begins - and my hunch is this is why he's not hopping all over the JUCO or international trains as a first option. Not saying you can't find hidden gems who can contribute on the floor and meet the above qualifications, just that it's more rare and thus hasn't been the top priority for a staff with limited time/budget constraints.

The team has been injured and missing major pieces all season.

You don't think an Ohio team with Pavs/Mitchell/Brown/Hadaway/Clayton as it's healthy starting 5 and a combo of Sheldon/Elliott/James/Searls off the bench isn't a top 1/2 team in the MAC? We'll never know because we never got to see it, but the only team that could even remotely hang with that team is Akron IMO.

You say the issues wouldn't be fixed by full health. The 2nd and 3rd best teams in the conference are Miami and Toledo - who we just lost to by 3 and 4, minus our best 2 players. To think we aren't better than them at full strength is either disingenuous or you're just pushing an agenda.

Boals isn't the 4th winningest coach in OU history, with an NCAA tourney win under his belt, because he doesn't know how to put a competitive team on the floor and/or coach them up into what he ultimately wants.

I think Boals is a solid coach. He wins a lot of games. I don't think he's consistently shown the ability to beat good teams, and I think it's a direct result of his recruiting. Look at his record against Akron, Toledo, and Kent. Those numbers make it pretty clear that he hasn't managed to consistently put teams on the floor who can beat the best teams in the league.

He'll end up getting a pass for this year because of the injuries. I suspect my take here is going to start to sound familiar over the next few years.

International players don't get NIL money, right?

Even 2x MVP Zach Edey didn't get the NIL $$ being from Canada?

I'm all for going the international route for a big guy, JUCO or regular. We might just end up with a damn good post player. In this case, the "try to recruit guys who remind me of my nephew" thing goes out the window.

If there is a 6-10/250 guy from (name of island nation here) averaging a double/double in one of those tough-as-nails JUCO leagues and he's not an academic mystery like (name of past player I won't name)... bring him on!!

Speaking of NIL $$, a Zips fan told me at the JAR during OUr game there that the Bobcats and Zips were in a bidding war for Isaiah Gray. From Cornell, would have fit the academic capability of a Boals player. Not sure at 6'3" with the need of size whether Mr. Gray could have meant a few wins for the Bobcats.

We were. I think Pav just beat Gray to the commitment punch. Pav committed to us on 4/17, Gray to Akron on 4/22.

Noboby can convince me that getting 3 guys from the same HS team is a good idea. I don't have time to research it, but I would love to see the examples of where this has worked well with even 2 guys from the same HS Team, much less 3. I would prefer we are at least getting the alpha's from each HS team we are recruiting from.

With the plethora of Talent that is out there at the HS and International Levels plus the transfer portal - there is no excuse to whiff this bad on recruiting. We aren't talking about 100 man football rosters here and there are a zillion kids playing basketball. Pulling 3 guys out of the same HS program reeks of laziness. I'm sorry, it needs to be said. Maybe it's a numbers game and you hope to hit on 1 of 3...but there has to be other talent out there past Rt 256.

Until Jeff wins with his guys instead of copying off Saul's paper - I'm going to remain a skeptic.

Romeo Travis and Dru Joyce were not the alphas for ASVSM. They had another guy. Name escapes me....

If only one were from Reynoldsburg and the other two came from Pick Central and Bishop Hartley, would this be a "problem"? Having seen Rey-burg in person and watched hudl footage weekly, these guys are studs. We need more athleticism and size on the wing positions. We need more good shooters. McKinney and Fisher absolutely fit the bill. Bowens looks the least polished of the trio, but also may have a high ceiling with his athleticism and he's still two years away. Maybe offering the Toledo verbal on the team was lazy as he appears to be the weakest of the bunch, but we have the luxury of not knowing that. If you're in the Columbus area and haven't seen them play, do yourself a favor. They're a front runner for the state title for a reason. I'm sorry, I don't see the problem with getting guys who look capable and live within two hours of our campus, especially when we hit Florida hard and have a guy from PA with D1 offers in three different sports.

Where I will acknowledge the recruiting lapse is that we might be going after too much of the same profile between Fisher, Kelly, Mosley, and Bowens. Maybe the reality is we need only one or two of those to be hits at minimum and we fill the roster with candidates. I remember a freshman class of big men in Washington, Nagtzaam, and Pearson and only one panned out. Or a freshman class of Zach Butler and Teyvion Kirk at the same position and neither panned out. We can load up with athletic wings as long as we adjust our play style... Akron is dominating our league and doesn't have a single player taller than 6'8''. But you still need a couple anchors who can rebound and defend at the rim. As it stands now, I don't see that profile on next year's roster and am perplexed this is not more of an emphasis with our high school recruiting. Kinda the same deal to a more severe degree with the women.

But to ignore capable talent on the basis of coming from the same high school? Nah.

Where did this idea that we only recruit a certain type of kid come from? Is Boals on record with that anywhere? It seems like a hypothesis a couple of folks here have thrown out, but I'm not sure I've seen enough evidence to think that we wouldn't welcome Gary Trent anymore.

Our best recruits always seem to be the ones who haven't played yet.

Last year at this time we were all talking about how Evans was the big we need.