You can make the argument that Toledo semifibal game was the most pivotal in Boals' tenure (IMO this was also BVP's best game in his Ohio career).

Keep in mind also that the Kent quarterfinals game, they were down one or two starters.

He's 500 against Kent. That's not even bad. That's good.

Akron and Toledo haven't been as nice, but they've been the top 2 schools outside of us during his tenure. Compare ANY coach to the top teams in their league and check their records.

Toledo is really the only "outlier" and it's just weird bc they dominate us home and away. But if Jeff was 4-6 against Toledo instead of 1-9, nobody would be saying anything.

So yes, let's judge a coach based on 3 games over 6 years and look past the overall record (body of work) and success in March.

That's a great way to run good coaches out of town.

I agree. Imagine if that one Toledo win did not happen and we could be sitting here potentially six seasons into the Boals era with zero MAC Tournament Championship game appearances? Conversation on here would be interesting.

Akron/Toledo/Kent record against Ohio under Boals: 24-11 .686
Akron/Toledo/Kent record against rest of MAC: 219-88 .713

Only 4 teams have winning MAC records in league since 2019 including the tournament:
Akron 85-28 .752 / 8-2 in tournament
Toledo 83-31 .728 / 5-4 in tourney
Kent 75-40 .652 / 8-3 in tourney
Ohio 68-42 .618 / 7-3 in tourney

Boals has 4th best league record overall, 3rd best tournament record, and is 1st in NCAA wins.

He's also now 6th on Ohio's all-time wins list with 111, and 4th on Ohio's all-time winning percentage list at .607 (behind only Finsterwald .850, Christian .690 and Nee .615).

Jeff's home winning percentage is 2nd in Ohio history at .814, behind only Finsterwald's 1.000 going 22-0.

You’re just going to have to let the folks who think it’s a good thing to decide for themselves. There’s a lot of straw grasping right now. The Virginia win becomes less relevant and less of an argument with each passing year that continues to trend in the wrong direction.

Miami is ascending in the right direction and UMass joins the MAC next season. The argument for being among the top 4 could very well turn into the top 6 moving forward. Then what?

The home winning record is irrelevant when you consider who we bring into play in the early part of the season. Muskingum, Defiance, UC Clermont, Heidelberg and Rio Grande all come to mind.

This year isn't even done with so not sure how you can judge anything about it. Is this year a failure if we win the championship in Cleveland? How about lose in the finals? I'd call both a resounding success.

If we get the 3 seed and draw Ball St and Miami in first 2 rounds I think it's distinctly possible if not probable.

Even as a 4 seed, the toughest part would be Kent in round 1, but then getting by Toledo in the semis is a very winnable game given their historical tournament issues.

FWIW I don't think anybody is beating Akron.

But to answer your question, given our limitations based on geography, academics and budgets - I choose to grade Boals against his peers as prior HC at OU. That's the apples to apples comparison.

I also understand that success in college basketball is about competing for national championships, which means in a 1-bid league that nothing matters but March.

Sure the rest of the games matter insomuch as they are preparation for health, comraderie, momentum, and seeding for Cleveland. But that's it.

Jim Snyder made 7 NCAAs in 26 years.
Dale Bandy had 0 in 6 years.
Danny Nee had 2 in 7 years.
Billy Hahn had 0 in 3 years.
Larry Hunter had 1 in 12 years.
Tim O'Shea had 1 in 7 years.
John Groce had 2 in 4 years.
Jim Christian had 0 in 2 years.
Saul Phillps had 0 in 5 years.
Jeff Boals has 1 in 4 years (no tourney COVID year).

Historically that's 14 appearances in 74 years. That's 1 appearance every 5.3 years on average.

Only Snyder, Groce and Nee have more appearances or less time between appearances.

I think it's safe to say Snyder was the best ever with John Groce a clear #2.

Danny Nees career record was 107-67 .615. His 107 wins ranks 7th all time at OU.
His 615 winning pct ranks 3rd behind Finsterwald and Christian.

Jeff Boals career record is 111-72 .607.
His 111 wins ranks 6th all time.
His 607 winning pct ranks 4th.

If Boals gets to the NCAAs one more time in the next 3 seasons including this one he matches Nees rate there too.

Their career performance has been eerily similar and you can argue the case for either as #3 or #4 in OU history in NCAA era.

So sure if you want to talk about firing the equivalent of Danny Nee because you don't like his regular season record against Toledo, just know what you're asking for.

My expectations for our program are that we are annually one of the top 4 teams in the conference, have an expectation of making the conference semis every year, conference finals every 2-4 years. An NCAA appearance every 5 years and a win or two in the dance every couple appearances.

If you expect more than that, fine. I'm all for it. Just show me the 7 figure sack of money you're bringing to the table eacj year to make it happen.

You may want to look on the other thread on this topic where OCF made the same comment. Until Snyder got hot, he play an awful lot of OAC schools and some non-schools

I consider our geography, academics an budget all LIMITING factors for our success.

Athens is a small town, in rural SE Ohio, with zilch for large cities or business $$.
Within 1 hour you have - nothing (Parkersburg 28k and Lancaster 41k don't count)
Within 2 hours you have - Columbus metro 2.2M (wholly behind O$U) and Charleston 46k
WIthin 3 hours you have - Dayton metro 754k (UD and WSU), Cincinnati metro 1.8M (UC and X plus UD/Miami/O$U/UK/Louisville), Akron/Canton metro 698k (Akron and Kent), Wheeling 25k and Morgantown 31k (WVU).

That's access to like a TOTAL of 150k in population within 3 hours with loyalty/rooting interest in the Bobcats to stir up business and sponsorships.

We all know our budget limitations, so I won't hit that dead horse.

And yes academics, both from a university standpoint for admissions as well as our staff preferences - limits the pool of players we can/want to go after.

What are you actually saying in this post? It makes no sense to me at all.

Sorry, but can somebody explain to me how this has become accepted doctrine here? We're a top 200 national university; we're not the highest rated national university in our conference, and we accept 85% of applicants. We can get any basketball player who wants to come here accepted.

Sure, but the idea that our academics somehow are a hindrance athletically seems off to me. We're not a particularly hard school to get into and if we want a guy, we can pretty much always get him accepted.