I've been thinking about the situation Boals is in right now, and how the opinions on this board seem to be a bit wishy-washy regarding his long-term future as our coach. I wanted to give a letter grade to each of his 6 years at the helm thus-far, and compare it to Saul Phillips' 5-year tenure which we all know didn't end in a lifetime marriage. Obviously this is completely subjective--better minds will certainly disagree!--but figured it would be an interesting exercise nonetheless. Anyway...


Jeff Boals:

Year 1: Makes the MAC tournament as an 8-seed after major roster reset, with the emergence of sophomores Preston and BVP as all-MAC caliber players. Covid cancels the tournament after the first round as we are rounding into form (Grade: A)
Year 2: Team hiccups a bit in the early conference season, but rallies to win the MAC tournament and upset Virginia in a wacky Covid-shortened season (Grade: A)
Year 3: Incredible first 2/3 of the season behind the three-headed monster of Sears, BVP, and Carter, followed by a brutal collapse in February and March (Grade: B)
Year 4: Lose our 3 best players from the previous season, but turn around and get big years out of Jaylin Hunter and, in particular, Dwight Wilson. 5-seed in the MAC tournament; lose in semis (Grade: B-)
Year 5: Similar to Year 4 in terms of the hodgepodge of players, but a bit more of a steady improvement at the end of the season. Probably the least talented bunch on paper since Year 1. Again fall in the semis, this time as a 3-seed (Grade: B+)
Year 6: Pre-season MAC favorite that consistently underperforms and ends up as a 5-seed with a .500 record. Out in quarterfinals (Grade: D)


Saul Phillips*:

Year 1: Inherits a team with 2 pro-level forwards in Mo and Campbell, only to play through the Bean/Stevie combo en route to a 10-win season. Plus, fights in the locker room. Yikes! (Grade: F)
Year 2: Campbell emerges as MAC PoTY, Simmons and Kaminski are the real deal as transfers, and we make a giant turnaround to snag the 2-seed (Grade: A-)
Year 3: Very promising non-con and early conference start, only to be struck down with Campbell's injury. We rally the troops with Carter's rapid emergence, and again finish as a 2-seed with a trip to the MAC semis (Grade: A)
Year 4: Much like Jeff's Year 4, a major roster overhaul with all the best players graduating/leaving. Insane amount of injuries + lack of talent lead to a bottom-3 finish in the MAC and first-round exit (Grade: D)
Year 5: Similar to Year 4, but with a bit better talent available (Preston, BVP). Have some decent non-con results but end in the same position as the previous year (Grade: D-)


In short, I am certainly not for firing Boals anytime soon, as I'd say it's only this past season where he's clearly underperformed. However, it does feel a bit like the offseason after Saul's 4th year, where the next year becomes critical for the coach's future. I think Boals is a little safer than Saul was then, given the NCAA win and the fact that he doesn't appear to be on a contract year.

If we rebound next year, get a top 2 seed in the MAC and/or at least make the title game, I think he's safe for a bit longer. If it's another D-grade season, however, there will be real calls to make a change.

*Interesting side note here that certainly didn't help Saul's case. He never pulled an upset in postseason. 3 first-round exits as the lower seed, 2 semifinal upsets suffered as the higher seed. In contrast, Boals has pulled 4 upsets while suffering none.

I think Saul should at least get an asterisk along with that fifth year D grade as that team and recruiting class became the core of Boals best years.

Who knows what Saul would have done with that bunch, but he at least got them to campus. The key to recruiting is getting a core of players as freshmen/sophomores and building them into contenders.

He at least got the core. Which has been a bit elusive under Boals ... although it must be recognized the Portal era we are living in makes getting and keeping a core class extremely difficult.

I think comparing these guys are apples to oranges for 2 reasons. Covid and NIL.

Both of those factors completely disrupted the college hoops world and introduced many new factors that Boals had/has to continue to maneuver that Saul did not.

Nooo no. Wait just a minute. I've been told non-stop from the board gurus that in today's era you don't have time to "build them into contenders". You either produce at starter caliber as a freshman or hit the bricks jack. We should be reloading with half a dozen transfers, who all start, every year. If the coach can't do that then be gone with him.

As usual, disingenuous and moving the goalposts. Last night you tried to pass off the second worst per 40 rebounding numbers for an Ohio big in 20 years as "solid."

Nobody is saying we can't develop players. We can and should. But we are being rational and realistic about the likelihood of certain guys developing, while you're explaining why Ben Nicol still has upside and the second worst per 40 rebounding numbers from an Ohio big in 20 years is a good thing.

Reading through those grades I'm almost under the belief that Year 3 for Boals was worse than this past season, given the talent we had on hand with Sears, BVP and Carter. There's absolutely no reason for losing those last two games at BG and NIU, two teams that finished a combined 12-28 in MAC play. I think we still end up playing Kent State in the MAC tournament semis, but you feel a lot better about it.

How many MAC teams have had an eventual first team All-American on the roster, I wonder?

And we lost twice to Toledo (by 18 and 15), at Kent State by 23, and those two had the two bad losses down the stretch that you mentioned. You also have Lunden McDay leaving the team.

A B grade seems pretty generous to me.