Stony Brook names Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals as head coach

Stony Brook will officially name Ohio State Buckeyes assistant coach Jeff Boals as its head coach at a press conference Monday. He will replace Steve Pikiell who moved on to take the head job at Rutgers.

Boals comes to the Seawolves after seven years as an assistant to Thad Matta in Columbus. During that time, he helped the team to reach the postseason in every year, three Big 10 titles, and a Final Four appearance in 2012.

During that time, he was influential in the recruiting of many of the Ohio State top players, including Jared Sullinger, D'Angelo Russell and Aaron Craft. This continued his history of landing top players where he has worked. During his time as an assistant at Akron, he helped bring in Zeke Marshall and Anthony Hitchens.

Altogether he has 16 years of experience coaching at the Division 1 level, including stops at Robert Morris and Marshall, and received high praise from his former boss, Akron head coach Keith Dambrot:

"The first thing about Jeff is that he's won everywhere he's been," Dambrot said in a release. "I like to think of Jeff as a diversified coach. He's a terrific recruiter, understands in-game strategy and is relentless. He has a chip on his shoulder like one of my former assistants, Shaka Smart."

Boals played basketball at Ohio University, making the NCAA Tournament with the team in 1994, and helping the team to the preseason NIT title in 1995.

He will have to get started on the recruiting trail early as he has to replace one of the best players in America East history in Jameel Warney. In addition, he loses major contributors Carson Puriefoy and Rayshaun McGrew from this year's NCAA Tournament team.