Updated June 16, 2025
Lee Martin joined the men's basketball staff in July 2020 and handles player personnel duties. In his first season on the sideline for Ohio, the Bobcats won the MAC Tournament in the 2020-21 season and knocking off Virginia, the defending national champions, in the first round.
In 2024-25, Martin helped coach four Bobcats to All-MAC honors. AJ Clayton and Jackson Paveletzke earned Third Team nods, Shereef Mitchell was tabbed Honorable Mention and Elijah Ellott was named to the All-Freshman squad. Clayton was also named the Lou Henson National Player of the Week and Oscar Robertson National Player of the Week throughout the season. Mitchell and AJ Brown were also named Academic All-MAC, while Paveletzke earned a spot on the Academic All-District squad.
During the 2023-24 season, the Bobcats finished third in the MAC in the regular season and advanced to the MAC Semifinals for the fourth-straight year and his second 20-win season. Martin helped coach Jaylin Hunter and Clayton to All-MAC honors, while Hunter earned NABC All-District, Academic All-MAC and NABC Honors Court Recognition. The entire Bobcats squad earned the NABC Team Academic Excellence Award. He also coached Hunter, Elmore James and Mitchell to MAC Player of the Week honors.
During the 2022-2023 season, Martin helped coach Dwight Wilson III to All-MAC and NABC honors and Jaylin Hunter earned All-MAC Honorable Mention. A.J. Brown and Elmore James were named to the All-Freshman Team. Wilson and Ben Roderick were named Academic All-MAC, while Roderick earned a spot on the CSC Academic All-District Team.
In 2021-22, Ohio finished the season with 25 wins and a trip to the CBI Quarterfinals. Ben Vander Plas, Jason Carter and Mark Sears earned All-MAC and NABC All-District Honors, while Sears was named a Lou Henson Award Finalist. Vander Plas, Carter, Ben Roderick and Tommy Schmock earned a spot on the Academic All-MAC Team, while Vander Plas was named an Academic All-American for the second-straight year and was named the Division I Men's Basketball Academic All-America® of the Year.
2020-21 saw Ohio return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years. Ohio won the MAC Tournament after defeating Buffalo, 84-69. In the NCAA Tournament, the Bobcats took down the defending national champion Virginia Cavaliers, 62-58, inside Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana.
Boals coached point guard Jason Preston, who was selected 33rd overall by the Orlando Magic and then acquired by the LA Clippers in the 2021 NBA Draft. Preston - Ohio's 20th Bobcat to be drafted - was Ohio's first NBA draft pick since 2003. Preston was named MAC Tournament MVP, First-Team All-MAC, Academic All-MAC and was a Lou Henson Award Finalist.
Joining Preston on All-MAC teams were Dwight Wilson III and Ben Vander Plas, who were All-MAC Third Team. Meanwhile, freshman guard Mark Sears (Muscle Shoals, Ala.) was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team, while sophomore guard Lunden McDay (Akron, Ohio) was named to the MAC All-Defensive Team.
In 2021, Ben Vander Plas was named 2020-21 Academic All-America, Ohio's first since Dave Jamerson in 1990. Vander Plas was joined by Preston, Ben Roderick and Dwight Wilson III on the Academic All-MAC team.
Martin joined the Bobcats after serving as head coach of the Hargrave Military Academy basketball program since 2017. Prior to that, Martin served as associate head coach for two seasons and assistant coach for two years before that under current Eastern Kentucky head coach A.W. Hamilton.
Martin finished his Hargrave career with a 113-12 overall record in three seasons, during which the program's home winning streak surpassed 100-straight wins. His winning percentage at Hargrave (.904) puts him in exclusive company with former Hargrave head coaches -- current NC State head coach Kevin Keatts and current Eastern Kentucky head coach A.W. Hamilton. Martin's teams advanced to the National Tournament every year of his tenure, including an Elite Eight appearance in 2019 and a Final Four appearance in 2020. Under his watch, Hargrave broke the school record for points in a single game with a staggering 173 points scored on March 1, 2019. Martin's teams finished in the top-four of the final national poll in each year of his tenure.
Martin also sustained success of advancing his players on to the Division I level. In his three years as head coach, 28 of his players went on to play at the NCAA Division I level. During his entire seven-year career at Hargrave, he played a role in 69 players continuing on to play Division I basketball, including nine that were ranked as top 100 recruits.
Martin was a standout athlete before beginning his coaching career. He starred at North Surry High School, earning an all-conference nod three times and ranking in the top 10 all-time with 1,244 points scored, before enrolling at Hargrave for a post-graduate year in 2009. Martin played under then-head coach Keatts and then-assistant coach Hamilton, helping guide the Tigers to a 27-2 record and an appearance in the National Championship game.
Martin went on to play his college career at Catawba College, where he helped lead the team to a conference championship and NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2009-10 season and was named team MVP following the 2012-13 season. Martin was inducted into the North Surry High School Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.
Martin and his wife Meredith reside in Athens and have two daughters.
