On March 24, 2025, Javan Simmons announced he would be entering the transfer portal. At the time, Simmons had just finished his redshirt sophomore season at Toledo after losing in the second round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament to Akron.
The former MAC Freshman of the Year winner would announce that he would be transferring in-conference to Ohio two weeks later, on April 7.
The move was shocking at the time, especially considering that the Rockets had beaten Ohio in an overtime thriller that saw Simmons put up a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Simmons was not a huge fan of Ohio and its players, especially after battling with them for two years.
“I didn’t like Ohio, Ohio didn’t like me,” Simmons said. “I made it my absolute point to be disrespectful when I played.”
The disdain for Ohio from Simmons at the time is understandable, as Toledo and Ohio have been two of the best basketball programs in the MAC the last few years. However, the dislike goes back further. Ohio chose some other players out of high school the same year Simmons was coming out of Columbus-area Gahanna Lincoln.
“(I) met with (Lamar Thornton) a couple of times, and he was really recruiting me, but it kind of fell off,” Simmons said. “So I was kind of upset that they didn't recruit me out of high school and recruited other people.”
The move to Toledo worked for Simmons, as he redshirted his first year with the team before making his mark in a big way his first year on the floor, averaging 12.2 points per game and five rebounds per game en route to winning MAC Freshman of the Year.
That year would end in disappointment, as Toledo entered the MAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed just to lose to No. 8 Kent State in the first round.
Despite the sour ending to his first year on the court, he would follow that season up with another great one, putting up 12.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game in his redshirt sophomore year.
Toledo would come up short again in the tournament last year, losing to Akron after defeating Ohio, and Simmons knew it was time for a change.
“When you've been there three years, they don't want you to leave,” Simmons said. “I still love the coaches over there, but I just felt like I needed a change for me.”
Simmons was hesitant to transfer from one MAC school to another, but he eventually found his new home in Athens.
“At first, I wasn't even entertaining the idea of going back to the MAC,” Simmons said. “That's so frowned upon, like it's an even move. But I would say I'm having my best year as a basketball player.”
Now, with head coach Jeff Boals and the rest of the Ohio program, Simmons is currently averaging a career-high in points with 14.3, while shooting over 50% from the floor. He is also averaging 5.6 boards while being a menace defensively on the low block.
The change of schools has been great for his career, even with Simmons ironing out some kinks in different relationships he had with some people in the Ohio program.
Years of playing the same players from the days of youth and high school basketball in Columbus with guys like Ajay Sheldon, Vic Searls and AJ Clayton, and the two years of playing against Bobcats that weren’t from Ohio created tension.
“I told Ajay (Sheldon) the first thing I wanted to do when I got here was fight Aidan (Hadaway),” Simmons said. “I don't care what anybody's saying. If I see him, I'm fighting. I meant that.”
Luckily for the team, the promised scrap with Hadaway never happened, and now the two forwards who are often the big man pairing in the Ohio starting lineup are good friends and teammates.
“And once I got around him, I call him my twin now,” Simmons said. “That’s my dog.”
The change for Simmons has brought him improved relationships with teammates, coaches and a career-high scoring year for the forward.
Simmons also went on to gush about the campus at Ohio, as Athens has also provided him with a new change of scenery, literally speaking.
“It was an urban campus, so you didn't see much grass, (there was a lot of ) concrete,” Simmons said on the Toledo campus. “Here, (there’s) fresh air, trees, you can even tell with the deer running around. Stuff like that, it's cool … I never went fishing when I was at Toledo, (the) first week down here, (I was) fishing.”
Now nearing the end of his first season in Athens, Simmons is exactly where he wants to be.
“I couldn't ask for a better program,” Simmons said. “I feel like the coaches trust me, I trust them. I feel like it's been a blessing to even be here … I wanted to leave the state at first, and then I couldn’t turn this down.”
