The Ohio men’s basketball team is currently looking to reload and field almost an entirely new roster for the 2026-27 season. Only three of the 12 scholarship players from last season are returning, leaving head coach Jeff Boals with a tall task to replicate the production from last season that will not be carried over.
The Bobcats have felt the effects of the infamous transfer portal in today’s college basketball landscape, but many key players are on their way out due to having no remaining college eligibility. Jackson Paveletzke, Aidan Hadaway, Ajay Sheldon, Dior Conners and Jalen Breath have all exhausted their eligibility.
The biggest losses are Paveletzke and Hadaway. Paveletzke led the team in both scoring and assists last season at 17.3 points and 5.4 assists per game. Hadaway contributed 14.4 points and led on the glass, securing 7.4 rebounds per game.
Hadaway spent his whole four-year career with the team, and Paveletzke joined in the 2024-25 season from Iowa State University. Replacing that type of sustained leadership in the transfer portal era is not easy in the slightest.
The three returners from last season’s team are standout big man Javan Simmons, a redshirt senior, and two redshirt sophomores, Kiir Kuany and Jesse Burris. Simmons contributed 15.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game last season. Boals retaining the man in the middle for next season is crucial.
Kuany showed strong defensive promise in limited minutes last season, and his 6-foot-9-inch frame and eye-popping athleticism could provide value for the Bobcats next season. Burris only appeared in 24 of 32 games but could become a more common rotational piece in 2026-27.
Freshmen JJ Kelly and Jordan Fisher, and sophomores Ayden Evans and Elijah Elliott, all entered the transfer portal. Kelly, who committed to the University of Texas at San Antonio May 1, is the most impactful of these losses. He posted impressive numbers of 8.6 points per game on 52% shooting from the field and 33% from beyond the arc last season.
Elliott found himself sidelined with an injury for most of last year's season, so his jump to the portal looks to be a fresh start back in his home state of Florida after a slow first couple of years in Athens. Fisher and Evans played minimal minutes in the 2025-26 season, and this move was to look for more opportunities elsewhere. Fisher still has not committed to a program for next year, while Evans is heading to the University of Maine for his final two years of eligibility.
To begin constructing the new roster, Boals secured commitments from guards Kolton Mitchell from the University of Idaho and Kyler D’Augustino from IU Indianapolis. These two are high-octane scorers, averaging 13.7 and 18.5 points per game last season, respectively. They’re strong pickups to attempt to fill the shoes of Paveletzke and Sheldon.
D’Augustino is a Southeast Ohio native, homegrown in Albany, Ohio.
“Kyler grew up a Bobcat, and it is great to bring him home,” Boals said to Ohio Athletics. “He’s a tough guard who can score in multiple ways. Kyler will bring a big following to The Convo.”
Boals also dove into the international market for three more additions. Bosnian 21-year-old forward Dusan Makitan, 23-year-old Belgian forward Siebe Ledegen and 19-year-old Australian guard Che Brogan are all headed to Athens.
Brogan is a steady floor general who adds much-needed playmaking to a shot-heavy backcourt of D’Augustino and Mitchell. He averaged 13.4 points and 4.2 assists per game last season overseas.
Makitan is a 6-foot-8-inch forward who posted averages of 15.2 points and 10.2 rebounds per game in 2025-26 playing for Borac-WWIN in Bosnia. He adds even more size and rebounding prowess to a strong frontcourt pair of Simmons and Kuany.
The experienced forward Ledegen boasts a sturdy 6-foot-7-inch frame and averaged 12.8 points per game on a 41% clip from three-point range last season in the Belgian Pro League.
Adding that combination of age, size and shooting ability makes Ledegen a key pickup.
Ohio is not done yet in the portal, and is still looking to reload as it aims to replace the lost production as effectively as possible. It’s not easy for any team to go through an offseason full of the transfer portal and NIL battles, but Boals surely fields a competitive Bobcats team yet again.
