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Just like old times, I went to Value City Arena on snowy weeknight in January and watched Ohio State women’s basketball toy with an overmatched Big Ten foe before winning handily.
It usually wasn’t Penn State (who used to actually be good), but that’s beside the point.
The 14th-ranked Buckeyes’ 108-84 win over the Lady Lions was a good one for the fans and for the coach because it gave both sides lots to think about.
Fans got to savor 17 three-pointers, enough to tie the program record, and Kevin McGuff got to say a 24-point win didn’t count toward his team showing improvement at this point in the season.
Fans have a lot to cheer, players stuff the stat sheet and the coach gets to go over lots of stuff in the film room the next day.
Win-win-win, right?
“In general I thought our offense was fantastic. The 32 assists are reflective of unselfish play and great execution. I do think our defense was really poor tonight and it’s disappointing coming off a week where I really think the difference in the Illinois and Maryland games was our half court defense in some really tough moments, and it looked like we regressed tonight.
Overall I’m happy with the win, happy with the offensive end of the floor but disappointed with our defensive effort.”
I’ve already written a couple of things about the men’s basketball Buckeyes, and they followed a similar theme: Jake Diebler’s team isn’t that bad, but it’s not that good, either. Much like 10 or 11 teams that came before them.
Well, McGuff’s team is also playing at its normal level, but in this case that’s a good thing for the most part.
His teams have won four Big Ten titles and made four Sweet 16s and an Elite Eight since he was hired in 2013 to replace Jim Foster, who dominated the Big Ten but had many troubles in March.
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Are these Buckeyes (16-2, 6-1 Big Ten) going to win the program’s first national title? Probably not.
Will they even win the Big Ten? I wouldn’t bet on it, but they are tied with Michigan and Michigan State one game back from UCLA and Iowa in the loss column so they’re firmly in the race.
The conference is much tougher than it was during Foster’s reign, but the Buckeyes are securely an NCAA Tournament team and also fun to watch.
They’ve got another star guard in sophomore Jaloni Cambridge, the reigning national player of the week, and a nice supporting cast in fellow guards Kennedy Cambridge (her older sister) and Chance Gray on the wings.
Another young guard, Ava Watson, had eight points, four assist and three steals in 20 minutes off the bench against the Lady Lions, and freshman Bryn Martin (Springboro grad and the Division I Player of the Year in Ohio last winter) is player to watch now and in the future.
But the backcourts have always been good under McGuff.
Ameryst Alston, Kelsey Mitchell, Jacy Sheldon, etc.
What about the bigs?
They appear to be emerging, too.
Kylee Kitts, a 6-4 stretch 4 from Florida, had a quiet night against the Lions but she had 18 points in the upset win at No. 8 Maryland on Sunday.
Wednesday it was Elsa Lemmila’s turn. The 6-6 sophomore from Finland had 21 points and four rebounds while having to contend with 6-6 fourth-year juinior Gracie Merkle of Penn State.
Merkle got 21 points and 11 rebounds, but that is a stalemate Ohio State will probably take given the way they struggled with size-able opponents last season.
“We’ve gotten better and part of that has been Elsa’s growth and development. She spent last summer mostly rehabbing surgery and just wasn’t really comfortable and ready to start the year playing at a level she was capable of and she’s gotten better every week and you can see that tonight. She’s lightyears from where she was at the beginning of the year, and I still think she’s a ways away from being who she’s capable of being. She’s really talented. She’s a great kid who’s working really hard and hopefully she can continue to grow and develop this year, and I think the sky’s the limit for her this year.”
McGuff has spoken in past years about getting his teams to peak at the right time.
It’s too early to say the Buckeyes are doing that — the right time would be about six weeks from now — but they are showing some signs.
“I think we’ve gotten a lot better. Take this game maybe out of it but Illinois and Maryland on the road, I don’t think we would have won those games a month ago. But we have gotten better. Our defense and rebounding have gotten better, and it wasn’t good tonight, so we’ve got to make sure we get back to being better in that space. We’ve shot the ball better recently so hopefully we can continue to do that. We’ve gotten better. I still think we can be a more consistent team, which can allow us to get closer to 40 minutes of playing the way we want to play.”
ESPN and Yahoo both rate them as a potential No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
That would mean going on the road for the first two rounds, but that’s a lot better than being a bubble team (like the OSU men) after expectedly losing senior guard Taylor Thierry to the WNBA and unexpectedly losing All-Big Ten forward Cotie McMahon to the transfer portal.
They get another shot at a top 10 win Monday when they face No. 10 TCU in Newark, N.J., as part of the Coretta Scott King Classic, then it’s back to the Big Ten grind when Indiana comes to town next Thursday.
How long can they extend this winning streak?
We’ll soon find out!
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