Arroyo Puerto Rico Classic<\/a>, he\u2019s confident in the depth of the upcoming team.<\/p>\n\u201cI thought on paper we had great depth, I\u2019m even a bigger believer in it after working with this team now for a couple months and we have to utilize that as a strength,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cWe need to be able to put pressure on other teams and wear them down a little bit with our defense. We need to be able to wear teams down with the pace we play offensively.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now entering his third season as head coach, Diebler returns two starters, brings in his highest-rated recruiting class and four transfers, all of which have two or more years of college basketball experience.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not afraid of the expectations, I\u2019m not afraid of the standard that is this program,\u201d Diebler said. \u201cIn fact, we\u2019re trying to take it up to the top and that\u2019s the mentality I want our guys to have.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are takeaways from McGuff on the women\u2019s basketball team\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ohio State returns four of five starters from last year\u2019s NCAA Tournament team, including last season\u2019s second-team All-American guard Jaloni Cambridge.<\/p>\n
McGuff explained his preference on keeping and building players in the program rather than looking in the portal to fill out the roster every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my preference to hang our hat on continuity,\u201d McGuff said, \u201cWe want the core of our team to be from people who come here and are here multiple years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025-26 team hosted a regional in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year, but the Buckeyes lost in the second round for the third straight season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McGuff said the team is set on breaking the trend and returning Ohio State to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it says a lot about them, that they want this for this program and their community,\u201d McGuff said. \u201cFor me, I just hope I\u2019ve helped them kind of reach their potential and do something special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of the few players the Buckeyes lost at the end of 2025, none were more significant than Chance Gray, who was drafted in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
McGuff said he looks for Kennedy Cambridge, who returns for her third season at Ohio State, to make a significant leap this upcoming season and fill the offensive void with Gray\u2019s departure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of people saw how good [Kennedy] is on the defensive end, but she also had a good offensive year,\u201d said McGuff, \u201cI think she\u2019s going to take a step on that end of the floor and be even more assertive as an offensive player here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ohio State will face Texas and UConn, who each made the Final Four last season, in its nonconference schedule to start the season.<\/p>\n
McGuff believes this competition will help them evaluate where they stand to start the year and help them as they look to make a sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe returned enough that we wanted to see where we measured up with some of the country\u2019s best programs,\u201d McGuff said, \u201cAs we look all the way towards the end of the season and given the opportunity to play in the postseason, we want to give ourselves the best chance possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ohio State women\u2019s basketball head coach Kevin McGuff (left) and men\u2019s basketball head coach Jake Diebler (right) during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":901000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,469541,469542,469543,469544,469545,197792,469546,469547,85],"class_list":["post-900999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-buckeyes-2026-27-basketball","tag-jake-diebler","tag-kevin-mcguff","tag-ohio-state-basketball","tag-ohio-state-hoops","tag-ohio-state-mens-basketball","tag-ohio-state-mens-and-womens-basketball","tag-ohio-state-womens-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/901000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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