The 2017-18 season for Ohio State women\u2019s basketball featured program legends who led the team to a sweep of Big Ten hardware. Kelsey Mitchell, Stephanie Mavunga, and Linnae Harper led the Buckeyes until the home upset to Central Michigan in the NCAA Tournament\u2019s Second Round.<\/p>\n
The trio went from the Buckeye ranks into the WNBA, and Ohio State went from a 28-7 team to a 14-15 record in the 18-19 season. Understandably, the Buckeyes were unranked to start the 19-20 season. On Tuesday, for the first time in six years, Ohio State again started a season unranked.<\/p>\n
Associated Press voters kept the Scarlet and Gray out of the top 25. Instead, seven Big Ten teams made the rankings, led by the UCLA Bruins at No. 3 and Maryland Terrapins at No. 10. Overall, Ohio State is the eighth-ranked Big Ten team according to the weekly vote, sitting at No. 27 with 46 votes, while the Washington Huskies sit at No. 26 with 79.<\/p>\n
Rankings help when it comes to strength of schedule and accumulating key wins. Fortunately for Ohio State, the Big Ten schedule gives ample opportunities for the Buckeyes to quickly build a resume deserving of a spot in March Madness.<\/p>\n
However, what does the lack of preseason ranking say about the team and what fans should expect?<\/p>\n
Before Tuesday, the metric for predicted success for the Buckeyes came in the form of the Big Ten preseason vote and ESPN\u2019s own top-25 rankings. Coaches and media, including Land-Grant Holy Land, voted Ohio State at No. 5 in the conference.<\/p>\n
ESPN left out Ohio State, like the AP voters.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou follow football closely,\u201d said McGuff at Big Ten media day. \u201cYou can see we\u2019re No. 1 and No. 2 preseason are right now. So things change, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Ohio State did lose forward Cotie McMahon to the transfer portal and Taylor Thierry to the WNBA ranks, two of the Buckeyes\u2019 most consistent players over the last three and four years, respectively, point guard Jaloni Cambridge returns for a second season.<\/p>\n
The guard received a spot on the First Team All-Big Ten last season and earned a Freshman of the Year award, voted on by Big Ten media. Head coach Kevin McGuff surrounded Cambridge with skill players who can shoot from deep.<\/p>\n
Chance Gray no longer has to carry the weight of Ohio State\u2019s three-point game. T\u2019Yana Todd, who led the ACC in three-point percentage last season, transferred from Boston College in the offseason. Then there are two deep shooting freshmen in Dasha Biriuk and Bryn Martin.<\/p>\n
In the paint, the Buckeyes have 6-foot-6 center Elsa Lemmil\u00e4 and 6-foot-4 forward Ella Hobbs, who give Ohio State its strongest post presence since Dorka Juh\u00e1sz left the program in 2021.<\/p>\n
Then add another year of outstanding defender Kennedy Cambridge, slated for more minutes and impact, and positive reports out of offseason practice from Florida Gator redshirt freshman transfer Kylee Kitts, and there is promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe like our team and we like the young women in our locker room, and they like each other, and so you know where we\u2019re at at the end of the year, I\u2019m not sure,\u201d said McGuff. \u201cI do like our team, and I think we\u2019ve got a lot of potential to get a lot better than we already are right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
That does not mean there aren\u2019t questions. What happens if the shots don\u2019t fall? How will a new group of Buckeyes (five out of 11 on the roster did not play a minute for Ohio State last season) come together to bring coach McGuff\u2019s full-court press to life?<\/p>\n
Ask Jaloni Cambridge and Gray about it, and they feel differently than their head coach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s ever happened to me, being left out of the top-25 going into a season,\u201d said Gray about ESPN\u2019s top-25 rankings. \u201cSo I think that\u2019s just harder go to work for us and play with something to prove, like a chip on our shoulder.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201dI think we do feel a little disrespected that we aren\u2019t in the top 25,\u201d said Cambridge. \u201cWe have a point to prove, and we will prove that. I\u2019m just excited. I\u2019m so ready for the season start. If it started tomorrow, I\u2019m ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the nature of AP rankings and early-season upsets, Ohio State\u2019s absence might not last too long. The first two games of the season are against mid-major sides Coppin State and Bellarmine. Struggle in those matchups, and it spells a potentially rough season in Columbus. Win big, and there is still a trip to Connecticut to face the defending national champions on Nov. 16.<\/p>\n
Either way the games fall, the answers will come on the court starting Nov. 9. Will Ohio State prove the voters wrong or justify the uncertainty surrounding the Scarlet and Gray?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2017-18 season for Ohio State women\u2019s basketball featured program legends who led the team to a sweep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,37760,99],"class_list":["post-226606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-ohio-state-womens-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}