LGHL Jaloni Cambridge feels “right at home” with Ohio State women’s basketball
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Jaloni Cambridge feels “right at home” with Ohio State women’s basketball
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
The Ohio State University Athletic Department
The No. 2 overall 2024 recruit joining the Buckeyes stretches far beyond a familial bond
College basketball season is fast approaching and Land-Grant Holy Land is here to get you ready. Before the season starts this fall, check back regularly for player previews, schedule news, features, and more heading into the 2024-25 Ohio State women’s basketball season.
There’s a hard truth when it comes to college sports. The student athletes competing on national television, streaming on ESPN and popping up in daily social media scrolling are 18-years-old.
A small percentage of people directly out of high school compete at the NCAA level. Should you be over 18, especially those where it’s been a while since the teens were part of the conversation, it’s hard to remember what it's like to be 18 years old.
Now, imagine you’re one of those rare 18-year-olds who make it to college sports. Narrowing that figure down even more, imagine you’re the only person in the nation listed as the best of a single basketball position in the entire recruiting class.
That’s Ohio State women’s basketball freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge.
Part of a college basketball coach’s responsibility is taking care of their players. Especially considering how much brighter the lights are in the college game over even then top level of elite high school basketball.
For the Buckeyes, that means that freshman aren’t frequently used in the media. Normally, their initiation to a pool of reporters comes after the young player has a breakout game and there’s no choice but to put them in front of the press to hear what they have to say.
“I don’t want to over overhype it because we haven’t played a game yet,” said head coach Kevin McGuff about Cambridge. “And I don’t want to put undue pressure on her, but I do see a bright, bright future ahead for her.”
Even for a tenured coach like McGuff, it’s still hard to hold back on adding to the hype. In the same conversation, the 12-year Ohio State coach said Cambridge has been “as good as advertised.”
Cambridge is quick, decisive and, in high school, showed a unique ability to completely take over a game. The list of suitors was long for the services of second youngest in a family devoted to the sport of basketball.
The Cambridges feature a dad whose exploits at the college level are in NCAA lore, notching 160 steals in a season which is still a record today. All five of Cambridge’s older siblings play or played Division I college basketball.
Buckeye fans know one of them, redshirt sophomore transfer Kennedy Cambridge. The former Kentucky Wildcat joined Ohio State in the summer of 2023, but hasn’t stepped on the court. It’s a transfer built off attention given to the incoming freshman, after Kennedy grabbed the phone from Jaloni when Buckeyes assistant coach Jalen Powell was checking in on the program-shifting recruit, as profiled in a feature on Powell last year on LGHL.
It’s easy to chalk up the youngest Cambridge sister’s choice of Ohio State to wanting to again play with big sister.
“I mean she wasn’t the main reason I came here,” said Cambridge with a smirk. Almost to not let it get to Kennedy’s head, who in a short time at Ohio State is already known for her sense of humor.
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The Ohio State University athletic department
Jaloni (left) and Kennedy Cambridge (right)
No, the youngest Cambridge daughter has been the focus of Ohio State recruiting for a couple years now. In November of 2022, Cambridge visited the program. The Buckeyes became one of seven finalists in her search, including the biggest names in the sport like Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks and Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers.
It wasn’t a sister that pushed Cambridge to join Ohio State, at least not fully. But, there was a bond that convinced the No. 1 ranked point guard to pick scarlet and gray. The team itself was a family to Cambridge before the program won the recruit lottery when she committed on Dec. 29, 2023.
“It just makes me feel welcome and just so happy to be here,” said Cambridge. “Since I’ve gotten here, since I’ve committed, just everything I’ve just felt so at home even though I’m far away from home.”
After becoming Ohio State’s first McDonald’s All-American since Kierstan Ball in 2019, the bonds within the team have grown stronger. Take for instance the relationship with graduate senior Madison Greene, a player on the opposite side of her college career to Cambridge.
At Media Day, when questions focused on the departure of beloved program star Jacy Sheldon, Greene gave a glowing review of Cambridge.
“This past week she’s been doing a lot of really good defense. Like she’s been like running through balls. You know how Jacy does, stealing the ball and doing a lot of great things like that,” said Greene. “And she’s quick off the dribble, has a quick first step, just like Jacy does. So nothing’s changed in practice.”
Hard to hold back the hype with comments like that, but from the outside looking in, it’s not something that’s gotten to Cambridge’s head. The relationship with Greene goes both ways.
Wednesday, sitting next to Greene in her first press conference at Ohio State, sitting in a room with six Big Ten championship trophies lining the conference room table, Cambridge points back to how Greene’s been there for the freshman.
“I mean she has experience. It’s nothing really more from that just experience just to be able to see the type of leader that she is on and off the court,” said Cambridge. “It’s just amazing to you know look up to someone with that type of capability.”
Helping to grow that family is the mindset in practice. Despite the program losing three starting graduate seniors, and two more graduating or transferring who played important roles off the bench, the small upperclassmen group doesn’t get favored by the coaching staff.
Watch a Buckeyes practice and there’s equal attention given to all players, for both praise and punishment. Playing against the practice team, anyone who doesn’t get a rebound or lets their assignment score on transition defense has to run laps.
Then, as the players form a circle and they start playing a box out game against the practice team guys and assistant coaches, the team cheers on their teammates as they have three seconds to stop their opponent from touching the basketball. Three seconds that feels like 10. If the person gets the ball, you guessed it, laps.
The transition for Cambridge has been easier with a sister on the roster, but she’s also played alongside fellow freshman Ava Watson. Both Cambridge and Watson played together in AAU basketball, meaning that bonds were a little easier to create.
Watson and Cambridge represent a potentially lethal backcourt duo in the coming years, with Watson entering Ohio State from a team that loved to press and with her knack for hitting long shots.
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The Ohio State University athletic department
Jaloni Cambridge (left) and Ava Watson (right)
After multiple trips to Columbus on visits, knowing her teammates and glowing when she talks about her love of the sport, it truly does feel like family.
“Family is a huge thing to me,” said Cambridge. “I really got here because of my family and you know what I want to be as I keep playing I have to do that with a family environment.”
Within each family there’s always that one. Someone who will keep you humble. That’s junior forward Cotie McMahon.
In 2023, Cambridge made another visit a couple weeks before committing to Ohio State. On Instagram, coach Powell shared a photo of Cambridge standing alongside the whiteboard where she marked her visits.
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Jalen Powell on Instagram | @jalenxpowell
Jaloni Cambridge visiting Ohio State
Scrawled between two of those “Jaloni was here” entries was one by McMahon that points to Cambridge’s marks and adds “No one cares.”
There’s always one.
Cambridge was asked who McMahon is in the Buckeyes family.
“Anything you want her to be honestly. She could play all roles, but that’s just love at the end of the day,” said Cambridge. “She’s just such a great person just to have around family or not. She’s just so amazing. That’s her way of acceptance.”
On Nov. 5, when Ohio State plays its first game of the season, against Cleveland State, that acceptance starts to grow out to what the players fondly call Buckeye Nation.
It’ll be difficult to slow down the hype train once it starts going.
Continue reading...
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
The Ohio State University Athletic Department
The No. 2 overall 2024 recruit joining the Buckeyes stretches far beyond a familial bond
College basketball season is fast approaching and Land-Grant Holy Land is here to get you ready. Before the season starts this fall, check back regularly for player previews, schedule news, features, and more heading into the 2024-25 Ohio State women’s basketball season.
There’s a hard truth when it comes to college sports. The student athletes competing on national television, streaming on ESPN and popping up in daily social media scrolling are 18-years-old.
A small percentage of people directly out of high school compete at the NCAA level. Should you be over 18, especially those where it’s been a while since the teens were part of the conversation, it’s hard to remember what it's like to be 18 years old.
Now, imagine you’re one of those rare 18-year-olds who make it to college sports. Narrowing that figure down even more, imagine you’re the only person in the nation listed as the best of a single basketball position in the entire recruiting class.
That’s Ohio State women’s basketball freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge.
Part of a college basketball coach’s responsibility is taking care of their players. Especially considering how much brighter the lights are in the college game over even then top level of elite high school basketball.
For the Buckeyes, that means that freshman aren’t frequently used in the media. Normally, their initiation to a pool of reporters comes after the young player has a breakout game and there’s no choice but to put them in front of the press to hear what they have to say.
“I don’t want to over overhype it because we haven’t played a game yet,” said head coach Kevin McGuff about Cambridge. “And I don’t want to put undue pressure on her, but I do see a bright, bright future ahead for her.”
Even for a tenured coach like McGuff, it’s still hard to hold back on adding to the hype. In the same conversation, the 12-year Ohio State coach said Cambridge has been “as good as advertised.”
Cambridge is quick, decisive and, in high school, showed a unique ability to completely take over a game. The list of suitors was long for the services of second youngest in a family devoted to the sport of basketball.
The Cambridges feature a dad whose exploits at the college level are in NCAA lore, notching 160 steals in a season which is still a record today. All five of Cambridge’s older siblings play or played Division I college basketball.
Buckeye fans know one of them, redshirt sophomore transfer Kennedy Cambridge. The former Kentucky Wildcat joined Ohio State in the summer of 2023, but hasn’t stepped on the court. It’s a transfer built off attention given to the incoming freshman, after Kennedy grabbed the phone from Jaloni when Buckeyes assistant coach Jalen Powell was checking in on the program-shifting recruit, as profiled in a feature on Powell last year on LGHL.
It’s easy to chalk up the youngest Cambridge sister’s choice of Ohio State to wanting to again play with big sister.
“I mean she wasn’t the main reason I came here,” said Cambridge with a smirk. Almost to not let it get to Kennedy’s head, who in a short time at Ohio State is already known for her sense of humor.
Jaloni (left) and Kennedy Cambridge (right)
No, the youngest Cambridge daughter has been the focus of Ohio State recruiting for a couple years now. In November of 2022, Cambridge visited the program. The Buckeyes became one of seven finalists in her search, including the biggest names in the sport like Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks and Kim Mulkey and the LSU Tigers.
It wasn’t a sister that pushed Cambridge to join Ohio State, at least not fully. But, there was a bond that convinced the No. 1 ranked point guard to pick scarlet and gray. The team itself was a family to Cambridge before the program won the recruit lottery when she committed on Dec. 29, 2023.
“It just makes me feel welcome and just so happy to be here,” said Cambridge. “Since I’ve gotten here, since I’ve committed, just everything I’ve just felt so at home even though I’m far away from home.”
After becoming Ohio State’s first McDonald’s All-American since Kierstan Ball in 2019, the bonds within the team have grown stronger. Take for instance the relationship with graduate senior Madison Greene, a player on the opposite side of her college career to Cambridge.
At Media Day, when questions focused on the departure of beloved program star Jacy Sheldon, Greene gave a glowing review of Cambridge.
“This past week she’s been doing a lot of really good defense. Like she’s been like running through balls. You know how Jacy does, stealing the ball and doing a lot of great things like that,” said Greene. “And she’s quick off the dribble, has a quick first step, just like Jacy does. So nothing’s changed in practice.”
Hard to hold back the hype with comments like that, but from the outside looking in, it’s not something that’s gotten to Cambridge’s head. The relationship with Greene goes both ways.
Wednesday, sitting next to Greene in her first press conference at Ohio State, sitting in a room with six Big Ten championship trophies lining the conference room table, Cambridge points back to how Greene’s been there for the freshman.
“I mean she has experience. It’s nothing really more from that just experience just to be able to see the type of leader that she is on and off the court,” said Cambridge. “It’s just amazing to you know look up to someone with that type of capability.”
Helping to grow that family is the mindset in practice. Despite the program losing three starting graduate seniors, and two more graduating or transferring who played important roles off the bench, the small upperclassmen group doesn’t get favored by the coaching staff.
Watch a Buckeyes practice and there’s equal attention given to all players, for both praise and punishment. Playing against the practice team, anyone who doesn’t get a rebound or lets their assignment score on transition defense has to run laps.
Then, as the players form a circle and they start playing a box out game against the practice team guys and assistant coaches, the team cheers on their teammates as they have three seconds to stop their opponent from touching the basketball. Three seconds that feels like 10. If the person gets the ball, you guessed it, laps.
The transition for Cambridge has been easier with a sister on the roster, but she’s also played alongside fellow freshman Ava Watson. Both Cambridge and Watson played together in AAU basketball, meaning that bonds were a little easier to create.
Watson and Cambridge represent a potentially lethal backcourt duo in the coming years, with Watson entering Ohio State from a team that loved to press and with her knack for hitting long shots.
Jaloni Cambridge (left) and Ava Watson (right)
After multiple trips to Columbus on visits, knowing her teammates and glowing when she talks about her love of the sport, it truly does feel like family.
“Family is a huge thing to me,” said Cambridge. “I really got here because of my family and you know what I want to be as I keep playing I have to do that with a family environment.”
Within each family there’s always that one. Someone who will keep you humble. That’s junior forward Cotie McMahon.
In 2023, Cambridge made another visit a couple weeks before committing to Ohio State. On Instagram, coach Powell shared a photo of Cambridge standing alongside the whiteboard where she marked her visits.
Jaloni Cambridge visiting Ohio State
Scrawled between two of those “Jaloni was here” entries was one by McMahon that points to Cambridge’s marks and adds “No one cares.”
There’s always one.
Cambridge was asked who McMahon is in the Buckeyes family.
“Anything you want her to be honestly. She could play all roles, but that’s just love at the end of the day,” said Cambridge. “She’s just such a great person just to have around family or not. She’s just so amazing. That’s her way of acceptance.”
On Nov. 5, when Ohio State plays its first game of the season, against Cleveland State, that acceptance starts to grow out to what the players fondly call Buckeye Nation.
It’ll be difficult to slow down the hype train once it starts going.
Continue reading...
