McGuff discusses Ohio State women’s basketball transfer needs
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Thursday, the Buckeyes’ head coach shared the two areas where the Scarlet and Gray could be active in the transfer portal.
There are currently over 1,000 players in the NCAA women’s basketball transfer portal. For
Ohio State women’s basketball, there are realistically four open spots on the 2024-25 roster, and pursuing additions via the portal isn’t as easy as just picking names from a list. As head coach Kevin McGuff details, it’s daunting.
“Every five minutes. somebody on my staff’s walking in and talking about a new player,” McGuff said laughing. “I’m having a hard time keeping up.”
On the court, there were two areas last season where the Buckeyes had a hard time keeping up, and both are on the portal radar.
The first, which was an obvious gap not only in the 2024 postseason but really over the past three seasons, is rebounding. In the Buckeyes’ early NCAA Tournament exit against the
Duke Blue Devils, there was a 38-20 rebounding margin in the ACC side’s favor. In the quarterfinals of the
Big Ten Tournament, it was a staggering -24 rebounding margin for the Scarlet and Gray against the
Maryland Terrapins in an 82-61 loss.
In the portal is a player who visited Columbus during her recruiting but committed to the
Baylor Bears. The 6-foot-7 rising junior Lety Vasconcelos entered the portal with three years of eligibility after averaging 2.1 rebounds in 5.8 minutes played per game. the Brazlian is a name to watch, but there are hundreds of others the Buckeyes could pursue.
Many of the names grabbing the most attention since the end of the season are from the Pacific Northwest. Native Ohioan and former Oregon Duck Grace VanSlooten and Colorado native, and
Oregon State Beaver, Raegan Beers are additions who would make any coach ecstatic; both are program-changing talents.
Could they be on McGuff’s radar? He’s not revealing any of that information, but adding someone in the post is a focus with both the portal and the incoming group of freshmen.
Ohio State adds three forwards in the upcoming class, with two looking like strong contenders for a starting position in the paint. Out of North Carolina, four-star recruit Ella Hobbs is a physical big standing 6-foot-4; she brings the kind of inside presence the Buckeyes lacked over the past three seasons. There’s also Finnish forward Elsa Lemmila, who McGuff sees coming in and picking up the slack.
“She’s a really good athlete and she’s 6-foot-5 and she’s long,” said McGuff. “Rebounding can be discipline and blocking out effort and going to get the ball, but sometimes it’s personnel too. That’s part of what’s on my mind is just to kind of improve our personnel in terms of people who can rebound better.”
Those two, plus another year for freshman center Faith Carson, means that the post group will be young, but high potential.
There’s also the potential return of forward Eboni Walker. Although the forward missed the end of the regular season, and lone Big Ten Tournament game, for undisclosed reasons, she returned for the NCAA Tournament. McGuff and the Buckeyes’ work on getting Walker a redshirt season for her injury-plagued year with the
Syracuse Orange in 2021-22 is still ongoing, with McGuff sharing that he has calls scheduled with decisionmakers this week on the subject.
Walker’s played the five-position in the last two years with Ohio State and provides a burst of energy anytime she’s on the court. Walker’s return won’t completely fix the rebounding issue for the Buckeyes, but it will bring more veteran leadership to a position that’s full of youth.
Alongside Walker is returning forward Taylor Thierry, who McGuff anticipates will make another leap in her senior season. Plus soon-to-be junior forward Cotie McMahon will enter next season as one of the team’s elder players.
Thierry, McMahon, and incoming freshman guard Jaloni Cambridge could be a strong enough reason for transfers to not look past the Buckeyes.
Another area needing reinforcement is perimeter shooting. In the two seasons where Ohio State made it to at least the Sweet Sixteen, it was in due part to the shooting of former Buckeye guard Taylor Mikesell. This season, that shooting wasn’t the same.
Although the number of threes averaged per game was relatively the same, 7.4 for the 2022-23 Buckeyes compared to 7.2 this season, the efficiency was lower. Also, without a strong shooter taking up a defender, scoring in general dropped and it made Ohio State less impactful in the paint.
While there isn’t a clear like-for-like in terms of the shooting ability of a Mikesell in the portal, with over 1,000 players available, there are options to choose from. The name that grabbed the most attention was former Louisville Cardinal and
LSU Tiger Hailey Van Lith. The point guard has a season remaining, but positionally isn’t the best fit for the Buckeyes.
Ohio State returns Madison Greene, after multiple season-ending injuries. McGuff is hoping that her rehabilitation will allow her to provide a larger impact in her final season. Then there’s the No. 2 overall 2024 recruit, according to ESPN, in Jaloni Cambridge. Coming off of a second consecutive national championship with Montverde Academy in Florida, the point guard is a clear choice to start for the Buckeyes on Day 1, even with Greene available.
Adding a Van Lith would be a blockbuster move, but it's not likely that an established offensive point guard like Van Lith would slide over to a shooting guard role.
Regardless, the portal window ends on May 1 giving the Buckeye coaching staff — and players they are pursuing — just under three weeks to make major decisions.
Even with seven months left until the start of the 2024-25 college basketball offseason, McGuff is confident in what those outside of the program will see in the fall.
“I think you’ll be able to look at our team on day one and say that’s a talented group that’s got a chance to be really special,” he said.
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