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LGHL Uncut: Ryan Day is excited to face TTUN on Saturday, likes the look in his team’s eyes
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Uncut: Ryan Day is excited to face TTUN on Saturday, likes the look in his team’s eyes
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State’s head coach also breaks down the Mitten Men’s defense.
Throughout the year, the Land-Grant Podcast Network will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences, but also from individual interview sessions.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio
On today’s episode of “Land-Grant Uncut,” we are bringing you unedited audio from the Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 press conference with Ohio State football coach Ryan Day. This will be Day’s only open media availability of the week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. He discusses both his personal emotions and his program’s approach to this edition of The Game following three straight losses in the rivalry. Day also talks about how transfers and players who forwent the NFL to return and finish their business are each approaching TTUN.
Watch the full press conferences on Ohio State’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/buckeyes/live_videos
Contact Matt Tamanini
Online Profile: https://authory.com/MattTamanini
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State’s head coach also breaks down the Mitten Men’s defense.
Throughout the year, the Land-Grant Podcast Network will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences, but also from individual interview sessions.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio
On today’s episode of “Land-Grant Uncut,” we are bringing you unedited audio from the Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024 press conference with Ohio State football coach Ryan Day. This will be Day’s only open media availability of the week due to the Thanksgiving holiday. He discusses both his personal emotions and his program’s approach to this edition of The Game following three straight losses in the rivalry. Day also talks about how transfers and players who forwent the NFL to return and finish their business are each approaching TTUN.
Watch the full press conferences on Ohio State’s official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/buckeyes/live_videos
Contact Matt Tamanini
Online Profile: https://authory.com/MattTamanini
Music by: www.bensound.com
Continue reading...
LGHL You’re Nuts: Which Ohio State Buckeye are you most thankful for?
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You’re Nuts: Which Ohio State Buckeye are you most thankful for?
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
It’s the best week of the year for a number of reasons. Not only will Ohio State and Michigan meet on the football field on Saturday in Columbus, it is also Thanksgiving week. One of the reasons The Game was moved to the Saturday after Thanksgiving is probably because it allows fans on both sides of the rivalry to have a huge meal on Thursday to help them absorb all of the alcohol that will be consumed on Saturday morning and afternoon.
Today we are going to focus more on the Thanksgiving holiday and less on The Game. Entering this week, the Buckeyes are 10-1 this season, with their only loss being by a point to Oregon last month in Eugene. Since then, Ohio State has beaten Penn State and Indiana, with both of those opponents being ranked in the Top 5 when they faced the Buckeyes. With a win on Saturday, Ohio State will secure a rematch with the Ducks in next week’s Big Ten Championship Game. Along with putting themselves in a position to win a conference title, the Buckeyes are also looking like a serious threat to win a national championship.
Aside from stuffing a ridiculous amount of food down our throats on Thanksgiving and laughing at how inept the Dallas Cowboys are as we fight off the effects of tryptophan, another tradition of the holiday is to declare what we give thanks for. This year we are going to put an Ohio State spin on this tradition and declare what Buckeye we are thankful for. This year there have been a number of transfers that have joined the program and made an immediate impact, as well as a fabulous freshman wide receiver. Or it could be a senior who has paid their dues over the years and is playing at a high level. At least if we can’t agree on what we are thankful for, we all can unite behind a common goal as we hope Ohio State snaps its three-game losing streak against the Wolverines on Saturday.
The difference from this time in 2023 to 2024 at quarterback for Ohio State is night and day. It’s not that Kyle McCord isn’t talented, just look at the numbers he has put up at Syracuse this year (aside from the game where he threw 43 interceptions that were returned for touchdowns against Pitt). The difference between McCord and Will Howard has a lot to do with leadership and toughness. Even though there were some Ohio State fans that were hoping to see Cam Ward or Riley Leonard in Columbus after McCord entered the transfer portal a few days after the Michigan game, Howard is the perfect fit for this year’s Buckeye offense.
One of the things that has impressed me the most about Howard is the accuracy of his passes. With his performance on Saturday, Howard now has six games this season where he has completed at least 80 percent of his passes, which is a school record for a Buckeye career. Even when there is a blip with one of his throws, he often doesn’t let it bleed over into his next attempt. Just look at the Penn State game where he came out a little amped up because when he was a kid he grew up rooting for the Nittany Lions and dreamt of playing at Beaver Stadium. After throwing a pick-six on his first pass attempt of the game, Howard settled down and made some big plays in the 20-13 victory earlier this month.
There also is Howard’s willingness to pull the football down and run if it is necessary. The toughness that Howard has displayed so far could end up being the difference in a playoff game. Even in the loss to Oregon, it almost won Ohio State the game had there been a couple more seconds on the clock, and Dan Lanning didn’t intentionally break the rules to waste time. Howard’s instincts were in the right place, the execution was just slightly off. Should a similar situation arise again this season, you know Howard is sliding a little earlier.
If all those weren’t enough reasons to be thankful Howard is a Buckeye this year, he’ll forever be a legend for the trolling of Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti late in Saturday’s game when he pretended to stomp out a cig on the sidelines. If there was anyone who could get away with doing that, it was Howard since he was nearly perfect against the Hoosiers.
Will Howard is an excellent choice by Brett and one that I am clearly very much in support of. But in this moment, this week, heading into this game, I am especially thankful for Carson Hinzman. After starting 12 games at center last year, only to be replaced with seemingly little logic for what turned out to be a shambolic bowl performance from the offensive line, it would have been easy for the junior lineman to become disenchanted in Columbus and look to find greener pastures elsewhere.
However, he did not do that, nor did he opt to leave when OSU brought in a two-year starting center from Alabama via the transfer portal. Instead, he continued to work and learn behind Seth McLaughlin until he was called upon to move a little to his left and fill in at guard following the injuries to Josh Simmons and Zen Michalski.
In his brief time at LG, he played very well, but once McLaughlin went down, he was thrust back into the exact same spot he was in last year. Against Indiana, Hinzman was back at the center of Ohio State’s offensive line which dominated a top-five opponent.
So, I am incredibly grateful that the team has his experience heading into the homestretch following McLaughlin’s Achilles injury, and I am even more grateful that Carson chose to remain a Buckeye. He is not a native Ohioan, I wouldn’t doubt that Luke Fickell likely would have welcomed the Wisconsin native with open arms had Hinzman entered the transfer portal.
But, he did not, and now he is arguably the most important non-quarterback on Ohio State’s roster as the team prepares to enter the postseason as the betting favorite to win the national championship. I shudder to think what could have been in store for the Buckeye offensive line had McLaughlin gone down and Hinzman wasn’t on the team. Yes, Joshua Padilla was the No. 11 interior offensive lineman in the 2023 recruiting cycle, but he has barely played at Ohio State, and that is not the type of guy you want to have to turn to when your season is on the line.
So, Carson Hinzman, I hope that whenever you sit down to your Thanksgiving meal — either on Thursday or after The Game — you have an extra helping of mashed potatoes and know that Buckeye Nation is grateful to have you on our side.
Continue reading...
Brett Ludwiczak via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Your (almost) daily dose of good-natured, Ohio State banter.
It’s the best week of the year for a number of reasons. Not only will Ohio State and Michigan meet on the football field on Saturday in Columbus, it is also Thanksgiving week. One of the reasons The Game was moved to the Saturday after Thanksgiving is probably because it allows fans on both sides of the rivalry to have a huge meal on Thursday to help them absorb all of the alcohol that will be consumed on Saturday morning and afternoon.
Today we are going to focus more on the Thanksgiving holiday and less on The Game. Entering this week, the Buckeyes are 10-1 this season, with their only loss being by a point to Oregon last month in Eugene. Since then, Ohio State has beaten Penn State and Indiana, with both of those opponents being ranked in the Top 5 when they faced the Buckeyes. With a win on Saturday, Ohio State will secure a rematch with the Ducks in next week’s Big Ten Championship Game. Along with putting themselves in a position to win a conference title, the Buckeyes are also looking like a serious threat to win a national championship.
Aside from stuffing a ridiculous amount of food down our throats on Thanksgiving and laughing at how inept the Dallas Cowboys are as we fight off the effects of tryptophan, another tradition of the holiday is to declare what we give thanks for. This year we are going to put an Ohio State spin on this tradition and declare what Buckeye we are thankful for. This year there have been a number of transfers that have joined the program and made an immediate impact, as well as a fabulous freshman wide receiver. Or it could be a senior who has paid their dues over the years and is playing at a high level. At least if we can’t agree on what we are thankful for, we all can unite behind a common goal as we hope Ohio State snaps its three-game losing streak against the Wolverines on Saturday.
Today’s question: Which Ohio State Buckeye are you thankful for?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Will Howard
The difference from this time in 2023 to 2024 at quarterback for Ohio State is night and day. It’s not that Kyle McCord isn’t talented, just look at the numbers he has put up at Syracuse this year (aside from the game where he threw 43 interceptions that were returned for touchdowns against Pitt). The difference between McCord and Will Howard has a lot to do with leadership and toughness. Even though there were some Ohio State fans that were hoping to see Cam Ward or Riley Leonard in Columbus after McCord entered the transfer portal a few days after the Michigan game, Howard is the perfect fit for this year’s Buckeye offense.
One of the things that has impressed me the most about Howard is the accuracy of his passes. With his performance on Saturday, Howard now has six games this season where he has completed at least 80 percent of his passes, which is a school record for a Buckeye career. Even when there is a blip with one of his throws, he often doesn’t let it bleed over into his next attempt. Just look at the Penn State game where he came out a little amped up because when he was a kid he grew up rooting for the Nittany Lions and dreamt of playing at Beaver Stadium. After throwing a pick-six on his first pass attempt of the game, Howard settled down and made some big plays in the 20-13 victory earlier this month.
There also is Howard’s willingness to pull the football down and run if it is necessary. The toughness that Howard has displayed so far could end up being the difference in a playoff game. Even in the loss to Oregon, it almost won Ohio State the game had there been a couple more seconds on the clock, and Dan Lanning didn’t intentionally break the rules to waste time. Howard’s instincts were in the right place, the execution was just slightly off. Should a similar situation arise again this season, you know Howard is sliding a little earlier.
If all those weren’t enough reasons to be thankful Howard is a Buckeye this year, he’ll forever be a legend for the trolling of Indiana head coach Curt Cignetti late in Saturday’s game when he pretended to stomp out a cig on the sidelines. If there was anyone who could get away with doing that, it was Howard since he was nearly perfect against the Hoosiers.
Matt’s answer: Carson Hinzman
Will Howard is an excellent choice by Brett and one that I am clearly very much in support of. But in this moment, this week, heading into this game, I am especially thankful for Carson Hinzman. After starting 12 games at center last year, only to be replaced with seemingly little logic for what turned out to be a shambolic bowl performance from the offensive line, it would have been easy for the junior lineman to become disenchanted in Columbus and look to find greener pastures elsewhere.
However, he did not do that, nor did he opt to leave when OSU brought in a two-year starting center from Alabama via the transfer portal. Instead, he continued to work and learn behind Seth McLaughlin until he was called upon to move a little to his left and fill in at guard following the injuries to Josh Simmons and Zen Michalski.
In his brief time at LG, he played very well, but once McLaughlin went down, he was thrust back into the exact same spot he was in last year. Against Indiana, Hinzman was back at the center of Ohio State’s offensive line which dominated a top-five opponent.
So, I am incredibly grateful that the team has his experience heading into the homestretch following McLaughlin’s Achilles injury, and I am even more grateful that Carson chose to remain a Buckeye. He is not a native Ohioan, I wouldn’t doubt that Luke Fickell likely would have welcomed the Wisconsin native with open arms had Hinzman entered the transfer portal.
But, he did not, and now he is arguably the most important non-quarterback on Ohio State’s roster as the team prepares to enter the postseason as the betting favorite to win the national championship. I shudder to think what could have been in store for the Buckeye offensive line had McLaughlin gone down and Hinzman wasn’t on the team. Yes, Joshua Padilla was the No. 11 interior offensive lineman in the 2023 recruiting cycle, but he has barely played at Ohio State, and that is not the type of guy you want to have to turn to when your season is on the line.
So, Carson Hinzman, I hope that whenever you sit down to your Thanksgiving meal — either on Thursday or after The Game — you have an extra helping of mashed potatoes and know that Buckeye Nation is grateful to have you on our side.
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LGHL Uncut: Doug Gottlieb loves Bruce Thornton, and Bruce Thornton loves Subway cookies
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Uncut: Doug Gottlieb loves Bruce Thornton, and Bruce Thornton loves Subway cookies
Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
Ohio State’s point guard had the best game of his season Monday night and is already looking forward to Subway cookies on Friday.
Throughout the season, Land-Grant will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences, but also from individual interview sessions.
Ohio State scored 100 points for the second consecutive game Monday night, but Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay team pushed the Buckeyes for 30 minutes until the dam eventually broke. Bruce Thornton scored a season-high 25 points, and he spoke to the media after the game.
Bruce talked about his preparation for every home game — he reads his Bible in the morning, gets Subway for lunch, takes a short nap, and wears his lucky socks and shoes. He said nothing was different on Monday. He just happened to come one assist shy of a 25-point, 10-assist double-double.
Sean Stewart also spoke to the media after an 11-point, eight-rebound performance over a season-high 22 minutes. He said he was glad to be able to play after missing the last game with a concussion, and took time to talk about how well he and Devin Royal work together on the floor.
Both head coaches — Jake Diebler and Doug Gottlieb — spent the majority of their time gushing about Thornton. Diebler said his point guard is the best in the country. Gottlieb said Thornton is his favorite Ohio State point guard since Scoonie Penn.
Connect with Connor:
Twitter: @lemons_connor
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Connor Lemons via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images
Ohio State’s point guard had the best game of his season Monday night and is already looking forward to Subway cookies on Friday.
Throughout the season, Land-Grant will be bringing you uncut audio primarily from Ohio State press conferences, but also from individual interview sessions.
Listen to the episode and subscribe:
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | iHeart Radio
Ohio State scored 100 points for the second consecutive game Monday night, but Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay team pushed the Buckeyes for 30 minutes until the dam eventually broke. Bruce Thornton scored a season-high 25 points, and he spoke to the media after the game.
Bruce talked about his preparation for every home game — he reads his Bible in the morning, gets Subway for lunch, takes a short nap, and wears his lucky socks and shoes. He said nothing was different on Monday. He just happened to come one assist shy of a 25-point, 10-assist double-double.
Sean Stewart also spoke to the media after an 11-point, eight-rebound performance over a season-high 22 minutes. He said he was glad to be able to play after missing the last game with a concussion, and took time to talk about how well he and Devin Royal work together on the floor.
Both head coaches — Jake Diebler and Doug Gottlieb — spent the majority of their time gushing about Thornton. Diebler said his point guard is the best in the country. Gottlieb said Thornton is his favorite Ohio State point guard since Scoonie Penn.
Connect with Connor:
Twitter: @lemons_connor
Theme music provided by www.bensound.com
Continue reading...
LGHL Around the world and back again; Elsa Lemmilä’s journey back to Columbus
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Around the world and back again; Elsa Lemmilä’s journey back to Columbus
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State University Athletic Department
The Buckeye who turned down Stanford and UConn for Scarlet and Gray.
On Dec. 31, 2018, Ohio State women’s basketball faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers. After a back-and-forth three quarters, the Cornhuskers ran away in the fourth, outscoring the Buckeyes 27-16 on the way to a 78-69 loss. A forgetful night in a season of forgetful nights than resulted in the Scarlet and Gray missing the NCAA Tournament and ending with a sub-.500 record.
In the loss, freshman forward Dorka Juhász scored 14 points and added seven rebounds. The Hungarian was a bright spot that year, averaging nearly a double-double with 11.7 points and nine rebounds.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25753129/1076221530.jpg "COLLEGE BASKETBALL: DEC 31 Women’s Nebraska at Ohio State")
Photo by Jason Mowry/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Sitting in the crowd was an Ohio State alum who brought her family to the game, one of many Buckeyes doing the same that New Year’s Eve. The key difference is most fans don’t travel 4,400 miles to get there.
“We actually ended up sitting, I don’t know how, because we didn’t know where to buy tickets, but we ended up with a bunch of the Nebraska parents, which was a bit strange. So we were kind of like, wait, cheering. And they were cheering something else.”
That’s Jocelyn Striker-Lemmilä, who sat alongside 13-year-old Elsa Lemmilä, taking in her first American sports event.
After college, Striker-Lemmilä took a different route than most people from Bucyrus, Ohio. It began with a stint in Columbus and Cleveland, working for an international tech company, where she met native Finn Jari Lemmilä. The two married and while living in Switzerland, the Lemmilä family grew by two with the births of Stella and Elsa.
From there, frequent flyer miles kept adding up. the Lemmilä’s moved to China for four years and back to Columbus for a year before returning to Switzerland. That’s when Elsa started playing basketball.
This isn’t the part of the story where Lemmilä picked up a basketball and the rest is history. Real life isn’t always that clean and tidy. Enrolled at an international school in Zurich, 12-year-old Elsa had an American sports experience. That means playing multiple sports like volleyball, track and basketball.
When it came to basketball, it didn’t take over Lemmilä’s life. There was one hour of practice a week, some games, and after two months the season was over and Lemmilä was on to the next activity. For her that means picking up a book and spending time with her family.
Following 12 years of globe hopping, the Lemmilä family settled down and moved home to Jari’s native Finland. With the move, athletic focus shifted. In the Nordic nation, kids typically choose one sport and stick with it. For Lemmilä, it was basketball, but adjusting to playing a new sport in Finland wasn’t easy.
Within the walls of the Lemmilä household, English is the primary language. Lemmilä knew it fluently, along with some German and French, but playing club sports in Finland took her away from her Americanized international school teammates. The language barrier was an issue right away.
Tapiolan Honka club became Lemmilä’s team. Structured more like youth soccer with teams comprised of kids within certain age groups, sometimes playing well enough to move up against older opponents, Lemmilä joined a team where she couldn’t verbally communicate with her peers.
“These girls were only 12, so they did learn English in school but they were too shy to speak English with her and she couldn’t speak Finnish to them,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “For the first year, she didn’t want to go to practice half the time because she was so uncomfortable with the language.”
While playing basketball is a language of its own, spoken by millions who play across the world, the 12-year-old had two things she had to fight through to get over that discomfort leading her to potentially step away from the sport for good. Being shy was one hurdle. After all, being a kid already comes with enough challenges, then add not knowing what those around you are saying to the list.
“One thing I forgot to say is she’s also a perfectionist,” said Striker-Lemmilä.
Helping Lemmilä was Anja Suomalainen (Bordt). A former Saint Mary’s women’s basketball guard, inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1997. Suomalainen became a translator for Lemmilä and became the first coach in the center’s development towards Lemmilä’s own collegiate career.
As comfort grew, the basketball ability shined through those early language-induced cracks. The perfectionist filled those cracks too, learning fluent Finnish.
“She’s dedicated to everything she does, school, sports,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “When she starts to love a topic, she dives into it.”
That topic was basketball. Within a year of moving to Finland, Lemmilä joined camps, had a growth spurt, and viewed as a potential high performer in Finland youth basketball. By the time the Lemmilä family came to visit family in Ohio in 2018, Elsa was 6-foot-2 at 13-years-old.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25751430/_Elsa_photo._001.jpeg)
Jocelyn Lemmilä
Elsa Lemmilä visiting Columbus in 2018
While sitting in the Schottenstein Center that night, looks came the family’s way. Likely wondering if Lemmilä was there as a recruit instead of the true story of a young basketball-obsessed player taking in her first basketball experience on the largest stage in her life to date.
Back in Finland, the Lemmilä family went to Honka games for their top level women’s side, but it wasn’t the same. There wasn’t an arena that can hold nearly 20,000 people and the lights and sounds that come along with it.
Even then, as the sport took over her life, Lemmilä didn’t see playing at Ohio State as a goal.
“I didn’t really know it was a possibility,” said Lemmilä. “I didn’t really think about it at all.”
However, after watching her first college game, Lemmilä immersed herself even more into the game. That included reading a book about Breanna Stewart, a WNBA Champion at the time, and someone Lemmilä would meet eight months later during a trip to Orlando, Florida.
That’s when Lemmilä took part in the 2019 jrNBA Global Championship. Playing in the same tournament as Jaloni Cambridge and JuJu Watkins and, although never playing against either of them, it gave Lemmilä the chance to test her skills against some of the best teenagers in the world.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25751529/1160677509.jpg "Jr. NBA Global Championships - Semifinals - Europe & Middle East Girls v Canada Girls")
Photo by Tony Firriolo/NBAE via Getty Images
Elsa Lemmilä competing in the 2019 jrNBA Global Championship
At one of the player events at the tournament, Lemmilä met Stewart, coming in off a WNBA title the year before, and there was no looking back.
Lemmilä’s journey continued. The center represented her country on the youth and senior national team levels, and from that came recruiting attention.
European recruiting is different from the United States where players excel in their school or club system to make it into AAU basketball. In Europe, independent scouts identify talent and get that information back to universities. If they’re interested, they reach out. If they aren’t, there’s still an abundance of players both stateside and abroad.
At this point, Lemmilä excelled with Honka but also played at both the Finnish youth and senior national team levels.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25751533/Screenshot_2024_11_23_at_3.51.19_PM.png)
Tapiolan Honka
Elsa Lemmilä playing for Tapiolan Honka
Yohanna Araya, now Yohanna Araya-Brooks, was one of those recruiters. As a former coach in Europe, Araya knew Finland National Team head coach Pekka Salminen, who spoke highly of Lemmilä. Araya told then Ohio State women’s basketball assistant coach Wesley Brooks about the center. Then a friend of Brooks also reached out to tell him about Lemmilä.
“We connected Pekka with Kevin [McGuff], and Kevin went to Finland a couple times and met with Pekka and got to see Elsa,” said now Utah State head coach Wes Brooks. “And he’s like ‘Wes, this kid’s really good. She’s really, really good.’”
In the summer of 2022, Brooks called the Lemmilä family to gauge interest.
“He had happened to contact me because he couldn’t talk to her yet and said ‘hey, we saw her play and we would be interested to talk to her, what do you think?’’ said Striker-Lemmilä. “And I said, well, ironically, we’re in Columbus, Ohio right now and we could do an unofficial visit.”
The next day, the Lemmilä’s sat in a golf cart that trekked through the Schottenstein Center on a quiet summer day on Ohio State’s campus, three years after they sat in the crowd watching the Buckeyes play for the first time.
Even with the alumni connection with Lemmilä’s mom and the Buckeyes asking about the center earlier in the recruiting process than others, the family kept their options open. Some big names came calling.
Stanford, UConn, UCLA, Louisville and more. When Lemmilä was old enough, her and her mom had phone calls with legendary coaches like Geno Auriemma and Tara VanDerveer, all hoping to add Lemmilä to their prestigious programs.
Through the process, it was never the Lemmilä family’s intention to push their youngest daughter towards Ohio State, even if the positives added up.
“We tried to be completely neutral and really didn’t wanna say anything,” said Lemmilä’s mom. “I didn’t wanna steer her any way. For example, when we got to talk to Geno Auriemma and Tara VanDerveer, I mean, I was just like oh my gosh, I was taking pictures on the side.”
Despite the stiff competition of a pair of NCAA coaches with 14 combined National Championships, Ohio State was persistent.
Brooks carved out time with Lemmilä every week, even if it was only checking in for a few minutes. It made a lasting impact as other schools didn’t put as much time or attention into their recruitment of Lemmilä.
Ohio State was one of many interested schools, eventually offering Lemmilä a scholarship. Then came an injury.
The day before leaving for the United States, a trip that included stops at Stanford, Ohio State and a potential pitstop at UCLA, Lemmilä practiced like usual. At the end of practice, in a lighter than normal session, Elsa tore her ACL.
“She was really at this like peak and that happened,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “It was just devastating.”
At this point, it makes sense that schools would move in other directions. The focus around Lemmilä didn’t leave and McGuff was one of the first people to reach out to the family after learning about the injury.
“He immediately said, we’re thinking about Elsa and our offer still stands.”
In the year off ACL tears need to recover, Lemmilä completed an intensive educational program where the injury gave her the time to complete it without basketball interfering, a minor silver lining on an otherwise difficult time of life.
While hurt, Lemmilä made the decision to wear Scarlet and Gray. Lemmilä’s mom texted the Buckeye coaches asking if they could talk when she broke the news.
“She didn’t ever, ever think that I would go to Ohio State, that either of her children would ever end up back in Ohio,” said Lemmilä about her mom. “She never, ever would have thought of that. So it was kind of shocking for her.”
Look past the family and the attentiveness and care of the coaching staff and Lemmilä also picked Ohio State for the sport of basketball.
Lemmilä joins a trend of McGuff bringing in European bigs. It was Juhász first, five years of Rebeka Mikulášiková and now the Swiss-born, Finland-raised, Lemmilä.
“I know it’s kind of the style of play that he chooses, you know, finding European bigs,” said Lemmilä. “It has a lot to do with playing five out and playing really fast with your bigs as well. So I really like that style of play.”
In a 64-point win over the Ohio Bobcats in Lemmilä’s fourth college game, her teammates on the bench loudly encouraging Lemmilä to take another shot. Make them and she’d become the leading scorer in the runaway Ohio State win.
Lemmilä hit the shot, scoring an early career high 21 points, with 14 rebounds and five blocks on a night where Lemmilä showed better patience under the rim, taking better shots and not rushing opportunities to score.
The improvement in two weeks of real games came from coaching advice that Lemmilä took and applied in-game. Following the win, McGuff gave the freshman the dub crown, the next iteration in the famous dub chain given to a player after each win over the past two seasons.
After the 6-foot-6 center bent down to allow McGuff to reach to the top of her head, Lemmilä’s teammates serenaded her with a version of “Let It Go” from the Disney classic Frozen, sung by arguably the most famous Elsa in pop culture today.
It was a moment almost two years in the making, shared with her new family.
“I acclimated a lot better than I thought I was going to, especially coming off not playing for a year and a half,” said Lemmilä. “It’s been a lot of fun. I really liked it here and a lot of that is also due to the players.”
Lemmilä didn’t initially make the connection between Juhász playing at Ohio State and eventually for UConn, both schools who pursued the center’s abilities on the court. The center from Finland has the chance to be the first Buckeye to average double digit rebounds per game since Juhász.
If the perfectionist has her way, Lemmilä could do that and more.
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ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Ohio State University Athletic Department
The Buckeye who turned down Stanford and UConn for Scarlet and Gray.
On Dec. 31, 2018, Ohio State women’s basketball faced the Nebraska Cornhuskers. After a back-and-forth three quarters, the Cornhuskers ran away in the fourth, outscoring the Buckeyes 27-16 on the way to a 78-69 loss. A forgetful night in a season of forgetful nights than resulted in the Scarlet and Gray missing the NCAA Tournament and ending with a sub-.500 record.
In the loss, freshman forward Dorka Juhász scored 14 points and added seven rebounds. The Hungarian was a bright spot that year, averaging nearly a double-double with 11.7 points and nine rebounds.
Sitting in the crowd was an Ohio State alum who brought her family to the game, one of many Buckeyes doing the same that New Year’s Eve. The key difference is most fans don’t travel 4,400 miles to get there.
“We actually ended up sitting, I don’t know how, because we didn’t know where to buy tickets, but we ended up with a bunch of the Nebraska parents, which was a bit strange. So we were kind of like, wait, cheering. And they were cheering something else.”
That’s Jocelyn Striker-Lemmilä, who sat alongside 13-year-old Elsa Lemmilä, taking in her first American sports event.
From Bucyrus to Zurich
After college, Striker-Lemmilä took a different route than most people from Bucyrus, Ohio. It began with a stint in Columbus and Cleveland, working for an international tech company, where she met native Finn Jari Lemmilä. The two married and while living in Switzerland, the Lemmilä family grew by two with the births of Stella and Elsa.
From there, frequent flyer miles kept adding up. the Lemmilä’s moved to China for four years and back to Columbus for a year before returning to Switzerland. That’s when Elsa started playing basketball.
This isn’t the part of the story where Lemmilä picked up a basketball and the rest is history. Real life isn’t always that clean and tidy. Enrolled at an international school in Zurich, 12-year-old Elsa had an American sports experience. That means playing multiple sports like volleyball, track and basketball.
When it came to basketball, it didn’t take over Lemmilä’s life. There was one hour of practice a week, some games, and after two months the season was over and Lemmilä was on to the next activity. For her that means picking up a book and spending time with her family.
Following 12 years of globe hopping, the Lemmilä family settled down and moved home to Jari’s native Finland. With the move, athletic focus shifted. In the Nordic nation, kids typically choose one sport and stick with it. For Lemmilä, it was basketball, but adjusting to playing a new sport in Finland wasn’t easy.
Within the walls of the Lemmilä household, English is the primary language. Lemmilä knew it fluently, along with some German and French, but playing club sports in Finland took her away from her Americanized international school teammates. The language barrier was an issue right away.
A Perfectionist
Tapiolan Honka club became Lemmilä’s team. Structured more like youth soccer with teams comprised of kids within certain age groups, sometimes playing well enough to move up against older opponents, Lemmilä joined a team where she couldn’t verbally communicate with her peers.
“These girls were only 12, so they did learn English in school but they were too shy to speak English with her and she couldn’t speak Finnish to them,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “For the first year, she didn’t want to go to practice half the time because she was so uncomfortable with the language.”
While playing basketball is a language of its own, spoken by millions who play across the world, the 12-year-old had two things she had to fight through to get over that discomfort leading her to potentially step away from the sport for good. Being shy was one hurdle. After all, being a kid already comes with enough challenges, then add not knowing what those around you are saying to the list.
“One thing I forgot to say is she’s also a perfectionist,” said Striker-Lemmilä.
Helping Lemmilä was Anja Suomalainen (Bordt). A former Saint Mary’s women’s basketball guard, inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1997. Suomalainen became a translator for Lemmilä and became the first coach in the center’s development towards Lemmilä’s own collegiate career.
As comfort grew, the basketball ability shined through those early language-induced cracks. The perfectionist filled those cracks too, learning fluent Finnish.
“She’s dedicated to everything she does, school, sports,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “When she starts to love a topic, she dives into it.”
That topic was basketball. Within a year of moving to Finland, Lemmilä joined camps, had a growth spurt, and viewed as a potential high performer in Finland youth basketball. By the time the Lemmilä family came to visit family in Ohio in 2018, Elsa was 6-foot-2 at 13-years-old.
Elsa Lemmilä visiting Columbus in 2018
While sitting in the Schottenstein Center that night, looks came the family’s way. Likely wondering if Lemmilä was there as a recruit instead of the true story of a young basketball-obsessed player taking in her first basketball experience on the largest stage in her life to date.
Back in Finland, the Lemmilä family went to Honka games for their top level women’s side, but it wasn’t the same. There wasn’t an arena that can hold nearly 20,000 people and the lights and sounds that come along with it.
Even then, as the sport took over her life, Lemmilä didn’t see playing at Ohio State as a goal.
“I didn’t really know it was a possibility,” said Lemmilä. “I didn’t really think about it at all.”
However, after watching her first college game, Lemmilä immersed herself even more into the game. That included reading a book about Breanna Stewart, a WNBA Champion at the time, and someone Lemmilä would meet eight months later during a trip to Orlando, Florida.
That’s when Lemmilä took part in the 2019 jrNBA Global Championship. Playing in the same tournament as Jaloni Cambridge and JuJu Watkins and, although never playing against either of them, it gave Lemmilä the chance to test her skills against some of the best teenagers in the world.
Elsa Lemmilä competing in the 2019 jrNBA Global Championship
At one of the player events at the tournament, Lemmilä met Stewart, coming in off a WNBA title the year before, and there was no looking back.
European Recruiting
Lemmilä’s journey continued. The center represented her country on the youth and senior national team levels, and from that came recruiting attention.
European recruiting is different from the United States where players excel in their school or club system to make it into AAU basketball. In Europe, independent scouts identify talent and get that information back to universities. If they’re interested, they reach out. If they aren’t, there’s still an abundance of players both stateside and abroad.
At this point, Lemmilä excelled with Honka but also played at both the Finnish youth and senior national team levels.
Elsa Lemmilä playing for Tapiolan Honka
Yohanna Araya, now Yohanna Araya-Brooks, was one of those recruiters. As a former coach in Europe, Araya knew Finland National Team head coach Pekka Salminen, who spoke highly of Lemmilä. Araya told then Ohio State women’s basketball assistant coach Wesley Brooks about the center. Then a friend of Brooks also reached out to tell him about Lemmilä.
“We connected Pekka with Kevin [McGuff], and Kevin went to Finland a couple times and met with Pekka and got to see Elsa,” said now Utah State head coach Wes Brooks. “And he’s like ‘Wes, this kid’s really good. She’s really, really good.’”
In the summer of 2022, Brooks called the Lemmilä family to gauge interest.
“He had happened to contact me because he couldn’t talk to her yet and said ‘hey, we saw her play and we would be interested to talk to her, what do you think?’’ said Striker-Lemmilä. “And I said, well, ironically, we’re in Columbus, Ohio right now and we could do an unofficial visit.”
The next day, the Lemmilä’s sat in a golf cart that trekked through the Schottenstein Center on a quiet summer day on Ohio State’s campus, three years after they sat in the crowd watching the Buckeyes play for the first time.
Even with the alumni connection with Lemmilä’s mom and the Buckeyes asking about the center earlier in the recruiting process than others, the family kept their options open. Some big names came calling.
Stanford, UConn, UCLA, Louisville and more. When Lemmilä was old enough, her and her mom had phone calls with legendary coaches like Geno Auriemma and Tara VanDerveer, all hoping to add Lemmilä to their prestigious programs.
Through the process, it was never the Lemmilä family’s intention to push their youngest daughter towards Ohio State, even if the positives added up.
“We tried to be completely neutral and really didn’t wanna say anything,” said Lemmilä’s mom. “I didn’t wanna steer her any way. For example, when we got to talk to Geno Auriemma and Tara VanDerveer, I mean, I was just like oh my gosh, I was taking pictures on the side.”
Despite the stiff competition of a pair of NCAA coaches with 14 combined National Championships, Ohio State was persistent.
Brooks carved out time with Lemmilä every week, even if it was only checking in for a few minutes. It made a lasting impact as other schools didn’t put as much time or attention into their recruitment of Lemmilä.
Ohio State was one of many interested schools, eventually offering Lemmilä a scholarship. Then came an injury.
The day before leaving for the United States, a trip that included stops at Stanford, Ohio State and a potential pitstop at UCLA, Lemmilä practiced like usual. At the end of practice, in a lighter than normal session, Elsa tore her ACL.
“She was really at this like peak and that happened,” said Striker-Lemmilä. “It was just devastating.”
Choosing Ohio State
At this point, it makes sense that schools would move in other directions. The focus around Lemmilä didn’t leave and McGuff was one of the first people to reach out to the family after learning about the injury.
“He immediately said, we’re thinking about Elsa and our offer still stands.”
In the year off ACL tears need to recover, Lemmilä completed an intensive educational program where the injury gave her the time to complete it without basketball interfering, a minor silver lining on an otherwise difficult time of life.
While hurt, Lemmilä made the decision to wear Scarlet and Gray. Lemmilä’s mom texted the Buckeye coaches asking if they could talk when she broke the news.
“She didn’t ever, ever think that I would go to Ohio State, that either of her children would ever end up back in Ohio,” said Lemmilä about her mom. “She never, ever would have thought of that. So it was kind of shocking for her.”
Look past the family and the attentiveness and care of the coaching staff and Lemmilä also picked Ohio State for the sport of basketball.
Lemmilä joins a trend of McGuff bringing in European bigs. It was Juhász first, five years of Rebeka Mikulášiková and now the Swiss-born, Finland-raised, Lemmilä.
“I know it’s kind of the style of play that he chooses, you know, finding European bigs,” said Lemmilä. “It has a lot to do with playing five out and playing really fast with your bigs as well. So I really like that style of play.”
Acclimating Well
In a 64-point win over the Ohio Bobcats in Lemmilä’s fourth college game, her teammates on the bench loudly encouraging Lemmilä to take another shot. Make them and she’d become the leading scorer in the runaway Ohio State win.
Lemmilä hit the shot, scoring an early career high 21 points, with 14 rebounds and five blocks on a night where Lemmilä showed better patience under the rim, taking better shots and not rushing opportunities to score.
The improvement in two weeks of real games came from coaching advice that Lemmilä took and applied in-game. Following the win, McGuff gave the freshman the dub crown, the next iteration in the famous dub chain given to a player after each win over the past two seasons.
After the 6-foot-6 center bent down to allow McGuff to reach to the top of her head, Lemmilä’s teammates serenaded her with a version of “Let It Go” from the Disney classic Frozen, sung by arguably the most famous Elsa in pop culture today.
It was a moment almost two years in the making, shared with her new family.
“I acclimated a lot better than I thought I was going to, especially coming off not playing for a year and a half,” said Lemmilä. “It’s been a lot of fun. I really liked it here and a lot of that is also due to the players.”
Lemmilä didn’t initially make the connection between Juhász playing at Ohio State and eventually for UConn, both schools who pursued the center’s abilities on the court. The center from Finland has the chance to be the first Buckeye to average double digit rebounds per game since Juhász.
If the perfectionist has her way, Lemmilä could do that and more.
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LGHL Buckeye men blow out Gottlieb, Bradshaw investigated for ‘domestic incident’
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Buckeye men blow out Gottlieb, Bradshaw investigated for ‘domestic incident’
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
All the Buckeye news thats fit to re-print.
Look, we get it. Your days are busy and you don’t have time to read all of the stories and tweets from the three dozen websites dedicated to covering Ohio State athletics, or the 237 Buckeye beat writers churning out hot takes and #content on a daily basis. But that’s ok, that’s what your friends at Land-Grant Holy Land are here for.
Monday through Friday, we’ll be collecting all of the articles, tweets, features, interviews, videos, podcasts, memes, photos, and whatever else we stumble across on the interwebz and putting them in our daily “Why is this News?” article. That way, you’ll have a one-stop shop for all of the most important Buckeye news, jokes, and analysis.
You’re welcome!
Subscribe to the Land-Grant Podcast Network for all of your Ohio State needs
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio
Will Howard deserves to be in the Heisman Trophy conversation
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
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Patrick Murphy, Bucknuts
Buckeyes radio color commentator Jim Lachey to miss The Game
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row
Ryan Day named 247Sports’ Week 13 Big Ten Head Coach of the Week
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Things are going to be spicy this weekend:
Big Ten Championship, playoff scenarios for Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana heading into rivalry week
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Gene Ross and Josh Dooley, Land-Grant Holy Land
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Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row
Three Questions with Buckeyes fully focused on ending skid in The Game
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Will Howard motivated to beat Michigan, ‘shut up the haters’ of Ryan Day, Ohio State in rivalry game
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Good for Josh for owning this one:
What’s most important for you: beating TTUN, avenging the Oregon loss, winning B1G title?
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
Ohio State Hosts Annual Band Practice to Kick Off Rivalry Week
Andy Anders, Eleven Warriors
Grumpy Old Buckeye: Nitpicking Ohio State’s 38-15 win over Indiana
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Gott ‘em: Bruce Thornton, Buckeyes overwhelm Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay Phoenix, 102-69
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Ohio State’s Aaron Bradshaw being investigated for domestic incident
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Who could Ohio State turn to down low without Aaron Bradshaw?
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This looks dope:
Continue reading...
Matt Tamanini via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
All the Buckeye news thats fit to re-print.
Look, we get it. Your days are busy and you don’t have time to read all of the stories and tweets from the three dozen websites dedicated to covering Ohio State athletics, or the 237 Buckeye beat writers churning out hot takes and #content on a daily basis. But that’s ok, that’s what your friends at Land-Grant Holy Land are here for.
Monday through Friday, we’ll be collecting all of the articles, tweets, features, interviews, videos, podcasts, memes, photos, and whatever else we stumble across on the interwebz and putting them in our daily “Why is this News?” article. That way, you’ll have a one-stop shop for all of the most important Buckeye news, jokes, and analysis.
You’re welcome!
For your Earholes...
Subscribe to the Land-Grant Podcast Network for all of your Ohio State needs
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
Subscribe: RSS | Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio
On the Gridiron
Will Howard deserves to be in the Heisman Trophy conversation
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
Ohio State’s Will Howard, Cody Simon named Big Ten Players of the Week
Patrick Murphy, Bucknuts
Buckeyes radio color commentator Jim Lachey to miss The Game
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row
Ryan Day named 247Sports’ Week 13 Big Ten Head Coach of the Week
Matt Zenitz, 247Sports
Things are going to be spicy this weekend:
Big Ten Championship, playoff scenarios for Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State, Indiana heading into rivalry week
Cody Nagel, 247Sports
You’re Nuts: Biggest matchups to watch in The Game
Gene Ross and Josh Dooley, Land-Grant Holy Land
Everything Michigan coach Sherrone Moore, Wolverines players said about Buckeyes
Spencer Holbrook, Lettermen Row
Three Questions with Buckeyes fully focused on ending skid in The Game
Austin Ward, Dotting The Eyes
Will Howard motivated to beat Michigan, ‘shut up the haters’ of Ryan Day, Ohio State in rivalry game
Carter Bahns, 247Sports
Good for Josh for owning this one:
What’s most important for you: beating TTUN, avenging the Oregon loss, winning B1G title?
Matt Tamanini, Land-Grant Holy Land
Ohio State Hosts Annual Band Practice to Kick Off Rivalry Week
Andy Anders, Eleven Warriors
Grumpy Old Buckeye: Nitpicking Ohio State’s 38-15 win over Indiana
Michael Citro, Land-Grant Holy Land
On the Hardwood
Gott ‘em: Bruce Thornton, Buckeyes overwhelm Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay Phoenix, 102-69
Connor Lemons, Land-Grant Holy Land
Ohio State’s Aaron Bradshaw being investigated for domestic incident
Adam Jardy, The Columbus Dispatch
Who could Ohio State turn to down low without Aaron Bradshaw?
Adam Jardy, The Columbus Dispatch
Kennedy Cambridge’s moment almost two years in the making
Thomas Costello, Land-Grant Holy Land
Outside the Shoe and Schott
Kroger loans Brutus statue after OSU gift shop’s damaged by vandals
Shahid Meighan, The Columbus Dispatch
Women’s Volleyball: Buckeyes beat Indiana in five sets, complete 2-1 set comeback
Samuel Ing, The Lantern
And now for something completely different...
This looks dope:
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