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Game Preview: No. 7 Ohio State women’s basketball vs. IUPUI
ThomasCostello via our friends at Land-Grant Holy Land
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Buckeyes return home from Las Vegas for their first home game of the season.
It was a difficult start to the season for the Ohio State women’s basketball team. The Buckeyes faced a motivated No. 21 USC team, featuring one of the most dangerous freshman and an imposing interior presence. Head coach Kevin McGuff’s side played two solid quarters of basketball, but couldn’t keep things consistent for 40 minutes. Now, Sunday gives the scarlet and gray a chance to continue to gel and find its offensive stroke, against the IUPUI Jaguars.
Monday’s 83-75 defeat at the hands of the Trojans is likely not indicative of what fans will see out of Ohio State in the 23-24 season. While it's easy to overreact in a game where the Buckeyes looked like two completely different teams, it was the first of 29 games. Also, McGuff’s side knew that offense wasn’t going to just click this year like it had in the past two seasons.
However, Monday’s Ohio State side had spells looking like the team everyone expected this season: Staunch defensively and flowing on offense. Plus a surprise or two.
Defensively, No. 1 freshman recruit in the nation, USC guard Juju Watkins, was the lone player who really exposed the Buckeyes, scoring-wise. Watkins had 32 points, barely breaking a sweat as she dribbled past defenders and caused Ohio State players to pick up early fouls.
Outside of Watkins, no one imposed their will offensively against the Buckeyes half court defense. Forward Rayah Marshall had 18 points, but a lot of those came off poor turnovers and autopilot passing by Ohio State, seemingly right to the forward. In the first and second quarters, the Buckeyes outscored the Trojans 48-25. Eliminate turnovers (Ohio State had 14 for 17 points given up), and it's an even closer outcome and more competitive in the final minutes of the game.
Offensively, forward Cotie McMahon was quiet with seven points, with three coming off one shot from deep in the first quarter, but its not all on the sophomore. Ohio State had good spells of scoring production but overall looked not all on the same page.
Ohio State’s disastrous second quarter, scoring 10 points, the catch and shoot style makes of the first quarter were replaced with catch, dribble and heave on bad opportunities. Making it worse was they came earlier in the shot clock without much passing and off the ball movement, like running plays was optional going into halftime.
It's going to take this team time to align offensively. Sunday is a great chance to work on it. The Buckeyes face Horizon League side IUPUI, based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Interesting enough, the Jaguars bring similar characteristics to the USC Trojans, albeit from a smaller league with less Watkins-esque stars.
While the Jaguars underwent a lot of change this offseason, only four players remain from its last season’s roster, one name to watch against the Buckeyes is forward Jazmyn Turner. After Marshall hit Ohio State for 18 points and 17 rebounds, Turner was pulling up eerily similar numbers against Eastern Illinois.
In 32 minutes, Turner scored 19 points on top of 17 rebounds. While Turner doesn't average a double-double like Marshall, Turner has games where she can pull double-doubles on the boards. The Marion, Indiana native also led the Jaguars in scoring last year with 14.9 points.
Also like USC’s production by Watson, IUPUI’s scoring in its lone game of the season was a 32-point game. This time by guard Katie Davidson. Following two seasons with the Miami University Redhawks, Davidson had a nice introduction to IUPUI fans, hitting a career high in scoring. The guard will hurt the Buckeyes mostly from deep though, not like Watkins’ impressive paint performance.
Sunday’s matinee, one of many for Ohio State on weekends this season, shouldn't give the Buckeyes too much trouble, but there can be matchup problems against Turner especially that could make things interesting early.
An especially important part of Sunday is giving Buckeyes guard Celeste Taylor more real game practice to incorporate into this new side. Taylor had seven points and two assists before fouling out on Monday. Defensively, Taylor had two steals and did well at stifling non-Watkins guards on the Trojans, It’s offensively that Taylor needs to find her place on this scarlet and gray side.
Of Taylor’s seven points, four came from the foul line and one three made up the rest. Overall, Taylor shot 1-for-8, with five of those shots coming from deep. Maybe it was first game jitters with a new team or the pressure to hit three-point shots (no one shot from deep particularly well with OSU going 5-for-21 from beyond the arc).
Either way, taking on a school outside of the power five conferences should help build confidence for Taylor offensively, and help teammates take another step forward in becoming a more consistent side.
Ohio State will win, and win big. It’s not simply because IUPUI is a smaller division team. It’s because of that Monday defeat. The Jaguars face a Buckeyes team with added motivation following a rough outing against the Trojans.
McMahon will lead the Buckeyes in scoring and hit shots in the paint with regularity. Also, McGuff will continue to see what the scarlet and gray can do from beyond the arc.
How to Watch
Date: Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Where: Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio
Stream: B1G+
Sunday is one of seven non-conference games the Buckeyes play in Columbus this year. Last season, Ohio State led the country in the largest increase in home attendance and promotion-wise, the scarlet and gray aren’t slowing down.
The first 1,000 fans to Sunday’s game get a roster t-shirt, and everyone gets a chance to meet and greet the team following the final buzzer. It’s the third meet and greet the team has done in this early season, with both prior editions coming in a combined event with the men’s team and an open practice for the women.
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
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Buckeyes return home from Las Vegas for their first home game of the season.
It was a difficult start to the season for the Ohio State women’s basketball team. The Buckeyes faced a motivated No. 21 USC team, featuring one of the most dangerous freshman and an imposing interior presence. Head coach Kevin McGuff’s side played two solid quarters of basketball, but couldn’t keep things consistent for 40 minutes. Now, Sunday gives the scarlet and gray a chance to continue to gel and find its offensive stroke, against the IUPUI Jaguars.
Preview
Monday’s 83-75 defeat at the hands of the Trojans is likely not indicative of what fans will see out of Ohio State in the 23-24 season. While it's easy to overreact in a game where the Buckeyes looked like two completely different teams, it was the first of 29 games. Also, McGuff’s side knew that offense wasn’t going to just click this year like it had in the past two seasons.
However, Monday’s Ohio State side had spells looking like the team everyone expected this season: Staunch defensively and flowing on offense. Plus a surprise or two.
Defensively, No. 1 freshman recruit in the nation, USC guard Juju Watkins, was the lone player who really exposed the Buckeyes, scoring-wise. Watkins had 32 points, barely breaking a sweat as she dribbled past defenders and caused Ohio State players to pick up early fouls.
Outside of Watkins, no one imposed their will offensively against the Buckeyes half court defense. Forward Rayah Marshall had 18 points, but a lot of those came off poor turnovers and autopilot passing by Ohio State, seemingly right to the forward. In the first and second quarters, the Buckeyes outscored the Trojans 48-25. Eliminate turnovers (Ohio State had 14 for 17 points given up), and it's an even closer outcome and more competitive in the final minutes of the game.
Offensively, forward Cotie McMahon was quiet with seven points, with three coming off one shot from deep in the first quarter, but its not all on the sophomore. Ohio State had good spells of scoring production but overall looked not all on the same page.
Ohio State’s disastrous second quarter, scoring 10 points, the catch and shoot style makes of the first quarter were replaced with catch, dribble and heave on bad opportunities. Making it worse was they came earlier in the shot clock without much passing and off the ball movement, like running plays was optional going into halftime.
It's going to take this team time to align offensively. Sunday is a great chance to work on it. The Buckeyes face Horizon League side IUPUI, based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Interesting enough, the Jaguars bring similar characteristics to the USC Trojans, albeit from a smaller league with less Watkins-esque stars.
While the Jaguars underwent a lot of change this offseason, only four players remain from its last season’s roster, one name to watch against the Buckeyes is forward Jazmyn Turner. After Marshall hit Ohio State for 18 points and 17 rebounds, Turner was pulling up eerily similar numbers against Eastern Illinois.
In 32 minutes, Turner scored 19 points on top of 17 rebounds. While Turner doesn't average a double-double like Marshall, Turner has games where she can pull double-doubles on the boards. The Marion, Indiana native also led the Jaguars in scoring last year with 14.9 points.
Also like USC’s production by Watson, IUPUI’s scoring in its lone game of the season was a 32-point game. This time by guard Katie Davidson. Following two seasons with the Miami University Redhawks, Davidson had a nice introduction to IUPUI fans, hitting a career high in scoring. The guard will hurt the Buckeyes mostly from deep though, not like Watkins’ impressive paint performance.
Sunday’s matinee, one of many for Ohio State on weekends this season, shouldn't give the Buckeyes too much trouble, but there can be matchup problems against Turner especially that could make things interesting early.
An especially important part of Sunday is giving Buckeyes guard Celeste Taylor more real game practice to incorporate into this new side. Taylor had seven points and two assists before fouling out on Monday. Defensively, Taylor had two steals and did well at stifling non-Watkins guards on the Trojans, It’s offensively that Taylor needs to find her place on this scarlet and gray side.
Of Taylor’s seven points, four came from the foul line and one three made up the rest. Overall, Taylor shot 1-for-8, with five of those shots coming from deep. Maybe it was first game jitters with a new team or the pressure to hit three-point shots (no one shot from deep particularly well with OSU going 5-for-21 from beyond the arc).
Either way, taking on a school outside of the power five conferences should help build confidence for Taylor offensively, and help teammates take another step forward in becoming a more consistent side.
Projected Lineups
Lineup Notes
- McMahon has only scored seven points or less in 10 of the sophomore’s 37 career NCAA games.
- A bright spot Monday was Sheldon, who led the Buckeyes with 28 points, five steals and two assists, showing that the guard is healthy again.
- Forward transfers Taiyier Parks and Eboni Walker only played a combined seven minutes for the Buckeyes, with McGuff going with Rebeka Mikulášiková and Taylor Thierry as the main two athletes playing the No. 5 role.
Lineup Notes
- Senior guard Jaela Johnson has experience against the Buckeyes, scoring 24 points in Nov. 2021 as a member of Bellarmine University.
- Senior guard Jaci Jones started Monday for IUPUI, only her second start going into her fourth season with the Jaguars.
- Coach Kate Bruce comes back to Ohio for this one after coaching NCAA Division II Walsh University to 134 wins in six seasons, before leaving for IUPUI in May of 2022.
Prediction
Ohio State will win, and win big. It’s not simply because IUPUI is a smaller division team. It’s because of that Monday defeat. The Jaguars face a Buckeyes team with added motivation following a rough outing against the Trojans.
McMahon will lead the Buckeyes in scoring and hit shots in the paint with regularity. Also, McGuff will continue to see what the scarlet and gray can do from beyond the arc.
How to Watch
Date: Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023
Time: 1:00 p.m. ET
Where: Schottenstein Center, Columbus, Ohio
Stream: B1G+
LGHL Prediction: 92-61 Ohio State Buckeyes
Home Crowd
Sunday is one of seven non-conference games the Buckeyes play in Columbus this year. Last season, Ohio State led the country in the largest increase in home attendance and promotion-wise, the scarlet and gray aren’t slowing down.
The first 1,000 fans to Sunday’s game get a roster t-shirt, and everyone gets a chance to meet and greet the team following the final buzzer. It’s the third meet and greet the team has done in this early season, with both prior editions coming in a combined event with the men’s team and an open practice for the women.
Continue reading...