Here are 4 things we learned from Ohio State women's basketball media day
There is no shying away from the expectations that greet the 2023-24 Ohio State women’s basketball team.
Yes, the Buckeyes have to replace Taylor Mikesell, one of the most prolific and accurate 3-point shooters in program history. Her shadow looms large over what Kevin McGuff’s offense could look like this season. But otherwise, Ohio State has plans to build upon what was a 28-8 season and the program’s deepest NCAA Tournament run in 30 years. That push came up just short of the Final Four, where the Buckeyes have not gone since falling in the 1993 national championship game.
But simply reaching the Elite Eight for the first time since that season isn’t enough for McGuff’s team, which has its eyes set on bigger goals this year.
“We’ll look a little different, I think, but (we’re) emphasizing the things that allowed us to be successful last year and the work ethic and chemistry and all those things,” McGuff said Monday. “Make sure we can recreate that part of it and then shoot for even higher expectations.
“(We have) a sense of urgency. There’s no complacency. They want to build on what we did last year.”
The preseason is officially underway for the Buckeyes, who held their first practice Tuesday afternoon inside the women’s practice gym at Value City Arena. First, though, McGuff met with reporters Monday at the end of men’s basketball media day and again before practice Tuesday when the majority of the roster also participated in women’s basketball media day.
Here are four things we learned about the Ohio State women’s basketball team as it begins the 2023-24 season.
Madison Greene still working her way back
It’s been four years since the 5-8 guard has been able to play a fully healthy season. As a first-year player in 2019-20, Green averaged 7.7 points and 2.5 assists in a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it’s been a career marked with stretches of high-level play marred by injuries.
That will continue this year for Greene, who is still battling to get back on the court after suffering a season-ending knee injury 12 games into the 2022-23 season.
“Everything’s on track right now,” McGuff said Monday. “She’s doing a great job. She’s very diligent. We’ve got a great sports performance team that’s guiding her in that process. She’s working really hard and we feel really good where she is right now.”
Greene missed the final five games of the 2020-21 season and underwent offseason surgery that cost her the entire 2021-22 season. In her 12 games last season, Greene averaged 10.9 points, 5.0 assists, 3.0 steals and 2.9 rebounds. She also shot 56.0% (14 for 25) from 3.
Tuesday, McGuff was asked about replacing Mikesell’s shooting ability and mentioned Greene, saying, “Hopefully at some point Madison comes back, because she’s an excellent shooter.”
Kevin McGuff’s offseason focus has been on these two areas
As he has built the roster, adding transfers and first-year players, McGuff said he has dialed in on two primary points of emphasis for this year’s team.
The Buckeyes need to be better with their half-court defense, and they must rebound better.
“As I reflected last year, probably half-court defense and at times rebounding were the things that probably kept us from getting to the next level in terms of our ability to compete with anybody in the country,” he said. “It’s going to be a point of emphasis for us and I think personnel will allow us to be better.”
That personnel includes Duke transfer Celeste Taylor, the 2022-23 ACC defensive player of the year, an Associated Press honorable mention all-American and a finalist for the Naismith Women’s Defensive Player of the Year award. She’s expected to impact the team’s ability to defend better past midcourt, while fellow transfer Taiyier Parks was targeted to help Ohio State’s size and post production.
The 6-3 Parks averaged 5.2 rebounds for Michigan State last season, one year removed from pulling down a career-high 6.5 rebounds in 2021-22. Both Parks and Taylor have one year of eligibility with the Buckeyes, and each said that Ohio State’s opportunity for success this season played a part in their decisions to join.
“I would say everything happens for a reason and the timing is not my timing, it’s God’s timing,” said Taylor, who played her first two seasons at Texas before transferring to Duke for the next two. “Throughout the whole process, it just was the perfect fit at this time. They’ve had a lot of success.”
Marquee home game coming
Some of the 2023-24 non-conference highlights have already been released, but McGuff said there’s a big one that has been agreed upon but won’t be publicly announced until the final contracts have been signed by both schools.
It will be a game at Value City Arena in December.
“We’ve agreed to it, if we get the contract, it’s a very big home game against a team I’ll say we’re going to see a lot in the future,” McGuff said. I’ll keep it to that. It’s going to be a really big game. It’s going to be a home game in December. We’ve agreed to it. We’ve just got to get the contracts before we put it out publicly.”
The Big Ten will be adding USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington in 2024-25, and McGuff’s comments hint at it being one of those four schools. It won’t be USC – the Buckeyes and Trojans will play each other in Las Vegas on Nov. 6 as part of the Naismith Hall of Fame Series. Ohio State will also play at Tennessee on Dec. 3, but there will be another home game that will be a big deal in the McGuff family.
His daughter, Kilyn, plays for Belmont, which will play at Value City Arena this season.
“That’ll be a fun affair for the McGuff household,” he said. “I told her I hope she plays great and we win.”
Ohio State will look different without Taylor Mikesell
This one is pretty obvious, but losing a player who took 125 more shots than anyone else last season will have an impact on how the Buckeyes will play this season. In her final year, Mikesell led Ohio State at 17.2 points per game while also shooting 41.4% (116 for 280) from 3-point range. Mikesell took more than twice as many 3s as anyone else on the roster and made nearly three times as many as anyone else.
There is no like-for-like replacement, McGuff said, and without Mikesell the Buckeyes are likely to be less reliant on perimeter shooting.
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“Probably so,” he said. “This will be a little bit of a different team. I think we’ll have to make some 3s, because I think people will try to make us score from there, but we can also score and be successful in different ways.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women's basketball media day: 4 immediate takeaways
