The 2015-16 Ohio State women's basketball team spoke to the media for the first time this week. Head Coach Kevin McGuff, senior captains Ameryst Alston and Cait Craft as well as reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Kelsey Mitchell talked about the upcoming season, the team's new additions, and early season big games.
Head Coach Kevin Mcguff
- The team is further ahead offensively than it is defensively.
- Depth on the bench will help the defense this year: "One of the things that helps defense is having other people to put in. 'You don't want to play defense? Come out.' I look at the bench and we have no options. So we had to play through bad defense."
- The difficult non-conference schedule kind of reminds him of his time coaching at Xavier. "At Xavier, we didn't really have a strong conference, so we had to play a really, really heavy non-conference schedule."
- He likes the rule change that allows a team to advance the to mid-court with a time out in the last two minutes of the game. "I think it'll create more exciting finishes and that's good for women's basketball."
- He's never coached a game played in quarters. The entirety of his coaching experience is with two halves.
- This is the best team he's had since he's been here.
- On Kelsey Mitchell: "I can't imagine there's a player in college basketball working harder." He expects she'll be better this year, but that doesn't necessarily mean she will score more points.
- The team has three captains this year – seniors Ameryst Alston and Cait Craft as well as Kianna Holland, who sat the entire 2014-15 season due to an injury.
- When asked about returning all five starters: "There's a good chance we won't start the same kids."
Cait Craft
- On comparisons to her brother Aaron. "Shooting is one thing I'll hopefully always have on him," she said.
- On playing Connecticut and South Carolina early in the season: "In the past we've played some weaker teams and it gave us a false sense of security." They'll find out where they stand early this season.
- Praised Kelsey Mitchell's work ethic. Craft's not sure she ever leaves the practice facilities.
- She played heavy minutes as a sophomore and Coach McGuff promised she would have help next year. Then the team was devastated with injuries.
- They have to be better on defense. They can't rely on their offense to win every game because some teams can score just as well.
- Craft is happy she no longer has to play out of position at the forward spot. "I'm way too small," she said.
Kelsey Mitchell
- On where the team needs to improve: "We lacked tremendously defensively, particularly on our rebounding." Bad defense was one of the team's downfalls last season.
- On where she needs to improve individually: "I have a lot of flaws this year. I'm inconsistent with my shot. And a lot of things on defensive end, being in the right position on the helps side and everything like that, I think I lack tremendously in those areas. But that's what you practice for."
- "Where I come from, I see all the kids not being able to do the things they want to do with the circumstances they're in. I honestly do it for the people who don't get a chance to do it ... Why not embrace it and do everything that's asked of me to make sure to be the best I can be? A lot of people take it for granted, but I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that at all. Because just as quickly as I got it, it can be taken away."
- "As long as you're nervous, it means you care. I think it's a half-way decent good thing, but then again I think there's a downfall on my play and some of the things I can do inside the classroom. Sometimes I think that's my downfall, knowing that I'm so nervous or that I'm not as confident in myself as I should be."
- On if she's more confident as a vocal leader this year: "No. I think it's probably worse because we got new people." she said "I'm not too good at having a conversation with my teammates yet, I don't know why, I'm just not there yet. I try to lead by example because talking is just not my thing."
- "I think all my teammates do something amazing ... I think everyone on my team does something that nobody else can do. Like, I think Asia defends the ball well. Nobody else can defend the ball like she can."
- On freshman Kaylan Pugh: "She is aggressive. Any time you're getting to the rim or anything defense-wise, she's there."
- She's not worried at all about the possibility of getting fewer shots this season because she trusts her teammates.
Ameryst Alston
- "We have pretty much the same team – minus Amy – and we're just adding different parts."
- On the team's defense last year, Alston said depth will certainly help this year. "We were trying to be careful. We only had 7 or 8 players," she said. "With depth on our bench if someone gets a quick foul you can just sub someone else right in."
- On playing Connecticut and South Carolina early, Alston said she's excited. "In order to be the best, you have to beat the best."
- On Kelsey Mitchell, Alston said "she's humble, she never hypes herself."
- On Cait Craft's leadership, Alston said "In game situations, when things aren't going right she'll gather the team and be very encouraging. That's one of her strengths; she keeps us together and tries to keep us calm."
- "We are a little bigger this year," Alston notes. "(Last year) we had guards playing forward that were shorter than me."
Takeaways
Defense Must Improve
A running theme was the need to get better defensively.
Ohio State had a prolific offense last season, led by the nation's leading scorer in Kelsey Mitchell. The defense, however, was uncharacteristic of a top Big Ten team. The Buckeyes held their opponent under 60 points just five times last season, and only once in conference play.
Of course, there are reasons for the team's defensive struggles. Due to injuries, Ohio State was forced to play a seven or eight-player rotation throughout the season. Players were tired, forced to play out of position and often had to play passive defense to stay out of foul trouble.
This year, depth will be there and the defense should be better, but the team seems to agree it has to be better.
Kianna Holland
Ohio State returns all five starters this season, but it's the players returning to the team from injury that's generated the most preseason intrigue. At the very least, these players will provide much needed depth and bolster the bench, but who can step up and make the biggest impact?
Your answer: Kianna Holland.
When asked about new players he expected to make an impact this season, Kevin McGuff answered "Kianna Holland, who sat out last year with a knee injury, gives us a really, really great three-point shooter and probably helps us spread the floor and gives us a little more balance with having a lot of guards that attack the basket so well." Cait Craft said something similar, explaining that the team has many three-point threats, but Holland is a new level.
Holland may be even mean more to the team in the locker room. The team elected her as one of the Buckeyes' three captains for the 2015-16 season, before she's even played a game at Ohio State.
McGuff mentioned there's a good chance the starting lineup will be different this season. Perhaps Kianna Holland is the new addition.
