After a hard-fought 88-80 loss to No. 2 South Carolina in Columbia, the Buckeyes face an even more daunting task just three days later as they open up their home slate against the three-time defending NCAA champion and top-ranked Connecticut Huskies.
The Connecticut women's basketball team has been perhaps the most dominant program in sports over the past 20 years. Under head coach Geno Auriemma, the Huskies have won 10 NCAA titles in the past 20 years, and haven't missed the the NCAA Tournament since 1988.
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0-0, 0-0 AAC ROSTER SCHEDULE |
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5:30 PM – Monday, NOV. 16 SCHOTTENSTEIN CENTER COLUMBUS, OHIO |
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The Buckeyes are aware of this.
"If they walked in here in different jerseys maybe it'd be a little bit different," said Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff. "They obviously have an aura about them — and they've earned that."
However, while that "aura" exists, so does a target. For McGuff and the Buckeyes, Monday night's nationally-televised match-up is a chance to knock-off the top dogs.
As the saying goes — if you want to be the best you have to beat the best.
"It's a great opportunity. I think we have a great environment our fans are going to show up and make the Schott an extremely tough place to play," said McGuff. "I'm excited for our kids."
Connecticut
The Huskies are ranked No. 1 coming off their third consecutive NCAA Championship, and they are again loaded with talent.
"Connecticut is unbelievable," said Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff. "They're No. 1 in the country for a reason."
Returning for the Huskies is two-time National Player of the Year Bianna Stewart. The senior averaged 17.6 points, 7.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists last season. She's joined by last season's Lieberman Award Winner (given to the nation's top point guard) Moriah Jefferson along with Kia Nurse — last season's AAC Freshman of the Year.
This Connecticut team has known nothing but success. The senior class has never had a season end without a national title and has a record of 113-5 over their three seasons. This season, they're going for their unprecedented fourth-consecutive NCAA Title.
The first team in their path is Ohio State, who will try to end the Huskies' streak of winning 19-consecutive season-openers.
Ohio State
The Buckeyes have never beaten the Huskies — they're 0-3 all-time — but Connecticut has never faced a Buckeye team with this much talent.
Led by reigning National Freshman of the Year and last season's NCAA scoring leader Kelsey Mitchell, the Buckeye offense can score in bunches. They put up a school-record 2,836 points last season and return all but 32 of that total.
Against top teams, scoring will not be the issue. This Ohio State team can score against anybody. The concern is defense and rebounding, and it showed Friday in the team's 88-80 loss to South Carolina.
Somewhat surprisingly, Ohio State was winning the rebounding battle until midway through the third quarter. Then South Carolina took over.
"I think their size and physicality wore us down," said Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff. "I was hopeful that with a little added depth this year that wouldn't be the case, but it was."
"They got a lot of big offensive rebounds and I think ultimately that was the difference in the game," said McGuff.
Connecticut does not possess quite the size or physicality South Carolina does, so the Buckeyes hope this provides a better match-up, at least in the paint.
Ohio State will need to play near-perfect basketball to top the Huskies, from start to finish. Against South Carolina, the Buckeyes started slow — falling behind 15 points early — and ended sloppy. A repeat performance will likely lead to an even more lopsided defeat.
