Observations From Ohio State Women's Hoops 88-78 Exhibition Win Over Ashland

The game was closer than Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff would have liked, but the Buckeyes came away with a 88-78 win over Ashland in the team's preseason exhibition game.

McGuff was terribly displeased with what he saw from his team.

"We had an overall lack of focus and effort that was disappointing quite frankly," McGuff said. "Give credit to Ashland, I thought they played a great game. They executed and kind of stuck with what they wanted to do and didn't waver from that. And we didn't do anything to make it hard on them."

Ashland was able to exploit the Buckeyes' half-court defense early, finding open space and knocking down open jumpers. On the offensive end, Kelsey Mitchell just couldn't get going and the Buckeyes stalled as a result.

The game didn't count for anything, but it gave us our first look at what will looks to be one of Ohio State's most talented women's hoops team's in the program's history.

1. THE TEAM STILL RIDES OR DIES WITH MITCHELL

The game was oddly close. The reason – Kelsey Mitchell was off.

Mitchell, one of the most prolific scorers in NCAA history through her first two seasons, had one of the worst offensive scoring performances of her career. Mitchell went just 5-for-20 from the field on the game scoring 11 points and did not hit a single three-pointer.

Thankfully for the Buckeyes, Mitchell is very good at basketball and will be just fine going forward. If anything, it may have been good for this Ohio State team to figure out how to play with a 

Also, a preseason exhibition game is an excellent time to have an off-game.

2. The Transfers Came to Play 

Ohio State has three transfers eligible this season after they sat out last season in accordance to NCAA transfer regulations. Stephanie Mavunga (North Carolina), Sierra Calhound (Duke) and Linnae Harper (Kentucky) will all be at Kevin McGuff's disposal in 2016, and he'll be very glad about that.

Mavunga and Calhoun both started for the Buckeyes and combined for the team's first seven points. At times, it seemed like the duo was carrying the team. Mavunga was a force down low, tallying 8 rebounds and 18 points while Calhoun nicely filled the void left by the graduated Ameryst Alston with 12 points.

Harper is still ineligible, as she was a second-semester transfer and thus won't be eligible to play until December. She's expected to make an immediate impact as well, likely even finding her way in the starting rotation.

3. Shayla Cooper is Versatile

Shayla Cooper said she spent the summer working on her dribbling and perimeter game, and it showed.

With such an undersized team last season, Cooper played primarily as a forward inside the three-point arc. That was not the case Sunday. Cooper played on the perimeter the entire game, and she did it well.

Cooper looks like a new player, beating players off the dribble, driving inside, taking outside shots and even taking the ball up the court a few times. With that element added to her game, Ohio State's only senior will be a key part of this Buckeye team.

"It was fun," Cooper said. It was stuff that I'd worked on all summer, so I was glad to put it to the test."

She was the team's leading scorer with 20 points and also pulled down four rebounds.

4. Defense Still Isn't Great

Last season, defense was Ohio State's achilles heal. This season, it's still a cause for concern.

Under Kevin McGuff, the Buckeyes have never really been able to shut a team down with a half-court defense. It doesn't appear that will change anytime soon.

In the first half, Ohio State played a slower half-court defense and it yielded unspectacular results. The Buckeyes seemed to get lost defensively and allowed a far inferior opponent to score 36 points in the first half, primarily on wide-open jump shots.

In the second half, the Buckeyes switched to their familiar press defense, fully utilizing their elite quickness. Things improved, but not dramatically. Ohio State seemed to really miss Cait Craft.

If this Buckeye team is going to make any real national noise, it will need to get much, much better on the defensive end.

5. The Depth is Real

Another concern for the Buckeyes for most of Kevin McGuff's tenure has been depth. The past two seasons in particular, injuries depleted an otherwise talented Ohio State team, forcing the them to play rotations as small as six or seven players.

This season, Ohio State added six new players to its rotation and their impact was certainly felt Sunday afternoon. Players actually rotated on and off the court and nobody played massive minutes – a welcome change from previous seasons.

Let's put it this way – Alexa Hart has been one of the most dominant post players in the conference the past two seasons. She now comes off the bench.