Ohio State women’s basketball has already gone further in the NCAA Tournament than it was supposed to be based on the bracket, but the Buckeyes still have their sights set on accomplishing more.
The Buckeyes are playing in the Sweet 16 for the first time in five years after defeating Missouri State and LSU in the first two rounds of the tournament. The second-round victory over LSU was particularly impressive, as the No. 6 seed Buckeyes won by 15 points, 79-64, even though the No. 3 seed Tigers were playing on their home court.
Ohio State’s players don’t really like hearing the word upset to describe that game, however.
“We weren't looking at it as an upset,” redshirt sophomore guard Rikki Harris said Thursday. “We think we're one of the best teams in the NCAA, so it just was a good win for us.”
Nevertheless, it was a win over a higher-seeded team, and that’s what the Buckeyes will need to achieve again to continue on in the tournament. Ohio State will play the No. 2 seed in the Spokane Region when it faces Texas at 7 p.m. Friday (ESPN2). If the Buckeyes can get past the Longhorns on Friday night, they’d play either No. 1 seed Stanford or No. 4 seed Maryland in the Elite Eight on Sunday.
For betting purposes, it would be an upset if Ohio State beats Texas, as the Longhorns were a five-point favorite to beat the Buckeyes as of Thursday night. But the Buckeyes aren’t concerned about who might doubt them.
“We just want to win and play,” Harris said. “At this point, we're coming in as the underdogs in most of our games right now. So just playing hard and playing together. It’s no chip on our shoulders, we just want to win.”
The Buckeyes, who are 25-6 this season, believe they are capable of beating any opponent if they play their best basketball.
“I think March is for everybody, and the person that comes out from the beginning, coming off the plane, is the person that takes it all,” said sophomore guard Kateri Poole. “And I think we're a championship team, a national championship team, and any given day is for anybody.
“I believe that our mentality is stronger than any other team in the NCAA.”
Ohio State has reason to be confident after its performance against LSU. The Buckeyes didn’t just beat the Tigers on their home floor, they dominated, leading by as many as 24 points before the home team made the score a bit more respectable down the stretch of the game.
Head coach Kevin McGuff believes that win has bolstered his players’ confidence entering the second weekend of the tournament.
“With the win at LSU, in such a tough environment, it really did, I think, raise the level of confidence for our players,” McGuff said. “I think we had a strong belief going in that we could win, but then to actually do it and to play very well, we played one of our best basketball games at the right time. And so hopefully that gives them confidence as we prepare for this very, very talented and well-coached Texas team.”
“I think we're a championship team, a national championship team, and any given day is for anybody.”– Ohio State guard Kateri Poole
As McGuff said, Ohio State will need to play another one of its best games of the season if it’s going to beat Texas on Friday. The Longhorns have won their last 13 straight games, the second-longest winning streak among teams remaining in the tournament behind only Stanford. They’ve held opponents to only 56.7 points per game while forcing 21.3 turnovers per game, the most of any power-conference team this season.
McGuff described them as one of the best defensive teams and one of the best rebounding teams in the country.
“I think what makes them unique is their ball pressure, their ability to deny passing lanes and disrupt offenses, makes them arguably the best defensive team in the country,” McGuff said. “And the scary part about that is they're as good as anyone in the country at taking live-ball turnovers and turning them into layups. So I think two huge things that kind of stand out to me is we're going to have to take care of the ball and not turn the ball over.
“And then the other one is just our ability to keep them off the glass. They're a very physical, athletic team that can really do some damage on the offensive boards.”
Ohio State has been one of the nation’s best offensive teams this year, ranking sixth nationally with 79.2 points per game. The Buckeyes have gotten consistent scoring from the guard tandem of Jacy Sheldon (19.8 points per game) and Taylor Mikesell (18.6 points per game), who combined to score 80 total points in Ohio State’s first two NCAA Tournament games.
Other players have also stepped up around Sheldon and Mikesell – like Rebeka Mikulasikova, who has averaged 9.6 points per game this season and had 12 points in the win over LSU – and McGuff says that will be necessary on Friday if the Buckeyes are to beat the Longhorns.
“Like always, Jacy and Taylor are going to garner a lot of attention from Texas and how they prepare for us. So it will need to be a team effort,” McGuff said. “They're going to have to obviously play well and score for us to have a chance to win. But it's going to have to be more of a team effort, I think, versus Texas than maybe it has been in some other games.”
Taylor Mikesell scored 18 points in Ohio State’s win over LSU. (Photo: Stephen Lew – USA TODAY Sports)
Ohio State will be looking to end a 29-year drought on Friday, as the Buckeyes have not made it to the Elite Eight since 1993, when they went all the way to the national championship game before falling to Texas Tech in the final. Ohio State has lost all of its last five Sweet 16 games in 2005, 2009, 2011, 2016 and 2017, the last two of which came with McGuff as head coach.
“It would obviously be a huge milestone,” McGuff said. “We have a very passionate fan base who takes a lot of pride in our program, and for them, I think it would be a huge deal. And certainly then for our players and for what we're trying to accomplish and who we're trying to be as a program, that would be an obvious next step for us.”
The Buckeyes aren’t worried about what’s happened in the past, though. When Harris was asked Thursday about how long it’s been since Ohio State has won a Sweet 16 game, she laughed and she didn’t know about the 29-year drought. And even though only one current Buckeye has ever previously played in a Sweet 16 game – Mikesell, when she was at Oregon last year before transferring to Ohio State – they’re confident they’re ready for the increased level of competition that comes with playing in the second weekend of March Madness.
“I’d say we're good at accepting pressure,” Harris said. “So as long as we stick together throughout the whole thing, we're good. And that's all. We just stay together. A lot of teams, when we played them, they bring their best game against us. So we just know that no matter what, if we stay together, we're going to be good.”
