Ohio State women’s basketball is projected to be the seventh-best team in the country this season.
The Buckeyes are ranked seventh in the preseason AP Top 25 behind LSU, UConn, Iowa, UCLA, Utah and South Carolina.
It’s the highest Ohio State has been ranked in the preseason AP poll since 2017, when the Buckeyes were ranked fifth entering the season.
Ohio State is one of five Big Ten teams in the preseason top 25 along with Iowa (3), Indiana (9), Maryland (14) and Illinois (23).
The Buckeyes are also sixth in the preseason WBCA coaches’ poll behind LSU, UConn, Iowa, South Carolina and Virginia Tech.
Ohio State enters this year's campaign with aspirations of making a run to the Final Four – which will be played in Cleveland this year – after advancing to the Elite Eight for the first time in 30 years last season. While the Buckeyes are replacing leading scorer Taylor Mikesell from last season, they return all of their next seven leading scorers from a year ago, while they also added a trio of notable transfers: Reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year Celeste Taylor (Duke), former Michigan State forward Taiyier Parks and former Kentucky guard Kennedy Cambridge.
“We're gonna need some other people to step up, make some shots from the perimeter,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said last month. “But I also think we can be better in some ways. When we add somebody as good as Celeste Taylor on defense, and the other people that we added will provide us probably more depth than we've ever had. And so I think we'll be a little different, but we can be as good and hopefully maybe even better.”
The Buckeyes were also picked to finish second in the Big Ten by the conference’s coaches and third in the conference by Big Ten media members.
Ohio State’s women’s basketball team was the only Buckeye basketball team to make the preseason AP poll for its respective genders, as Ohio State’s men’s squad did not receive any votes in the preseason AP Top 25 after going 16-19 a year ago. That said, the Buckeye men are expected to be better this season than they were last season, as they were projected to finish seventh in the conference standings in the unofficial Big Ten men’s basketball media poll.
Both Ohio State basketball teams are set to open their seasons on Nov. 6, with the women set to begin their year with a neutral-site game against USC at 2 p.m. that day in Las Vegas. The men, who are also set to play a preseason charity exhibition game at Dayton this Sunday, will officially open their season in a 7 p.m. home game vs. Oakland at Value City Arena.
