Ohio State women’s basketball coach Kevin McGuff knew Sunday’s game against Iowa would be a unique opportunity for his program to build momentum both on and off the court.
On the court, the stakes were obvious. Iowa entered the game leading the Big Ten standings with a 7-0 conference record and the No. 2 ranking in the AP Top 25, giving the Buckeyes a chance to pick up a signature win after two early-season missed opportunities against USC and UCLA.
But Sunday also gave Ohio State to play under one of the biggest spotlights it’s ever had upon it in a home game. Thanks to Iowa’s transcendent superstar Caitlin Clark, Ohio State sold out the full capacity of the Schottenstein Center and set a new program record with 18,600 people in attendance. With the game also nationally televised on NBC, Sunday’s game had plenty of viewers who don’t regularly watch women’s basketball, giving Ohio State a platform to show the strength of its program and increase interest in the team entering the stretch run of its season.
The Buckeyes made sure their record home crowd got its money’s worth and gave everyone watching at home a reason to tune in again or come to a game themselves.
Despite trailing by as many as 12 points in the fourth quarter, Ohio State rallied back to send the game to overtime, then outscored the Hawkeyes 17-9 in the extra five minutes to win the game 100-92, prompting a raucous celebration as Ohio State fans stormed the court to celebrate the victory with the team.
COURT STORM pic.twitter.com/Xv3oEidR12
— Ohio State WBB (@OhioStateWBB) January 21, 2024
McGuff views the victory as “a huge win for the program.”
“We beat an incredible team with one of the best players to ever play our sport, and we did it in front of 18,000 people,” he said after the game. “The significance is hopefully we can really build on that, with the momentum with our program this season, but in general. We had a lot of recruits here that I think loved the environment and the atmosphere. It was on NBC. So we came into this thinking this was an incredible opportunity, and we capitalized on it.”
A victory to build upon
Sunday’s game would have been one to remember even if it had been played in front of 8,600 people rather than 18,600. While the game appeared to be on the verge of getting away from the Buckeyes early in the fourth quarter, they rallied in a big way – particularly Cotie McMahon and Jacy Sheldon, who combined for 33 points in the fourth quarter and overtime and finished with 57 total points – to beat a team that handed Ohio State two double-digit losses last season.
While Iowa entered the game as a 6.5-point betting favorite, Sheldon said the Buckeyes never doubted that they could win.
“We have that grittiness in us,” Sheldon said. “I think that's been there throughout the years, and this team has it, too. And I think we've been doubted in that area, and I think we were gonna refuse to lose. We stuck with it and stayed together. Really important in that big of a game. And I didn't even know we were down 12; in our minds, we were just fighting to get back. That was our main focus.”
McGuff believes Sunday’s victory is indicative of his team’s growth over the past few weeks, as the Buckeyes have won their last five straight games since a 69-60 loss to Michigan on Dec. 30. And he expects his team to continue improving.
Ohio State (15-3, 6-1 Big Ten) hasn’t started this season quite as strong as it did last year, when it won all of its first 19 games before suffering its first loss of the year against Iowa. But McGuff believes this year’s team has a higher ceiling than last year’s squad, which won three games in the NCAA Tournament before losing to Virginia Tech in the Elite Eight.
“It's really interesting, because if you look at our season last year, we had something really unique happen. You usually peak once a year. And last year, we kind of peaked in the first month of the season, we were playing great basketball, then we had a bunch of injuries and things kind of changed. And then we got healthy again, and we sort of peaked at the end again and played well,” McGuff said. “I think with this year's team, it’s going to be a little bit more of a slow, gradual climb. And I told them, we wouldn't have won this game three weeks ago. We just weren't playing well enough. But we've gotten better with our defense. We've gotten better with our rebounding. And we still have a ways to go to be who I think we're capable of being.”
“We came into this thinking this was an incredible opportunity, and we capitalized on it.”– Kevin McGuff on Ohio State’s win over Iowa
That said, the Buckeyes can’t allow themselves to get complacent now that they have a marquee win in their pockets.
“We talked about it in the locker room, that we've taken a couple of tough losses and had to bounce back from them. And now we’ve got to handle success,” McGuff said. “So we just had a big win. I told them, ‘Enjoy it today.’ And then tomorrow, we're moving on to the next game (at Illinois on Thursday). And so when we play at Iowa in the last game of the regular season, we need to be a better team than we are today.”
Sunday’s win could be vital to Ohio State’s hopes of winning the Big Ten title, as the Buckeyes are now tied with Iowa and Indiana for the fewest losses in the conference with one each. It should lead to a jump up the rankings for Ohio State, bolstering the Buckeyes’ chances of earning a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament, which would mean hosting first- and second-round games at the Schottenstein Center for the second year in a row.
A catalyst for fan support
Regardless of how things play out for the postseason, Ohio State will play at least five more home games this year against Wisconsin (Feb. 1), Indiana (Feb. 4), Nebraska (Feb. 14), Maryland (Feb. 25) and Michigan (Feb. 28), and McGuff hopes the excitement of Sunday’s win will leave Buckeye fans wanting to come back for more.
Realistically, Ohio State isn’t going to start drawing 18,000 fans for every women’s basketball game. Ohio State typically closes the upper level of the Schottenstein Center for women’s basketball games, but opened it up for Sunday due to an increased ticket demand from fans wanting to see Clark, whose appearance in Columbus led to tickets being resold on the secondary market for hundreds of dollars even after OSU increased the capacity for the game.
Before Sunday, Ohio State’s attendance for its first 11 home games of the year ranged from 4,523 fans to 7,601 fans. But McGuff is optimistic that the win over Iowa will catalyze Buckeye fans who might not have been paying attention to women’s basketball to start doing so now.
“I'm just so proud of our community, the way they came out to support us and a great Iowa team. And it was just an incredible game. Two good teams. Caitlin Clark's a spectacular player. And I know that was a big draw. And she delivered. She was absolutely unbelievable. Cotie was unbelievable. And just a great game,” McGuff said. “And so, for fans who have never been here before, hopefully that keeps them coming back. Because I thought you saw really, a team playing extremely hard, extremely well and really together. And so I think we're a fun group to watch. And so hopefully we can continue to build on this.”
That’s not to say that Ohio State women’s basketball hadn’t already felt the presence of Buckeye Nation before Sunday. Ohio State had the largest women’s basketball attendance increase of any school in the country during the 2022-23 season, and the Buckeyes have consistently expressed gratitude to their fans for the support they’ve received in Columbus.
But Sunday’s environment at the Schottenstein Center, from the stands filling up well before tip-off to the postgame on-court celebration that included a bunch of Buckeye football players joining in the fun, was unlike any that an Ohio State women’s basketball game had seen before. And it certainly won’t soon be forgotten by the players who were a part of it.
“You guys have heard it before, we have the best fans in the land, and they showed out today,” Sheldon said. “They were amazing. They changed the game. It's maybe the loudest atmosphere we’ve played in. So it was amazing.”
“We have the best fans in the land, and they showed out today.”– Jacy Sheldon on Ohio State’s record crowd vs. Iowa
The excellence of the game and the environment was partially overshadowed by a collision between Clark and someone running onto the court amid the postgame celebration, which left the Iowa star shaken up. While the collision appeared to be inadvertent, it upset Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, who said Clark also had “inappropriate words yelled at her” by Ohio State fans as she was leaving the floor.
Fortunately, Clark avoided serious injury in the collision, telling reporters after the game that she was “OK.” And even though Bluder was “very disappointed” by the postgame incident, she complimented Ohio State fans for the environment they created in Columbus on Sunday.
“Great game. Great environment. This is what it's all about,” Bluder said. “And it was really good for the Big Ten.”
