Ohio State is well-represented among this year’s Big Ten women’s basketball award winners.
Kevin McGuff was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year on Tuesday after leading Ohio State to the Big Ten regular-season championship with a 16-2 record in conference play and a 25-4 regular-season record overall. It’s the first Big Ten Coach of the Year Award for McGuff, who receives the accolade for Ohio State for the first time since Jim Foster won it four times from 2005-09.
Congratulations to Coach McGuff on being named Big Ten Coach of the Year #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/Lk9pm7AXG5
— Ohio State Womens Basketball (@OhioStateWBB) March 5, 2024
Celeste Taylor is the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year after she led all conference players with 2.2 steals per game during the regular season. The ACC Defensive Player of the Year last season at Duke, Taylor has led the way for Ohio State’s defense this season as the Buckeyes have forced 21.4 turnovers per game, the top mark in the Big Ten and 10th-most among all Division I teams.
Congratulations to Celeste Taylor on being named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year (coaches), All-Big Ten Second Team and All-Big Ten Defensive Team #GoBucks pic.twitter.com/HGtCLZTHMB
— Ohio State Womens Basketball (@OhioStateWBB) March 5, 2024
Jacy Sheldon and Cotie McMahon are both first-team All-Big Ten selections.
Sheldon, who also earned first-team All-Big Ten honors for the 2021-22 season, was unanimously selected as a first-team All-Big Ten honoree by the conference’s coaches after averaging 18.2 points per game during the regular season, third-most among all Big Ten players behind only conference player of the year Caitlin Clark and Indiana center Mackenzie Holmes.
McMahon, who was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year last season, earns first-team All-Big Ten honors for the first time after averaging 14.1 points and 6.4 rebounds per game during the regular season, ranking in the top 15 in the conference in both categories.
Taylor, who averaged 10.3 points per game during the regular season alongside her defensive excellence, earned second-team All-Big Ten honors along with Taylor Thierry, who averaged 11.4 points and 5.5 rebounds per game during the regular season.
Sheldon, who ranks fourth in the Big Ten with 2.1 steals per game, earned All-Big Ten defensive team honors from the media alongside Taylor. Rebeka Mikulasikova, who averaged 9.3 points per game during the regular season, was selected by media voters as an All-Big Ten honorable mention; therefore, all five Ohio State starters received some form of All-Big Ten recognition for their play this year.
Now, the Buckeyes will set their sights on earning more hardware this week as they compete for a Big Ten Tournament championship in Minneapolis. Earning a double bye as the No. 1 seed in the tournament, Ohio State will begin tournament play in Friday’s quarterfinals at 12:30 p.m. ET (Big Ten Network), when it will face the winner of Thursday’s second-round game between No. 8 seed Maryland and No. 9 seed Illinois.
Should Ohio State win its quarterfinal game, it will play in the first semifinal at 2 p.m. Saturday on Big Ten Network. The Big Ten Tournament championship game will be played at noon Sunday on CBS.
