The past year for Celeste Taylor will come full circle on Sunday.
Duke
Blue devils
After transferring to Ohio State from Duke last offseason, Taylor will play against her former team when the Buckeyes host the Blue Devils in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday (Noon, ESPN) at Value City Arena.
“It does feel like a full-circle moment,” Taylor said Saturday. “I just turn it over to it being part of my journey. The different things that happen, everything happens for a reason.”
Taylor says she remains close to her former Duke teammates, and she’ll draw from her experience practicing against them as she plays against them Sunday.
“Honestly, I kind of just look at it like I'm playing in practice,” Taylor said. “They were my previous teammates, but this is just another chance to play against my teammates again, with different teammates on my side. But I'm just excited to go out there and compete.”
Her former Duke teammates knew from their experience playing with Taylor that she’ll give everything she has to try to lead Ohio State to a win on Sunday.
“Celeste is very competitive,” said Duke guard Ashlon Jackson. “She never stops.”
“She’s gonna hunt every time she's on the floor,” fellow Duke guard Reigan Richadson said. “She's aggressive, like willing to put her body out for the team. She's a great player.”
Although Taylor chose to leave Duke for her final season of collegiate eligibility, she remains grateful for her two years as a Blue Devil. Taylor, who started her college career at Texas and spent two years with the Longhorns before transferring for the first time to Duke in 2021, says she grew both on and off the court during her time in Durham.
“I think as a person, honestly, they've helped me grow tremendously. Forming relationships with multiple people. Giving me the opportunity to have the degree that I have from there,” said Taylor, who graduated from Duke with a degree in psychology. “And then I think basketball-wise, helped me defensively, honestly. I was always a defensive-minded kid, but I think just giving me a different style of play, giving me a different role on the team. I think that's how they've helped me.”
Celeste Taylor spent two seasons at Duke, earning All-ACC honors in her second season with the Blue Devils. (Photo: William Howard – USA TODAY Sports)
Taylor, who’s averaged 10.2 points per game for Ohio State while earning Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors, believes she has continued to grow this season as a Buckeye.
“It's given me different perspective, a different place to live, more people to meet, more relationships to form,” Taylor said. “There's always going to be different styles of play at each institution that I've been to. And so I'm just really grateful to have went to three really good schools. And just excited to continue playing here.”
While Taylor isn’t the offensive centerpiece for Ohio State that she was at Duke, where she led the Blue Devils with 11.4 points per game a year ago, she’s been a vital player for the Buckeyes on both ends of the floor. Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff has pointed to her defensive ability as a reason why he thinks this year’s Buckeyes are capable of making an even deeper NCAA Tournament run last year, when Ohio State went to the Elite Eight. She’s also averaged a career-high 3.5 assists per game.
“Our halfcourt defense has really taken a step this year and I think a lot of that goes to her. She's an unreal defender and really, she helps us offensively, too,” fellow starting guard Jacy Sheldon, Ohio State’s leading scorer, said earlier this month. “She can really pass the ball … in our offense, the way she fits in, I think her ability to score and make the right reads is really special. And something that benefits her game but really complements ours as well.”
McGuff says Taylor plays with a consistent level of competitiveness, especially on the defensive end, that is uncommon for a college basketball player.
“Some kids will take plays off. She doesn't do that,” McGuff said. “It's rare. Not many kids can muster that type of focus, intensity and concentration every possession on defense.”
Her former coach at Duke, Kara Lawson, also cited that same competitiveness when asked about the defensive excellence of Taylor, who earned ACC Defensive Player of the Year honors a year ago and is also a finalist to be this year’s Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
“I think she just competes at a really high level,” Lawson said. “Practice, games, she takes pride in it and is competitive because she wants to win. I think that mindset is what allows her to be really good on that end.”
“Some kids will take plays off. She doesn't do that.” – Kevin McGuff on Celeste Taylor
That said, Taylor is far from the only Ohio State player that has Lawson and her team’s attention entering Sunday’s matchup. While Duke is among the younger teams in the NCAA Tournament – five of the Blue Devils’ top seven scorers this season are either freshmen or sophomores – Ohio State is among the most veteran teams in the field, with seven fifth-year seniors among their 10 players who have played in at least 20 games.
“With experience comes wisdom, and they've been in these battles before,” Lawson said. “They've been in tournament runs before, deep tournament runs before. That I think is what stands out about their team is just they have a lot of players that have played a lot of college basketball and won a lot of big games. That's why they're one of the best teams in the country and have been all year.”
Even with that experience advantage, Ohio State knows Duke will present a step up in competition from its first-round game against Maine, so the Buckeyes can’t afford to take the Blue Devils lightly. McGuff described Duke as “one of the best defensive teams we've played this year” – the Blue Devils have allowed only 57.8 points per game – and sophomore forward Cotie McMahon said the Buckeyes need to be sharper than they were on Friday even though they defeated Maine 80-57.
“The mistakes that we were making in that game (against Maine), we can't make against Duke, simply because they're just a more skilled, a very intelligent team,” McMahon said after Friday’s game.
| Duke | Ohio State | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | No. | Player | Ht | 2023-24 Stats | Pos | No. | Player | Ht | 2023-24 Stats |
| G | 22 | TAINA MAIR | 5-9 | 9.9 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 3.7 APG | G | 4 | JACY SHELDON | 5-10 | 18 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 3.7 APG |
| G | 24 | REIGAN RICHARDSON | 5-11 | 11.9 PPG, 2.3 RPG, 1.6 APG | G | 12 | CELESTE TAYLOR | 5-11 | 10.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 3.5 APG |
| G | 3 | ASHLON JACKSON | 6-0 | 9.2 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.4 APG | G | 2 | TAYLOR THIERRY | 6-1 | 11.5 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.5 APG |
| G | 4 | JADYN DONOVAN | 6-0 | 6.6 PPG, 5.7 RPG, 1.7 APG | F | 32 | COTIE MCMAHON | 6-0 | 14 PPG, 6.4 RPG, 2.2 APG |
| C | 42 | KENNEDY BROWN | 6-6 | 8.3 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 1.6 APG | F | 23 | REBEKA MIKULASIKOVA | 6-4 | 9.5 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.5 APG |
Taylor will be as motivated as anyone to lead the Buckeyes to a win on Sunday, and not only because she’s playing against her former team. Her college career nearly ended with a second-round home loss in the NCAA Tournament when Duke lost as a No. 3 seed to No. 6 seed Colorado last year. While Taylor didn’t know then that she’d end up playing another year of college basketball at Ohio State, she knows she will be out of collegiate eligibility when this season ends, so she certainly doesn’t want her college career to end with another upset loss in what will be her final home game as a Buckeye.
“I thought it was my last game,” Taylor said of Duke’s loss to Colorado last year. “And this time, it really could be my last game. And so just going out, giving it all that I have, just like I did the previous game, and just trying to try to change the outcome that happened last year.”
