An Ohio State sports team will host Tennessee in a playoff game with its season on the line. Sound familiar?
Three months ago, Ohio State football launched its national championship run by blowing out Tennessee, 42-17, in the first-ever College Football Playoff game at Ohio Stadium. A swath of orange-clad Volunteer fans who threatened to turn the Shoe into “Neyland North” instead drove home disappointed as the Buckeyes put on a tour de force performance in front of a raucous Columbus crowd.
On Sunday, in what will also be an 8 p.m. game on ESPN, Ohio State women’s basketball will take its turn at playing a home game against Tennessee in its sport’s national championship playoff. A Sweet 16 berth will be on the line as the fourth-seeded Buckeyes face the fifth-seeded Volunteers in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
As with the football Buckeyes in December, there’s a get-right element for Ohio State entering this clash with Tennessee, too. While the football Buckeyes were looking to make up for their devastating loss to Michigan to end the regular season, the women’s basketball Buckeyes are looking to flip the script on what happened last year in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, when Duke upset Ohio State at the Schottenstein Center.
The feeling of that loss has stuck with the Buckeyes for a full year, and they don’t want to let their home crowd down again.
“Definitely not trying to repeat that,” Ohio State forward Taylor Thierry said after Ohio State’s win over Montana State on Friday. “Just going in with a different mindset.”
The good news for the Buckeyes is they haven’t lost a home game since. Ohio State is a perfect 16-0 at home this season, including Friday’s first-round win, and the Buckeyes look to feed off the energy of their home fans one last time on Sunday.
“I think it's almost unfair for us to be here; they give us a lot of added energy, and we definitely feed off of them,” Ohio State forward Eboni Walker said Saturday.
TENNESSEE
Volunteers
Despite the Buckeyes’ success at home this season, and the fact that Ohio State beat Tennessee in the regular season in each of the last two seasons, Tennessee was a 1.5-point betting favorite over Ohio State as of Saturday afternoon. Tennessee started its NCAA Tournament in dominant fashion with a 101-66 win over No. 12 seed South Florida on Friday, and the Volunteers are one of the nation’s best offensive teams, ranking second in the entire country with 87.6 points scored per game. They’re also one of just nine teams nationally that has forced more turnovers per game than Ohio State this season, so the Buckeyes will need to play smart basketball offensively and be at their best defensively to defeat the Volunteers.
“There will be adversity. They're a great team. They're gonna make runs, good teams make runs. But it's gonna be the response from our team,” said Ohio State guard Kennedy Cambridge. “And I think I'm ready to see the response from our team.”
Ohio State forward Cotie McMahon believes the Buckeyes are trending in the right direction after their 71-51 win in Round 1. While McMahon said Thursday that she didn’t think Ohio State had played its best basketball yet entering the NCAA Tournament, she believes the Buckeyes got closer to that on Friday.
“Not saying yesterday was our best basketball, but I feel like that it was definitely up there,” McMahon said Saturday. “That was the closest I think we've played to 40 minutes this whole season. So if we just carry that on into tomorrow, but actually start in the first quarter and get going and just carry it on to the fourth quarter like we did yesterday, we're going to be fine.”
That said, Ohio State was trailing 27-23 halfway through the second quarter against Montana State before it went on a 24-0 run to take control of the game. The Buckeyes might not be able to afford another slow start against the Volunteers, so Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff is stressing to his team the importance of playing at a high level for four quarters.
“I thought we played a good 25 minutes. I don’t think the first 15 minutes were very good,” McGuff said Saturday of Ohio State’s play vs. Montana State. “I think 25 minutes won't win tomorrow. So we'll have to play even closer to 40 tomorrow than we did yesterday.”
Ohio State’s players weren’t interested in thinking about the parallels between their matchup with Tennessee and the football team’s win over the Volunteers, preferring to keep their focus on just doing what they need to do to play their best on Sunday. But they are hungry to give Buckeye fans another win to celebrate as they play on their home court for the final time this year.
“This game means a lot. It's win-or-go-home and we need to come out there tomorrow and just give it our all, and just have fun at the end of the day,” said sixth-year senior guard Madison Greene. “But you want to put on a show for the team, for us, and then also the crowd and try to get that win, of course.”
Tickets for Ohio State vs. Tennessee remain available through Ticketmaster for $24 per person.
