As the No. 4 seed in the Birmingham 3 regional, Ohio State will host first and second-round NCAA tournament games for the third year in a row, starting with a matchup against 13-seed Montana State on Friday. Still, the Buckeyes hope their best is yet to come
“Honestly, I don’t think there was a game where we’ve played our best basketball,” junior forward Cotie McMahon said during a media availability on Thursday. “So that could be a bad thing, but I look at it as kind of a good thing. We have this last opportunity to kind of prove to people that we are the Ohio State team that has been on the radar for the past couple of years. I mean, we still have a couple of more games to prove it. It’s if we choose to prove it or not.”
The Buckeyes come into the NCAA tournament with a record of 25-6 but have lost two of their last three games, including a 75-46 blowout loss to UCLA in the Big Ten. The huge loss sustained by Ohio State against UCLA was its latest of three defeats against the Big Ten’s best teams the Bruins and USC.
The Buckeyes wouldn’t face the Trojans or Bruins until very late in the tournament, but a matchup against No. 1 seed Texas could await them as soon as the Sweet 16.
With her team likely needing to find a new gear to play at the level of the nation’s best teams, McMahon is looking for the urgency of single elimination tournament to help get them there
“I feel like hopefully going into this tournament, we find a different notch and everybody is on the same page and everybody realizes that this could be our last game for the season,” McMahon said. “But I feel like that goes with anything. I feel like we have the capability to play defense. We can be a good defensive team when we all are on the same page and all have a fight to want to play defense. I feel like that’s just where we lack. That’s not just on the defensive end either.”
Ohio State isn’t unique in hoping to play its best basketball in the most important tournament of the year. The Buckeyes specifically, will need their depth to be solid enough to provide relief for the starters and will need their star players to play like stars according to head coach Kevin McGuff.
“I think that one of the biggest things is play off the bench in terms of our depth to kind of keep our team fresh and be able to sub and get our bench in there and have six or seven or eight or nine people play well,” McGuff said. “I think that will be a big part of it. I think (freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge), Cotie, probably Taylor Thierry really having a great tournament would go a long way in terms of leading the team.”
Part of the Buckeyes’ depth could be hurt by a foot injury sustained by freshman center Elsa Lemmila, McGuff described the Buckeyes’ backup center, who is averaging 5.0 points and 4.2 rebounds on the year as a game-time decision against Montana State. Meanwhile, freshman guard Ava Watson, who had been sidelined with a sprained ankle injury since Ohio State’s overtime win over Minnesota on Feb. 13, will return to the court on Friday according to McGuff.
Ultimately though McGuff’s main message the day before Ohio State’s first NCAA tournament game is the same as it’s been all season: play consistent for the full forty minutes. For whatever reason the Buckeyes have struggled to do just that. In Ohio State’s regular season loss to UCLA, a disastrous fourth quarter turned a close game into a comfortable win for the Bruins by a score of 65-52, and even in February wins over Minnesota and Iowa, Ohio State needed overtime to defeat both teams after squandering double-digit leads in the closing minutes. In their aforementioned blowout loss to UCLA in the Big Ten tournament, the Buckeyes didn’t play well for any stretch except for in garbage time.
The easiest way for the Buckeyes to put their past issues with consistency behind them is to play up to their potential in their first-round game of the NCAA tournament.
“I think at our best this year it’s been really good, but we just haven’t found a rhythm where we’ve consistently been close enough to 40 minutes of that to feel like we’ve played our best,” McGuff said. “I think that’s the key is we’re just trying to be the best version of ourselves tomorrow against Montana State.”
