Early tournament exits, especially for programs with a high talent ceiling and big expectations, are disappointing. While many Buckeye fans are understandably frustrated by the team’s repeated early exits from the NCAA Tournament (they last made the Sweet 16 in 2023), it’s important to remember this year’s roster was actually quite young.
In fact, many of the issues we saw, not just in their final game of the season (their 83-73 home loss to Notre Dame in the second round of the Tournament) but also in several of their highest-profile losses, could be chalked up to inexperience.
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There is both good news and bad news for Buckeye fans. The bad news is that their most experienced player, guard Chance Gray, who started every game of her collegiate career, exhausted her eligibility along with guard T’Yana Todd. Gray’s absence in particular will leave a large gap for the Buckeyes to fill next season.
The good news? This year’s very-young team will have that much more experience heading into next year, and they now have a blueprint on which to work. At the time of publication, no players have announced their intention to transfer, so while a mass exodus is still possible (the portal window is open for two weeks from April 6 to April 20), it’s unlikely.
Working under the assumption that the mass exodus won’t happen, that leaves the Buckeyes with a core group of starters who are another year older, wiser, and hopefully more composed. Still, the absence of Gray will leave some gaps that need filling, and the Buckeyes will need to take what they’ve learned and apply it when it matters if they hope to make a deeper Tournament run in 2027.
Backup for Jaloni Cambridge
With Gray out of eligibility, the Buckeyes have a large gap to fill. She was the team’s second-best scorer behind guard Jaloni Cambridge, with Gray averaging 14.7 points per game. She was also the team’s top three-point shooter, hitting 2.4 shots out of six attempts each game for an average of 40.5 percent (the top percentage for a Buckeye guard).
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But behind Cambridge and Gray, things drop off a bit. Center Elsa Lemmilä and guard Kennedy Cambridge (Jaloni’s older sister) were neck-and-neck at 9.1 and 9 points per game, respectively, but someone will need to step up to fill Gray’s shoes—and ideally, the Buckeyes will add a third scorer as well.
The Buckeyes have options: Sophomore guard Ava Watson or freshman guard Dasha Biriuk could certainly both mature into the role, but whoever it winds up being will need to remain a consistent threat.
Against Notre Dame, for example, Cambridge had a spectacular outing, putting up an impressive 41 points, more than a point per minute played, with a whopping 47.8 percent shooting percentage and an even more whopping 62.5 percent from three-point range. But behind Cambridge, no other players hit double figures. Lemmilä and Gray both ended with 9 points (five of which were free throws for Gray), while Watson and the elder Cambridge each added six.
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The younger Cambridge could not be stopped, but even such a tremendous effort ended in loss. If Ohio State wants to make a deeper run, it will need additional players to generate more offense, especially as any gaps here would allow opponents to home in on Cambridge further next season without Gray providing another threat.
Defensive consistency against top teams
Against Notre Dame, the Buckeyes seemed to fall apart defensively at times. Perhaps it was the Hannah Hidalgo of it all—she was, after all, one of the best players in college basketball this season, and her unnerving ability to get into her opponents’ heads certainly affected Ohio State too.
But at the Tournament level, most teams deep in the run have their own version of a Hidalgo—or sometimes even more than one. Both teams had some great runs, but Ohio State allowed Notre Dame to go on more of them, and the defensive shortcomings probably ultimately cost them the game. In fact, Notre Dame showed us what is possible if we have additional shooting threats behind Cambridge. Hidalgo had so much help offensively that it wouldn’t have been enough to shut her down, making the Irish extremely hard to defend. The Buckeyes have to be able to defend that without crumbling.
Throughout the season, Ohio State’s ability to generate turnovers was another major strength, allowing them to exploit other teams’ mistakes to their advantage. Against the Irish, the Buckeyes kept themselves in the game at times off similar moments, but they didn’t force enough of them, while allowing Notre Dame to exploit them right back.
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Hidalgo, known for her defensive prowess, logged eight steals in the game. It’s nothing new for her, but it’s something Ohio State needed to be better prepared for: There’s no room for error against a team like that, and unfortunately, they made too many of them without compensating on the other side of the court.
Composure in big games
Generally speaking, three straight early exits from the Tournament from any team could be chalked up to a lot of things: Inexperience, coaching, cold shooting, lack of depth on the roster.
For the Buckeyes, the biggest culprit this year seemed to be the inexperience. Notre Dame, for its part, brought with it a lot of experience, and it took them all the way to the Elite Eight (which, in a bracket with UConn, is about as far as anyone could have gone this season).
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OSU, on the other hand, made mistakes indicative of their experience: allowing 25 points off turnovers, getting significantly out-rebounded offensively, getting outscored in the paint, forced passes, and more. There were glimmers of what could be, but the team wasn’t consistently composed enough to come away with the win.
Composure is a hard thing to teach, though. Most players learn the hard way, through losses like the ones to UCLA in the Big Ten Tournament or to Notre Dame in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. You regroup, you get better with age, and you make adjustments next year.
With another year of experience behind them next Tournament season, look to the team to maintain their composure more effectively, hopefully positioning themselves to keep playing further into March.
