Kevin McGuff is hoping his Ohio State women’s basketball team has peaked at the right time.
The Buckeyes were failing to play to their potential for a majority of February, according to the Ohio State coach, going 2-3 to open the month, with their two victories coming in overtime.
A 71-61 loss to an unranked Indiana on Feb. 20 provided a wake-up call for the Buckeyes, and they started to find their footing with wins over Purdue and No. 23 Michigan State.
Even after falling 93-90 in overtime to No. 19 Maryland, the Buckeyes feel they are on the right trajectory for March.
“I was proud of the way we played from a competitive character standpoint,” McGuff said. “Our physical effort was good.”
Ohio State is entering the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 3 seed with a 13-5 conference record. The Buckeyes will face the No. 9 seed Iowa in the quarterfinals on Friday, with tipoff set for 25 minutes after the 6:30 p.m. game between No. 2 UCLA and No. 10 Nebraska.
The No. 3 seed is two spots down from where the Buckeyes were ranked in the 2024 tournament when they were knocked out in their opening round, falling 82-61 to No. 8 seed Maryland.
For the three current Buckeyes who played in last’s year tournament, the loss is in the back of their minds for this year’s postseason play.
“Those losses definitely sting,” senior Taylor Thierry said. “As we move into the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament, you lose, you go home, our season’s over. It’s our (Thierry and Madison Greene) last season, we don’t want to go out like that.”
Ohio State’s leading scorer, Cotie McMahon, is another player who’s mentality for March was impacted by the Maryland loss and the loss to Duke in the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
On the flip side, McMahon was a freshman when Ohio State made a run to its second Elite Eight in program history during the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Knowing how grueling the postseason is, McMahon hopes the overtime victories this season against Minnesota and Iowa gave the new Buckeyes a sense of what to expect.
“March is hard, not just mentally but physically,” McMahon said. “You just never know what can happen. … So, it’s really good. We’re going to have to face adversity at some point, and March is a huge month for facing adversity. So, the more we can dip our toes in … hopefully learn from that and take what we’ve learned into March.”
The Buckeyes have had their share of rough stretches this season prior to their biggest struggles in February but were willing to go through the regular season lows to set up for possible tournament success.
“To take steps closer to the team we want to be when it comes to March Madness, I think that should always be our goal,” redshirt sophomore Kennedy Cambridge said. “Obviously, we want to win, but I feel like (our goal was) taking steps into being who we know we can.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State women prepared for Big Ten Tournament, March Madness
