The Buckeyes may not have won the Big Ten Tournament, but their chances to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament haven’t been higher in years.
Despite having such star players as Jaloni Cambridge, Cotie McMahon and Jacy Sheldon on his roster, Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff hasn’t led his team past the second round of the NCAA Tournament since the 2022-23 season.
In recent years, the issue for the Buckeyes in the postseason, and otherwise, has been their struggles against the nation’s best programs. Ohio State has simply failed to get over the hump and defeat elite programs like UCLA and Tennessee.
McGuff doesn’t necessarily have the most talented team of his tenure, but I think the Buckeyes will finally get to the Sweet 16 this year.
The toughest part of the Buckeyes’ regular-season schedule came at the end of the season. In their final five games, McGuff’s group matched up against four teams currently ranked inside the top-20. Ohio State suffered three losses in its final five games, but came out of that stretch playing some of its best basketball. In its regular season finale, Ohio State dominated Michigan State, and to open the Big Ten Tournament, the Buckeyes cruised to an 83-59 win over Indiana
After losing to it in the regular season, Ohio State defeated Minnesota 60-55 in the Big Ten quarterfinals to set up a rematch with UCLA. The Buckeyes once again fell just short against one of the best teams in the country. Ohio State lost to UCLA 72-62, but McGuff was still encouraged by the momentum his team had built toward March Madness.
“I thought we played obviously really well against Michigan State and then in this tournament,” McGuff said. “Hopefully, we feel some confidence that we can play really well when we get to the NCAA Tournament.”
Any coach will tell you no loss is a good one, but Ohio State’s loss to the Bruins only looked better one day after it happened. After defeating the Buckeyes by 10, the Bruins crushed top-10-ranked Iowa 96-45 in the championship.
“We’re not into moral victories around here at all, but for us to compete and give ourselves a chance against one of the top teams in the country and then for them to turn around and do what they did yesterday — I don’t know if we took confidence, but just a reminder of, ‘Hey, we have played against the very best teams in the country, and we’ve learned a lot about ourselves,'” McGuff said on Sunday. “We’ve gotten better through that process, and hopefully that’ll kind of help us here as we hit the NCAA tournament.”
The Buckeyes should take confidence from their result against the Bruins, whether McGuff says it or not. As it stands now, the Bruins are playing as well as anyone in the country, and Ohio State went toe to toe with them in its most recent game.
Of course, the most storied programs are the hardest ones to beat, especially in March, but Ohio State will likely have a chance to notch a win over Notre Dame in the second round. The Fighting Irish have won two national championships since 2000, but even with star junior guard Hanna Hidalgo on the team, they are not what they used to be. Hidalgo is averaging 25.2 points per game, the third-most in women’s college basketball, but her team enters NCAA tournament play as a No. 6 seed with 10 losses.
Last year, Tennessee proved even sleeping giants aren’t to be taken lightly when it defeated Ohio State 82-67 in the second round of the tournament, but I believe this year’s team is different, and so does senior guard Chance Gray. After the Buckeyes’ loss to UCLA, Gray was asked why her team was able to stay competitive with the Bruins after being on the losing end of a 75-46 beatdown to the same team in the same event the year prior.
“It’s two totally different teams, I think,” Gray said. “Last year, our chemistry wasn’t good at all, if I’m being honest. The first half of the (2025 team’s loss to the Bruins) we just kind of laid down. This year, we knew that we had a lot of fight in us, and we had a chip on our shoulder, because we know how good we are capable of being.”
As previously mentioned, this iteration of the Buckeyes may not be the most talented McGuff has ever had or even as talented as the one he had last year, but the basic chemistry of the group can’t be questioned.
On multiple occasions, Ohio State players have talked about how they enjoy spending time together, and on the court, it seems as though the team fits the way McGuff wants his teams to play. Defensive stalwart Kennedy Cambridge went from a spark plug off the bench last year to someone who ranks third on the team in minutes per game, her sister Jaloni is free to push the pace as much or as little as she wants as the unquestioned leader of the offense and often having four capable shooters on the floor at the same time, the Buckeyes are always capable of starting a run with a flurry of triples.
And the Buckeyes are truly an unselfish bunch. One year after averaging 14.7 assists per game, which was the 83rd best mark in the country, Ohio State is averaging 18.1 assists per game, which is 11th best in the country.
Before the Buckeyes can concern themselves with Notre Dame or other looming giants in their regional, such as No. 2 seed Vanderbilt or No. 1 seed UConn, they will have to avoid a stunning upset to No. 14 Howard on Saturday.
If the Buckeyes win that first game, I see them making a much-needed run in the NCAA Tournament.
