When the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament bracket is revealed on Sunday, it’s likely that Ohio State will be among the top 16 seeds, afforded the opportunity to host the first two rounds in Columbus.
It comes after a successful regular season and conference tournament run that saw the Buckeyes finish with a 25-7 record and a 12-6 mark in conference play, including a 19-0 start to the season. But Ohio State’s most recent game ended in disappointing fashion, with the Buckeyes suffering a 105-72 loss to Iowa in the Big Ten Championship Game last Sunday.
With a week-long layoff between the conference title game and Selection Sunday, and furthermore, another few day’s rest before tournament play begins, Ohio State is focusing on gearing up for a tournament run after making it to the Sweet 16 last season.
“I think all we can do is move on to the next,” freshman forward Cotie McMahon said. “We know what we’ve got to work on, so we’ve got two weeks of practice. Buckle down, take care of what we need to take care of, and be ready to come out and play our game.”
And despite the blowout loss, there were positives to take away from the conference tournament. Ohio State only got to the title game behind ranked wins over Michigan and Indiana – then the No. 2 team in the country – which are likely to have secured a top-16 seed for the Buckeyes, with most analysts slotting Ohio State in as a No. 3 seed in the tournament.
Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff expressed how important it is to be able to host the first two rounds, and said the conference tournament was productive in that regard, but he’s focused now on getting the Buckeyes ready to go for what could be an important month for his team.
“One of the things we’ll do is we’ll watch film, both good and bad,” he said, “and then really try to formulate, plan, practice, to just really get us back to kind of doing the things that have made us really good and kind of shore up some of the things that we need to work on.”
The NCAA Women’s Selection Show will take place on Sunday at 8 p.m. on ESPN.
