Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff coaches on the sidelines during the Ohio State-Michigan game Jan. 27. Ohio State lost 58-77. Credit: Mackenzie Shanklin | Photo Editor
On the eve of the Ohio State women’s basketball team’s season opener against Bucknell, head coach Kevin McGuff received news that would put a bow on a disappointing offseason.
Junior guard Madison Greene, the Buckeyes’ projected starting point guard who averaged 13.4 points and 4.3 assists per game last season, would miss the entire season with a knee injury that would require surgery.
With Greene’s injury adding to the transfers of forwards Dorka Juhasz and Aaliyah Patty — Ohio State’s two leading rebounders from last season — in April 2021, thoughts of the Buckeyes contending for a Big Ten championship seemed more like a fantasy than a reality.
Fast forward four months, and McGuff has turned a difficult offseason into a season to remember through his unwavering support and commitment to his team.
“He’s really done so much for us and tried to stay really strong through a lot of hard times,” senior guard Braxtin Miller said. “I think that’s made us all want to be strong as well for each other.”
Before hoisting the Big Ten regular season champion trophy in the locker room Sunday, McGuff was tasked with keeping his team focused on the season amid the news of Greene’s season-ending injury.
To reassert his team’s confidence at the beginning of the season, McGuff said he urged his players to believe in each other and take it one day at a time.
“Obviously, it was a devastating blow,” McGuff said. “She’s such a great player and an integral part of everything we’ve done here in her first couple years. I knew we’d miss her presence. But the message to the team was just, ‘Hey, we have to control what we can control.’ I still felt like we had enough talent, if we could just make sure we play together and stick together, that we could be successful.”
McGuff said the Buckeyes worked to control their effort during practices and games, as he challenged them to outwork the opponent every day. This was a mantra McGuff said he instilled in practice from the very beginning of the season.
“Throughout the year, I felt really confident in this team’s ability to be coached. I really pushed them and coached them really hard,” McGuff said. “They know I was really pushing them to continue to improve and get us as close to our potential as we could.”
Miller — who started every game she appeared in this season — said McGuff’s intense coaching style helped her and her teammates battle through adversity, helping improve the team’s mental toughness throughout the season.
Aside from the mental aspect of the season, McGuff said he was also tasked with restructuring his team’s identity at the beginning of the season.
To make up for the absence of Juhasz, Patty and Greene, McGuff said he and his staff had to adjust their style of play during the offseason and implement a faster-paced and guard-oriented lineup — a strategy he said has allowed his roster to thrive throughout the season.
“We had to create a little bit of a unique style with the guard-heavy lineup,” McGuff said. “We’ve worked hard on that to try and put them in a position to be successful. That’s what kind of played to our strengths, the lineup that we have, and our kids have embraced it and done a pretty good job with it.”
One Buckeye guard that found success in McGuff’s perimeter-based offense is senior guard Taylor Mikesell, who transferred to Ohio State from Oregon last April.
The Massillon, Ohio, native — who was cleared to suit up for the Buckeyes just four days before the season opener — said McGuff allowed her to make a seamless transition to her new team by constantly instilling confidence in her on the offensive end.
“Coming in here with this being a new spot for me, [McGuff] was great about bringing me in and letting me be confident, saying, ‘Hey, keep shooting,’” Mikesell said. “Just teaching me along the way, helping me get acclimated, he’s been great on my side. I’ve seen it with my teammates as well. Building people’s confidence is what he’s done an incredible job doing with the team this year.”
McGuff’s trust in the senior guard paid off during Mikesell’s inaugural season with the Buckeyes, as she earned an All-Big Ten First Team selection from both the coaches and media after posting 19.1 points per game on a conference-leading 47.1 3-point field goal percentage.
While McGuff embraced a guard-heavy and tough-nosed style on the court, Mikesell said the support he has shown his players off the court is equally important to the Buckeyes’ success this season.
“Just the little check-ups he has,” Mikesell said. “The stuff outside of basketball that lets you know that he still cares about you as a person, not just a basketball player, is reassuring. He’s always going to be there if you need him, which is nice. It’s nice to have that authority figure, but then also have somebody that you can still go to and know that it’s going to be personal.”
While the Buckeyes will walk into Gainbridge Fieldhouse Friday as the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, McGuff said this season’s Buckeye squa already holds a special place in his heart — as the success is a testament to the team’s ability to overcome adversity and stick together as one unit.
“It is a really special year,” McGuff said. “Just coming off of the COVID-19 year when we couldn’t play in the tournament, then coming off of the postseason ban, then with the injury to Madison. We’ve faced so much adversity over the last couple of years, so this one is really special.”
