Taiyier Parks will be the second transfer to join the Ohio State women’s basketball team for the 2023-24 season. Credit: Katie Good | Lantern File Photo
Ohio State’s women’s basketball team will welcome a familiar face to the Schottenstein Center next season.
Graduate forward Taiyier Parks announced via Instagram May 4 that she would be joining the Buckeyes for the 2023-24 season with a caption that says, “Homecoming,” but the Ohio State women’s basketball team officially welcomed her home in an Instagram post Monday.
Parks, a Cleveland native who was an exceptional player at North Royalton High School, will now be only two hours away from her old stomping grounds.
Ranked in the top 11 forwards of the class of 2019 according to ESPN HoopGurlz, Parks spent her entire collegiate career at Michigan State. She averaged 8.3 points per game for the Spartans last season while playing in all but one game.
During her senior campaign, she started in 11 of 30 games and scored a career-high 20 points against Wisconsin on Feb. 8, while bringing in five rebounds.
The 6-foot-3 forward was the second-leading rebounder for the Spartans, grabbing 5.2 boards per game and led the team in total rebounds with 152. She earned Academic All-Big Ten honors and finished in the top 25 in Big Ten in rebounding.
Parks will now join two other Ohio State players who crash the boards in junior forward Taylor Thierry and sophomore forward Cotie McMahon next season. But despite having two of the top 25 rebounders in the Big Ten, the Buckeyes ranked at the bottom of the barrel on the glass last season.
The addition of Parks will likely help the Ohio State team climb the ladder in rebounding in the conference by giving the Buckeyes a few more possessions on the offensive and defensive end.
