(Left) Then-fifth-year guard Jacy Sheldon (4) sets up a play during a March 2022 matchup between Ohio State and Michigan State in the Big Ten Tournament. Now, Sheldon serves as the Buckeyes’ director of player development. Credit: Gabe Haferman | Lantern File Photo (Right) Ohio State junior forward Cotie McMahon (32) celebrates with fans courtside after the game against Maryland Jan. 23. The Buckeyes defeated the Terrapins 74-66. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor
It was late September 2024, and Jacy Sheldon had just finished her first season of professional basketball as a member of the WNBA’s Dallas Wings.
The former Ohio State star guard planned to spend her offseason playing in Australia, before a lingering lower leg injury prompted a change in plans.
A month earlier, then-sophomore forward Cotie McMahon also faced uncertainty. She and Sheldon had combined for the one-two scoring punch that fueled the Buckeyes to a 2024 Big Ten regular season championship, fostering a deep friendship in the process.
When Sheldon graduated, McMahon was handed the reins of a Buckeye roster largely made up of first- and second-year players. The rising junior dominated on the court, but didn’t have the experience as a leader.
McMahon said she knew the young team would benefit from a veteran — someone who knew the Buckeyes inside and out. It needed Sheldon.
On Nov. 11, Sheldon officially made the jump from player to coach, joining the Buckeyes as their new director of player development. This choice meant she and McMahon would once again be a formidable duo in the world of women’s college basketball.
Reunited, the Buckeye stars continued a relationship that’s now as strong as ever, helping McMahon develop as both a player and leader.
“Since I’ve been here, Jacy has always been here,” McMahon said. “Just being who I am, I just feel like I struggle in some areas that she’s really good at. I did not know what I was going to do without her, so I was just excited that I still had her.”
McMahon said one of these struggle areas was leadership, a quality Sheldon possesses and has helped her improve.
Sheldon said though McMahon’s passion for the game can come across as intense, she can use that internal drive to enhance her leadership abilities.
“I think she’s done an awesome job at transferring that passion to actually leading these girls and teaching these girls, and she’s learned how to communicate with all of them, which is really hard,” Sheldon said.
McMahon said having Sheldon as a role model has allowed her to step up for the team. In addition, she said Sheldon provides the team with valuable insight from her time as both a player and member of head coach Kevin McGuff’s staff.
“We just needed somebody to kind of just chew us up,” McMahon said. “It’s just a different scene from the outside in. Just having her, and having somebody who has played in our system for five years, to really help us understand more within what we do in our system has been great.”
McGuff said the duo’s mutual trust allows McMahon to embrace Sheldon’s advice and use it to improve her game, along with her teammates’.
“Cotie really trusts Jacy, and I think that’s important,” McGuff said. “It’s extremely important for her to have somebody like Jacy, who says something to her, and she knows it’s coming from a place of Jacy trying to help Cotie get better. Cotie understands that and appreciates it, so she’ll listen to Jacy.”
McMahon said she is currently implementing Sheldon’s advice to adjust her leadership style based on which teammate she is helping.
“I’ve played with older people, and the way they would talk to me would be harsh, and I would just take it,” McMahon said. “But [I’m] learning how to adjust and be patient and kind of change my words so that people can actually listen and really make a change, versus it coming off harsh and them kind of being closed off.”
McMahon said Sheldon will always hold a special place in the grand scheme of her college basketball career. Though Sheldon is in a new role, she still sees her as a teammate and a friend.
“I can literally talk to her about anything, whether that be basketball, whether it not be basketball,” McMahon said. “That’s just always how our relationship has been.”
Sheldon agreed, noting that sharing a relationship on the court forms a distinct, one-of-a-kind bond that endures long after the final whistle blows.
“I think that it’s special to have a player-player relationship,” Sheldon said. “We’ve been through a lot of the same things.”
That trust and confidence Sheldon has instilled in McMahon are certainly evident this season.
With McMahon at the forefront, the No. 8 Buckeyes are 23-4 overall and sit third in a tough Big Ten conference with two games left to play.
Sheldon said she believes this team has formed the strongest bonds she’s seen during her time as a Buckeye.
“This is one of the closest groups we’ve had in a while, even when I was here,” Sheldon said. “They all really like each other, they all really care about each other and they make each other better. That’s really rare; that’s special, and they realize that too.”
McMahon said this Ohio State team’s drive to improve is what separates it from past squads, adding that she feels optimistic about the program’s future with these players in the mix.
“I think this team is really special,” McMahon said. “[We all] want to get better, and I just think our chemistry is just something that’s unmatched. I feel like the sky’s the limit.”
