Once you are recognized as the best, it becomes that much harder to stay there.

Sometimes there are external factors, like the target that you wear on your back once the accolades start coming your way.

But far more often, the struggle to stay on top is internal.

There are many terms for this phenomenon: resting on your laurels, self-satisfaction or just plain laziness.

Ohio State women’s basketball player Jantel Lavender will never fall into that trap.

Lavender has been unanimously selected as the Big Ten Preseason Player of the Year, and the Buckeyes she leads have been picked to finish first in the Big Ten by both the media and coaches poll.

Do such lofty expectations make her soft?

“I think it’s motivation to continue to be at the level of a top team,” Lavender said.

Saying it is motivating and actually displaying motivation are two very different things.

When someone has to go to class, hit the weight room and then go to practice and impress a task-master like coach Jim Foster, words won’t cut it. Only action will.

“If it means coming in and shooting 500 [3-pointers] a day or running extremely hard, whatever it takes is what I’ll do,” Lavender said.

Statistics like the ones Lavender has racked up can be telling.

In her freshman campaign, she averaged 17.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Those tallies increased to 20.8 and 10.7 respectively in her sophomore season.

Is it an upward trend or has she reached the pinnacle?

“I just come in every day with the attitude that I’m getting better every single day,” Lavender said. “There’s not a plateau for me. You can always add to your game.”

Foster isn’t ready to call his star player a finished product just yet.

“She needs to continue to work on her face-up game, shoot the [3-pointer] with a little more consistency and to continue to improve her left [hand],” Foster said.

With goals, expectations and four new freshmen faces in the lineup, it is extremely important that team leaders set the tone.

“If you have to motivate your best players to play hard every day, you’re stuck in the mud,” Foster said.

“When your best players are your hardest workers, then you’re on the autobahn.”
Lavender is a hard worker, and a self-avowed basketball junkie. A lot of players will say they model their game after a certain star player.

Usually, it is a name that even the most casual of fans have heard of, such as LeBron James or Kobe Bryant.

But Lavender looks for ways to improve her game in the most unlikely of places.

“I love the game so much and constantly want to learn something new,” she said.  “I’m a sponge. It can be a kid on the playground I’m watching that does something out of the ordinary.”

Last year’s run to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament and subsequent ouster has fueled the fire for the team to surpass the last two seasons’ accomplishments. That can only mean one thing: a national title.

Will Lavender have what it takes to lead this year’s Buckeyes to another Big Ten title and beyond? She sounds ready.

“There are no excuses,” she said of this season. “I know what needs to be done.”