Defense holds slight edge as mostly healthy Ohio State goes through preseason
MINNEAPOLIS – There was a time where Kevin McGuff solely devoted the first days of the preseason to one side of the court.
“When I was at Xavier, we used to do defense for the first week and that’s it,” he said.
Two schools and a dozen schools later, McGuff has slightly changed his tune. Now entering his 11th season as Ohio State’s women’s basketball coach, McGuff is nearly two weeks into the 2023-24 preseason with a team eyeing a run at a Big Ten title and an even deeper NCAA Tournament run than last year’s Elite Eight appearance. As he met with reporters at Big Ten media day inside the Target Center, McGuff said he now prefers to blend his preseason practice focus after leaving Xavier in 2011, spending two years at Washington and coming to Ohio State in 2013.
Don’t listen to what his players might tell you.
“We’re probably about 50-50, (offense and defense),” he said. “Now, our players will tell you they only do defense, but that’s really not the case.”
After the program’s deepest NCAA Tournament run in 30 years, McGuff said he approached the offseason with two primary goals in mind. He wants this year’s Buckeyes to be better in their half-court defense and to be a more talented rebounding team. Ohio State finished last season third in the Big Ten at 80.1 points per game but seventh in defense at 68.4 points allowed per game. They also finished 12th in both total rebounds and rebounding margin.
Those numbers are all somewhat impacted by Ohio State’s fast-paced, high-pressure style of play, but fifth-year guard Rikki Harris described the preseason to this point with one word that also reflects how the Buckeyes want to play.
“It’s been intense, but I say that with positivity,” she said. “It’s been fun, intense situations. We work hard. Practices are difficult. Everybody is giving it their all. If they’re not, we hold them accountable.”
Classmate Jacy Sheldon described practices as “not always pretty,” pointing out that there are plenty of arguments but that they come from a place of competitiveness. To this point, because of Ohio State’s desire to pressure teams and turn them over with its full-court pressure, McGuff said the defense is slightly further along than the offense.
“Our press … gets us a lot of transition buckets,” Sheldon, who was voted to the Big Ten’s preseason all-conference team, said. “Our half-court defense has grown here too and we’re excited to keep improving that and hopefully sometime soon we can get into our half-court offense too. We’ve been doing a lot of transition. That’s a lot of fun and how we want to play.”
McGuff said that’s mostly due to the play of a defense that added ACC defensive player of the year Celeste Taylor and an offense that won’t rely on perimeter shooting quite as much as it did with Taylor Mikesell last year.
“Offensively, we look good but it kind of fits hand-in-hand: because we’re a little better defensively we’re getting a little more transition opportunities, so the offense is coming in a little different ways than maybe it did a year ago,” he said.
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Helping matters is the fact that McGuff has an essentially healthy roster at his disposal. Everyone is full-go save for fifth-year guard Madison Greene, who played in only 12 games last year before suffering a season-ending knee injury. Greene missed the entire 2021-22 season due to injury, too, but McGuff said they are anticipating her to return in either mid- or late November.
“Knock on wood, we’re good,” McGuff said. “Everybody’s full-go except for Madison. She’s doing stuff but we don’t have her in every drill.”
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Preseason practices 'intense' for mostly healthy Ohio State women
