The trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota was cut two days short for Ohio State women’s basketball. Entering the Big Ten Tournament as the regular season champions, and No. 1 seed, the Buckeyes fell hard in its lone game of the weekend. Head coach Brenda Frese’s Terps played a strong 40 minutes that left the Scarlet and Gray with questions, and a long time to dwell on it and fix it.
Recent history shows that the Buckeyes can bounce back.
Following Friday’s midday game, Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff showed a level of frustration that normally doesn’t transfer from the court to the press conference room. Words were not minced.
“Today like nobody was very good,” said McGuff. “So I don’t think the starters were good, the bench wasn’t good, I wasn’t good, nobody was good.”
The Buckeyes had its worst shooting performance of the season at the Target Center, shooting a season-low 35.9% from the floor. From beyond the arc, the Scarlet and Gray went 6-for-22. Defensively, the Buckeyes forced its second-lowest turnover amount of the season (13) and were outrebounded 21 to 44.
At the final buzzer, Ohio State had its biggest margin of defeat of the season, falling by 21 points to the Terrapins.
“I thought Maryland played a great game. They were really prepared,” said McGuff. “They played like a team that might have needed this to get in the tournament, and we played like a team that showed up as the No. 1 seed and everybody was just supposed to lie down, and that’s not what happened.”
These emotions and comments aren’t new to the Buckeyes this season. In Ann Arbor, Michigan on Dec. 30, the Buckeyes looked like a team expecting the Michigan Wolverines to lay down too.
In that defeat, it wasn’t an Ohio State team that looked defeated throughout, like Friday’s version, but a team lacking chemistry.
Regardless of the method of defeat, there’s a silver lining in how the Buckeyes responded. A response that could see its way to the NCAA Tournament.
