B1G Game 9: Gophers Host Ohio State (1-28-19)

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Ignatius L Hoops

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Makayla Waterman is Who We Know


Kelsey Mitchell is gone, as her sister, Chelsea (whom, if I recall, stopped playing a year previous) and exiting with them is their father, Mark, who’s most memorable contribution as an OSU assistant coach was getting suspended along with Chelsea and Shayla Cooper for some murky happenings during a game in Cincinnati. Kelsey is now in the WNBA and Mark, his usefulness to OSU fulfilled, is now the head coach at Cincinnati’s Western Hills High school.

Head coach Kevin McGuff, in his sixth year, remains, as does the faint whiff of underachievement which plagued his deposed predecessor, Jim Foster. Like Foster’s teams, McGuff’s teams seem to exit the NCAA tournament a bit earlier than expected. In his second season, after missing post season play in his first, the Buckeyes lost an exciting second round game to North Carolina. In his second and third year, OSU lost sweet sixteen battles to Tennessee and Notre Dame. And, finally, last season, the Buckeyes lost, at home, in the second round to Central Michigan.

Somewhere during this time McGuff drifted off the recruiting trail and thus this season they’ve relied heavily on grad transfers: Carly Santoro (Bowling Green), Carmen Grande (Ball State), Adreana Miller (LaSalle) and Najah Queenland (Pacific). However, the 2018 recruiting class was not bad: It included late signee, 6’4” Dorka Juhasz, whom, like Palmo Kaposi, is a product of PTE Babits in Pecs, Hungary. It also included Janai Crooms and Aaliyah Patty. With five transfers and three freshmen on an 11 player roster, It’s a team that truly required introductions.

Not needing an introduction is 6’2” forward Makayla Waterman. Appropriately enough Waterman, who missed her first season because of an ACL, is a 5th year senior listed as a graduate. Which give the Buckeyes five graduates on the roster. Waterman, who started once in 99 previous games, has started every game this season. She is averaging 8 points and 4 rebounds in 32.6 minutes per game.

The season itself has been a bit unsettled on the court. Ohio State games versus Sacramento State and Stanford cancelled by wildfires. Then came a five game losing streak to Butler, Virginia Tech, Purdue, Nebraska and Maryland. OSU seemed to right the ship with wins against Indiana, Michigan State and Penn State (OT) before falling to Michigan and Maryland (again). Nevertheless, not only is OSU 3-5 in conference compared to Minnesota 2-6; but their wins are better. On a positive note, aside from Maryland, OSU’s losses, Purdue, Nebraska and Michigan are the same as Minnesota's.

The leading scorers in B1G games are Santoro (12.1), Juhasz (11.7) and Crooms (10.1). Last night versus Maryland, like Minnesota, the Buckeyes were done in by poor (2-12) shooting in the fourth quarter.


B1G Wins: @ Indiana 55-50, Michigan State 65-55, @ Penn State 76-71 OT

B1G Losses: @ Purdue 42-60, Nebraska 69-78, @ Maryland 69-75, @ Michigan 58-62, Maryland 57-70.


Projected Starters:

6’ 4” F Fr Dorka Juhasz (19 points, 11 rebounds, 8 turnovers and 34 minutes versus Penn State)
5’10” G Fr Janai Crooms (27 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 6 turnovers and 40 minutes versus ( Penn State)
5’10” G Sr Carly Santoro (23 points, 6 rebounds in 31 minutes versus Maryland 2nd game)
6’2” F Sr Makayla Waterman (12 points, 5 rebounds, 32 minutes versus Maryland 1st game)
5’8” G Sr Carmen Grande (19 points, 5 rebounds versus Indiana)


Others:

5’11” G Sr Adreana Miller
6’3” F Fr Aaliyah Patty (9 points, 5 rebounds, in 15 minutes versus Michigan State)
5’10” G Sr Najah Queenland (8 points, 3 rebounds, 22 minutes versus Nebraska
6’1” G Jr Jensen Caretti
 


I should have mentioned that Dorka Juhasz missed last night's game with an ankle injury suffered against Michigan. I've not heard a schedule for her return. Last night, the Buckeyes only had eight players in uniform against Maryland.
 

https://www.buckeyextra.com/sports/...keyes-may-face-minnesota-without-dorka-juhasz

Kevin McGuff provided no updates on Dorka Juhasz on Sunday, but the Ohio State women’s basketball coach clearly hopes his freshman forward’s ankle injury has improved enough to allow her to play in Monday’s Big Ten game at Minnesota.

…

Against Maryland, freshman Aaliyah Patty made her first career start in place of Juhasz and had nine points and four rebounds in nearly 24 minutes. However, she scored only two points after a seven-point first quarter in which she made all three of her shots. She also finished the game with six turnovers.

Afterward, McGuff indicated that Patty likely would get the first look if Juhasz can’t go against the Golden Gophers.

“We’ll have to watch the film and see if that was the best way to go in terms of our lineups and our subs, but we don’t really have a ton of options with the short bench,” McGuff said. “It’s next person up. With Dorka out, it’s a tough one to overcome.”
 

The Gophers have the opportunity to wear Ohio St down with their incredible depth.
 


Really? Fast break only to have Bell throw it away from behind her back. She has to get it under control. That should have been 2 points.
 


16-10 MN after 1 quarter. Sloppy, but at least we have the lead.
 

If Lamke could make her layups they’d be in pretty good shape.
 



Gotta stop Santoro, apparently a good shooter.

Ohio trying different D's including P-2-P and Box-and-1 with the 1 on Pitts (not too effective).

Oops, 4 plays out of a timeout and we missed most of our shots, and the lead almost evaporated.
 

After leading by 8, we close the first half up 3. 28-25. Bello with 11 Rebounds. Pitts carrying us on scoring.
 

Feel like some missed opportunities in the first half, post players cannot finish their shots tonight. Pitts and Bello came to play tonight!
 




That combined with our dreaded 10 TO's and we have to turn that around to win.
 

T Bello with double-double and shot at 20 rebounds. And finally Bell makes a FG!
 

End of 3, tied at 43. Can we avoid the usual 4th quarter funk/wilt?
 

That OSU rookie Patty is fast like Bello and had some good moves. She'll be a good player for them someday.
 


Can’t win when 3 of your starters go 3-19 and your bench 1-10, and Bell’s roller coaster FT shooting continues.
 

Ohio States been playing a box and 1 and triangle and 2 all 2nd half and we dont have anyone that make an outside shot.
 

This is when Bell needs to be a leader. Not committing TO's and laying bricks.
 






Good to see Pitts get it going last couple games, too bad no one else can make a shot.
 


Four home losses in a row. Back to work ladies. Go Gophers
 

This is really turning into a frustrating season, mostly because of the hot start through the non-conference portion. At some point, there conditioning also needs to be called into question. It's very strange that they can play all of these teams so evenly through 3 quarters, and then get blown out in the 4th.
 

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