Ohio State women’s basketball is projected to finish third in the Big Ten this year.
The defending Big Ten champions are ranked third in both the coaches and media preseason polls, which were released Thursday. The league’s head coaches and media voting panel both picked USC to win the conference this year and fellow conference newcomer UCLA to finish second.
See who the media voted as their preseason All-Big Ten Team, Player of the Year, and top 5 in the poll.#B1GWBball pic.twitter.com/nn3xpcikzE
— Big Ten Women’s Basketball (@B1Gwbball) September 26, 2024
Maryland is projected to finish fourth and Indiana is projected to finish fifth.
Ohio State’s Cotie McMahon, meanwhile, earned preseason All-Big Ten honors as she was chosen as one of the conference’s top players by both the coaches and the media.
A first-team All-Big Ten honoree last season, when she averaged 14.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game, McMahon enters her junior year with expectations of being the Buckeyes’ star and one of the nation’s best players in 2024-25.
McMahon is one of two returning starters for Ohio State from last season along with Taylor Thierry. The Buckeyes added two transfers this offseason, former Oregon guard Chance Gray and Kentucky forward Ajae Petty, who are expected to join them in the starting lineup. Incoming freshman Jaloni Cambridge, the No. 2 overall prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, is expected to play a major role immediately while sixth-year senior Madison Greene – a starter earlier in her career before she suffered two season-ending knee injuries – is also a candidate to play an expanded role in the backcourt after coming off the bench last season.
Ohio State is hoping to win its second straight conference championship after winning the regular season title last season. It’ll face steep competition this season, though, as USC and UCLA both enter the conference as national championship contenders. Both Southern California schools placed two players on the preseason All-Big Ten team; the Trojans are led by Big Ten preseason player of the year JuJu Watkins and Stanford transfer Kiki Iriafen, while UCLA is led by returning stars Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice; all four of them were All-Pac-12 honorees last season.
Ohio State has not yet announced its full non-conference schedule, but it is set to open the season at home against Cleveland State on Nov. 5. The Buckeyes will begin conference play with a home game against Illinois on Dec. 8.
