Latest / Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning / BONUS: How Ryan Day Helped Ohio State Women's Basketball Recruiting

Transcript

BONUS: How Ryan Day Helped Ohio State Women's Basketball Recruiting · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right. We're back with another bonus show. And once again,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: we are talking basketball. Last show brought in Marcus Hartman,
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the basketball insider at Buckeye insiders.com to talk about the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: men's team, Jake Diebler, some of the additions that they
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: had on this year's team guys that could be making
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: a big difference on this year's my host at men's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: basketball team. So make sure you check that one out.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: If you've not listened to that already. Now we're going
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to be talking a little bit about the women's team.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Marcus got a chance to watch the ladies practice earlier
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: this week, got a chance to talk to Kevin McGuff
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: as well as a couple of players and So this
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: is another team where there are some expectations around this
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: year's Ohio State women's basketball team. But one of the stories, Marcus,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I really wanted to start with this one. I know
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: not everything is about football, but I don't have very
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: many rules about women's basketball coverage. But when Ryan Day
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: comes up as an influence in recruiting for the women's
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: basketball team, all right, we got to start with that story.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: How did Ryan Day help Kevin McGuff?
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Well, he said that he got a call a few
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: years ago when Ryan Day– he said his father-in-law, who
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: apparently is a former college basketball coach, noticed a girl
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: at a rec league where Ryan's son, R.J., was playing,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: and he was with the father-in-law there, and he noticed
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: this girl who was just destroying people, and so they
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: found out a little bit about her, and then they
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: called McGuff and said, hey, keep an eye out for
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: this girl, and so he did a little bit of research,
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: and then she went on their recruiting radar, and that
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: was when she was in either 6th or 7th grade,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: and then She turned out to be Sydney Mobley, who
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: then became a star at Big Walnut in Columbus. And
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: now she is enrolled at Ohio State as she was
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: going to be a five star in the 2027 class.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: But she's graduating early and is now has just joined
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: the team really when school started here for for the fall.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: And she's practicing with them and. And 6'2 is what
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: they're listing her at, so she's a power forward, which
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: in McGuff's system, that's more of a perimeter, a face-to-basket
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: type of a player, someone who probably needs to be
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: able to make outside shots, ideally. And so she's kind
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: of working her way in there, and they're excited about
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: her for the future, especially, and hoping to get some
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: quality minutes from her this year.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: This year's team, there are some pretty big expectations, I
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: feel like, for this year's Ohio State women's basketball team.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: The Big Ten, very, very, very challenging league this year.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: You got a lot of teams that are considered top 15,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: top 20 kind of teams in the league. So not
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: going to be an easy year by any means, but
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: they are bringing back a lot of talent. But one
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of the questions on this year's team is, how is
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that team going to replace Chance Gray? And so what
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: did Kevin McGuff say about the path that they chose
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: to try and solve that issue?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the thing I was really most curious about,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: especially when the season ended. She's a 40% three-point shooter,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: averaged 14 points a game, and was a fifth-year senior.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: So she brought a lot of leadership and everything. I mean,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: she was just a dead-eye shooter, and their system is
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: really built on the dribble-drive offense, and they want to
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: obviously get to the rim if you can, but it's
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: really built on stretching the defense and making threes. Um, so,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: so that was a huge role that she filled. And, uh,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: he said they considered, uh, you know, another, a, uh,
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: you know, bringing in a one for one type of
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: an update, you know, bringing another veteran who would be
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: able to be able to add that shooting and veteran
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: presence that she did, but it didn't work out that
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: they found anybody who fit. So the plan is to
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: replace her, uh, you know, kind of internally with bigger
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: roles for a One of them, it sounds like Kennedy Cambridge,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: who has been a defensive specialist. She's a senior. Her
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: younger sister, Jelani, is an All-Big Ten, All-American point guard
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: for Ohio State. Kennedy was the defensive specialist. She was
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: All-Big Ten defense last year. Came close to setting the
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Big Ten record for steals. She says that's her goal
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: this year is to break that record. She was someone
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: who could make outside shots last year, but was not
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: real quick to take them all the time. She said
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: she plans on being more aggressive this year. And again,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: the way the system is set up, I mean, these
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: guards will get, if you haven't watched them play much.
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: The guards getting the ball wide open on the perimeter
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: is pretty common in this offense. So she's someone who
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: should be getting a lot of open looks there, either
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: in the corner or on the wing. She said she's
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: going to be taking those more. And she also worked
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: on this summer on developing her left hand and being
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit more of a playmaker herself. The other,
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: they're also looking for Ava Watson, who's a junior guard player.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: who was a highly recruited player two years ago. Last year,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: she played some significant minutes off the bench, but did
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: not provide a lot of scoring. They're looking for her
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: to be someone who can step in and score more,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: make these open threes, and step in to take some
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of that, just kind of pick up some of the
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: minutes that Gray was able to give them. So, you know,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: in terms of being able to to take up more minutes.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, you would think as being a junior, she'd
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: be someone who would be ready physically and mentally to,
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: to play a much bigger role. And, and, uh, day said,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: you know, I'm sorry. McGuff said he, you know, if
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: he has his druthers, he likes to be able to,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: to keep most of the team together. They have had
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: a lot of, a fairly good amount of success with transfers,
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: much more than the men's program in terms of bringing
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: in transfers who were good and productive, uh, for several
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: years now. Um, but, uh, this year's team is more
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: bringing back people from last year, and especially from a
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: veteran standpoint, and developing them and expanding some roles. I
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: think another player, Bryn Martin, who's going to be a sophomore.
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: She's a 6'1, 6'2-ish type guard who's really a good
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: all-around player. She can make the open three, obviously someone
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: who needs to improve just kind of her all-around game.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: She can handle the ball. I covered her some in
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: high school. She could get to the basket and finish
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: against high school competition. Doing that in college is a
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: little bit of a different scenario, obviously, but I think
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: that's in her game as she develops and gets bigger
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: and stronger too. So they've got a lot of options there.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: in the backcourt. And then, you know, the Cambridge, Jelani
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Cambridge is just such a playmaker, you know, she can,
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: she can, and she can make open shots. So she
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: really creates easy opportunities for people to score also.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Mentioned earlier how challenging the Big Ten is going to
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: be this year, but they have really set out to
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: set themselves a pretty challenging non-conference schedule as well. They
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: got UConn coming to Columbus. They have a couple of
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: neutral site games against good competition. And I'm doing neutral
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: sites with some heavy air quotes here. They're playing Texas
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: down in Texas. It's not in Austin, but it's Texas
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: down in Texas. And they're playing Stanford in Northern California,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: but it's not in Palo Alto. So it's a neutral site. But,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you know, it sounds like this was a very intentional
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: thing from Kevin McGuff to play some more challenging non-conference games.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that it was kind of depending on
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: the year. I mean, they've played some. It's not like
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: they've just played cupcakes every year. Two or three years ago,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: they did. I think last year they did play UConn. and,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: and so it'll be interesting. And I believe they played
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: TCU early. And, um, so it'd be interesting to see
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: how that, you know, they want to, they want to
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: be tested more and, and pushed and, and get a
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: little more idea of what their strengths and weaknesses are and,
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: and see just what it takes to win, um, matchup
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: type games. Um, then obviously that's one of the reasons
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: for that is three years in a row, they've lost
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: in the round of 32 at home to a team,
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: you know, with a worse seed. Um, The both of
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: the Kennedy Cambridge came up the very first answer to
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: the very first question this year was, you know, their
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: goal is to get out of the shot. And so
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: that's something that's big on the minds of the players.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: McGuff actually was sort of like, I mean, yeah, hopefully
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: we're good enough to host for one thing. And second
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: of all, obviously, we would like to win. these tournament games,
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: but sometimes it just comes down to how you're playing
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: at the end of the year, who you play, what
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: the matchup is like, and that type of thing. He
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: was more worried about getting ready for November than for March,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: but obviously that's understandable too, and I think it's all
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: kind of a piece in and of itself that way.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: All right, there you go. It is still football season
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: in Columbus, Ohio, but we want to get you a
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: little basketball talk this time of year as well, Marcus.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: busy covering both the men's and women's Ohio state basketball
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: teams for you at Buckeye insiders.com. Got access to practice
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: this week to watch both the men and the women
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: talk to the coaches from both teams. And we're going
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to have plenty of coverage of basketball all season long
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: for you at Buckeye insiders.com. So if you are a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: basketball fan, one more reason to join our community there
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: at Buckeye insiders.com coverage of the basketball team. Yeah. Don't worry.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: We talk a bunch of football too, but there's always
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: a lot to talk about on the insiders board. presented
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: by Jeff Rubies Columbus at buckeyeinsiders.com. Thank you guys all
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: for joining us. We'll be back with more content a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: little later on in the week.