The Ohio State women’s basketball program has enjoyed tremendous success in the regular season in recent years, but has been unable to do much damage in the NCAA Tournament.
Entering the 2008-09 season, the Buckeyes feel good about their chances of winning what would be a fifth-straight Big Ten regular season championship. However, the big question is whether they can get over the hump in the postseason.
Last year, OSU finished 22-9 overall, including 13-5 in the Big Ten. The Buckeyes' annual early-exit in the NCAA Tournament came at the hands of Florida State in the first round, 60-49.
Sophomore center Jantel Lavender returns to lead the 2008-09 Buckeyes. She averaged 17.6 points and 9.9 rebounds per game last year and was named the Big Ten’s co-player of the year (Lavender was the coaches’ choice; Wisconsin guard Jolene Anderson – who has since graduated – got the nod from the media). Lavender became the first freshman in Big Ten history – male or female – claim that honor. She was also the unanimous freshman of the year in the Big Ten.
Other key names that return for OSU include senior guard Ashlee Trebilcock (9.6 points per game last year), junior guard Shavelle Little (Big Ten defensive player of the year with 79 steals) and senior forward Star Allen (8.2 points, 6.7 rebounds).
Joining the team this year is freshman guard Samantha Prahalis from Commack, N.Y. She was a McDonald’s All-American and was named the Gatorade player of the year in New York. She averaged 30.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 7.9 assists and 7.2 steals her senior season and is expected to make a big immediate impact for Ohio State.
But will the likes of Lavender, Trebilcock, Little, Allen and Prahalis be enough for the Buckeyes to make some noise in the NCAA Tournament if they get there? Head coach Jim Foster was asked what needs to take place in order for the Buckeyes to have more success in the postseason and he initially gave a sarcastic, obvious answer.
“Win games,” he said. “Win games.”
One would think that it would be extremely frustrating for Foster to have so much success in the regular season, only to see his team collapse each year in the tournament.
“Well, it is what it is,” Foster said. “I think you could ask the same question to (Kansas men’s coach) Bill Self a year ago and (Duke men’s coach) Mike Krzyzewski a while back. I think if you’ve been around long enough, things are the way they are and they happen the way they happen. We needed to get more athletic and I think we did that. Last year was sort of a transition year, yet we made the NCAA Tournament and we won the Big Ten. We had to get good enough and athletic enough to win in the next segment and I think we have gotten more athletic.”
Foster says he does not feel any pressure in terms of job security because of OSU’s struggles in the postseason.
“No,” he said. “I really don’t listen to people who talk about things like that. I listen to people who have an understanding of how it is. We need to be better. I don’t need anyone to tell me that. I’ve got a pretty good handle on that.”
Foster was asked one more time what the Buckeyes need to do in order to have success in the NCAA Tournament and this time he gave a much-more in-depth response.
“We just need to be better at the end of the year,” he said. “We need to be healthy – I think that’s a big deal. I’m not going to go back too far, but I will say (two years ago) when Brandie (Hoskins) went down, we were 21-1 and we were a very good basketball team. We won at Oklahoma, won at Purdue and we were very good. We lost a competitive edge there and I think it’s taken a while to replace.
“I think when you lose a four-year standout like Jess Davenport and a four-year player like Brandie Hoskins and then you come back the next year… I mean, we won the league. I don’t want to lose sight of that. People like to talk about the postseason. This year’s team, what are we going to do at the end of the season that we didn’t have last year? I think we’ve gotten more competitive and I think that’s a big part of it.”
The good news for Foster is that the 6-4 Lavender is back and should be even more of a dominant player this year. However, he says there are some areas of her game that need to improve.
“She needs to score with her left hand more,” Foster said. “She needs to become a better all-around player. She needs to be able to score over both shoulders. Running the floor better. Taking an attribute that she has athletically and using it better.”
Foster reflected on Lavender’s outstanding freshman season and the fact that she was named the conference’s top player.
“Well, obviously she had a great year and accomplished something a lot of great players in this league weren’t able to accomplish,” Foster said. “So, I think that just speaks for itself. Put a list up of the great players that have been in this conference and she’s the first one to accomplish what she accomplished. I think that speaks volumes.”
Foster also talked about Prahalis and what made her such a highly sought-after recruit.
“She’s competitive and skilled,” he said. “And the rest we’ll find out.”
When asked if Prahalis is definitely a 1 (point guard) or if she could also play the 2, Foster just shook his head.
“I’m not a numbers guy,” he said. “I really don’t understand where that stuff came from. She’s a basketball player. And hopefully we’ll just have a gym full of them.”
One of them is Little who has established herself as OSU’s “Lady of Steal.” Foster was impressed that Little was able to win the award for the conference’s best defensive player last year.
“She did it on one leg for two-thirds of the Big Ten season,” he said. “She had knee surgery at the end of the year. So, game-to-game, we weren’t sure if Shavelle was going to play or not play. Or if she did play, how long could she play? So, I think that’s a great compliment to her that she was able to get the coaches’ attention not healthy.”
Foster thinks he has a better team than last year and he explained why.
“We’re longer, more-athletic and quicker,” he said. “We have more team speed, which allows you to do more defensively and it allows you to get down the floor quicker offensively. Our point guards – Sammy and Maria (Moeller) – will throw the ball ahead. And when they’re throwing the ball ahead, our post players have incentive to run the floor harder. We hope to utilize our speed. If you have guards that can get the ball up the court fast and you have post players that can run the floor well, you’re going to get easy baskets. And I don’t think that was a big enough part of our team last year.”
