No. 4 UConn Huskies Ohio State Buckeyes
4-0 3-1
Prior Meetings
OHIO STATE | UCONN LEADS 5-0
H: 2-0 | A: 1-0 | N: 2-0 12/19/10 #1 UConn 81, #11 OSU 50 New York, N.Y.
12/01/13 #1 UConn 70, OSU 49 Springfield, Mass.
11/16/15 #1 UConn 100, #6 OSU 56 Columbus, Ohio
12/19/16 #1 UConn 82, #12 OSU 63 Hartford, Conn.
11/11/18 #2 UConn 85, Ohio State 53 Storrs, Conn.
H: 2-0 | A: 1-0 | N: 2-0 12/19/10 #1 UConn 81, #11 OSU 50 New York, N.Y.
12/01/13 #1 UConn 70, OSU 49 Springfield, Mass.
11/16/15 #1 UConn 100, #6 OSU 56 Columbus, Ohio
12/19/16 #1 UConn 82, #12 OSU 63 Hartford, Conn.
11/11/18 #2 UConn 85, Ohio State 53 Storrs, Conn.
Last season UConn put the hammer to Ohio State in their home opener. In the pregame ceremony, Coach Chris Daily was honored for her Hall Of Fame Election. Well deserved!!
Similar to this season, UConn was led by their top 4 players. Samuelson had 19, Dangerfield had 18, Collier had 17 and Walker had 15. It's kinda weird after watching Nelson-Ododa play so well this season, and see that she only played 5 minutes and was scoreless and reboundless. I don't think that will happen this year.
Ohio State brings back only 2 starters from that game, Dorka Juhasz and Braxton Miller and two bench players Aayilha Patty and Janai Cooms.
UCTV Video on the Game
Overview
Ohio State
Ohio State
Ohio State comes into this game 3-1 on the season. They opened their season with a 89-38 win over Valparaiso, and followed that with an overtime win over Cincinnati 78-73. Their only loss of the season was to instate rival Ohio 74-68
In their last outing, the Buckeyes played their best game to date, a 75-65 win over Kent State.
UCONN
The Huskies are rounding into form. They are 4-0 on the season and looking better game after game. They have moved up to No. 4 in the rankings and are a No. 1 seed in the way too early Bracketology.
UCONN
The player names are clickable to see their Bios
UConn Starters
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Ohio State
The coaches/player's names are clickable to see their Bios
Kevin McGuff was named head coach of The Ohio State University women’s basketball program on April 16, 2013, becoming the eighth coach in program history. McGuff’s 17-year head coaching career consists of nine years at Xavier University (214-73) and two years at the University of Washington (41-26) before arriving in Columbus. He holds a .704 overall winning percentage with a career mark of 392-165.
Ohio State Starters
6'4" Sophomore Forward
10 Braxtin Miller
5'11" Junior Guard
24 Kierstan Bell
6'1" Freshman Guard
3 Janai Crooms
5'10" Sophomore Guard
10 Braxtin Miller
5'11" Junior Guard
24 Kierstan Bell
6'1" Freshman Guard
3 Janai Crooms
5'10" Sophomore Guard
Ohio State Bench
Game Analysis
This game is a tough one to analyze. Their leading scorer and rebounder, Dorka Jurhasz, was out their last game with a knee injury and I haven't been able to find out if she will be available for this game. It's only two days between games, so who knows. She is a big (in size and importance) part of the Buckeye's game.
Jurhasz is a 6'4" forward that has range out to the 3 point line. She doesn't take many but it is part of her game.
In her place I saw Rebeka Miulasikova, a 6'4" freshman, was 7-7 against Kent State with 6 rebounds. She is big and quicker than she looks. Keirston Bell, a freshman guard looks to be a real emotional leader for the Buckeyes. She looks to take the ball to the basket as much as she can, and loves to take the three pointer but her shot selection is just not there. Look for these to freshmen to be aggressive in this game. That can be good and bad.
Ohio State plays a pretty loose man-to-man defense. Not a lot of help defense and they don't pressure the ball at all. The Buckeyes love to run off of rebounds, but mostly it's out of control. And they shoot very quickly. I didn't see them run much offense. Lots of passing around the perimeter.
UConn has lots of advantages in this game. I expect them to play pressure defense as usual. No pressing, just forcing the Buckeyes to use up a lot of the clock. OSU will try to take quick shots off defensive rebounds to counter that.
Because of the loose man-to-man defense, I expect UConn to be open for a lot of open threes. If they make a high percentage this game could get ugly quick. The Huskies also looked really good in their offense in their last game with quite a few back door cuts for easy baskets. The Buckeyes are a slowish team so expect UConn to look for those passes again on quick cuts to the hoop.
If UConn can rebound on the defensive end look for them to run, run and run. Their speed advantage will be apparent.
Final Prediction
This is a really bad matchup for Ohio State and a really good matchup for UConn. The Buckeyes are young and slow. I have a feeling UConn will be able to pressure them into mistakes and take advantage of those mistakes with easy hoops. And UConn should continue to improve their shooting percentages in this game.
With Juhasz, UConn by 30+. Without, UConn by 40+.
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