If it seems like Ohio State women’s basketball forward Kylee Kitts has not been on the court much lately, it is because she has not. In the last two Big Ten games against the No. 4 UCLA Bruins and Purdue
Boilermakers, Kitts has had the fewest minutes of any starter, hitting 39 combined over the matchups. The absence is not because of a lack of skill or not playing effectively in Ohio State’s game plan. Kitts missed time because of fouls, and for the Buckeyes to compete against the top teams in the conference, that has to change.
In Kitts’ first season, the redshirt freshman has first-year college athlete moments. There are missed assignments and self-inflicted turnovers, but the spells of inconsistency that popped up early in the season are fewer and further between as the calendar flipped to 2026.
Now, Kitts has to stay in games because the forward is key to the Buckeyes’ success.
Take the Wednesday matchup against Purdue. Ohio State struggled to shoot from deep this season until an above-average game from deep in West Lafayette. The Buckeyes shot 9-of-25 from beyond the arc, and that was due in part to strong inside-out play.
Even with only 19 minutes on the court, Kitts attracted defensive attention inside the paint, and the freshman went to the line eight times. That meant more attention from the Boilermakers, and Kitts turned that into passes to open teammates for three assists. Kitts also led the team with 10 rebounds (five on the offensive boards), which led all players despite playing less than half of the game.
“She’ll [Kitts] get occasional fouls on going for offensive rebounds, which I’m not that concerned about, because I want her to be very aggressive in that space,” head coach Kevin McGuff told Land-Grant Holy Land. “But then she’ll always though have a couple that she can kind of control, and she’s got to work on that because we need her in the game, we need to make sure we can have her for extended minutes.”
Ultimately, Ohio State did not need Kitts for starter-level minutes against Purdue. The Buckeyes held a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter and added to it in every quarter that followed, but against teams like the Bruins and upcoming matchups against the Illinois Fighting Illini and Maryland Terrapins, Ohio State needs what Kitts brings to the game.
Kitts leads the Buckeyes with 7.4 rebounds per game, only the second player to average more than seven per game in the previous four seasons. Last year, graduate senior forward Ajae Petty averaged 7.2, but the last Ohio State player before Petty to average at least seven per game was forward Dorka Juhász in the 2020-21 season.
Ohio State’s freshman star in the paint is grabbing rebounds at a higher clip than anyone in recent history, and that is without playing closer to 40 minutes per game.
However, Kitts is not alone in hearing whistles aimed her direction, which she heard 39 times this season. The only Buckeye with more fouls is guard Kennedy Cambridge with 41, while point guard Jaloni Cambridge sits right behind Kitts with 38.
The difference between the Cambridge sisters and Kitts is that the two guards have the experience and maturity to continue playing through the fouls. For Kitts and many young players, fouls change the way a player plays basketball. Sometimes it means more hesitancy, and it strips an athlete of what got them onto the basketball court in the first place.
Fortunately for McGuff and the Buckeyes, Kitts’ game has not changed much with an increasing foul number, but the forward still needs to learn the balance of how to avoid those fouls while still playing her game.
“Someone that’s been in that position before, you just got to tell them just to keep fighting,” Jaloni Cambridge told reporters. “Fouls, they’ll pull you out of the game. They’ll try to get you out of your rhythm, but then you have to keep playing. At least we know she was trying. I think that you know if you foul sometimes, sometimes they can be cheap fouls, but I don’t think any of hers were cheap fouls. She was just trying her hardest out there.”
Alongside center Elsa Lemmilä, Kitts and the Buckeyes average 41 rebounds per game. That is on pace for the highest rebounding amount for McGuff at Ohio State in his 13th season and good for seventh in the Big Ten this season, when the Buckeyes usually find themselves near the bottom of the 18-team league, looking up.
Sunday will be the next chance for Kitts to work on limiting fouls, and this time against a Rutgers Scarlet Knights team full of size. Rutgers has six players who stand at least 6-foot-3 and are the tallest team in the Big Ten. How that impacts Kitts and the Buckeyes’ interior game is yet to be seen, but for Ohio State to have a chance at winning the rebound margin, Kitts needs closer to 30 minutes on the court.
“We talk a lot with her [Kitts] about playing the next play, regardless of the outcome, let’s get on to the next play and get in the next moment,” McGuff said. “Hopefully she can continue to grow in that space.”
