For years, Ohio State women’s basketball has been plagued by soft interior play. It allowed teams to rebound more often, attack inside the paint and take an entire dimension out of the Buckeyes’ game plan.
Then, in 2024, head coach Kevin McGuff earned the commitment of a center out of Finland, with Ohio roots.
It took a year of coming in off the bench, a season of working through injury recovery and multiple surgeries, but this season Elsa Lemmilä is healthy and Ohio State has the chance to turn an inside
weakness into a strength.
Name: Elsa Lemmilä
Position: Center
Class: Junior
High School: Tapiolan Honka Club (Espoo, Finald)
2025-26 Stats: 9.1 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 2.3 bpg, 2.2 apg, 55.5 FG%, 15.4 3PT FG%, 61.6 FT%
Last Season
During the 24-25 season, Lemmilä played every game for the Buckeyes as a substitute off the bench. The center played behind graduate senior forward Ajae Petty and even though Lemmilä played 15.3 minutes per game, she led the team with 70 blocks, 43 more than guard/forward Taylor Thierry.
With that kind of debut, fans excitement was more than justified for the 25-26 season, but the campaign did not start for Lemmilä how anyone wanted it to, including Lemmilä herself.
In the 2025 offseason, Lemmilä had surgery on her foot, the same surgery former Buckeye Jacy Sheldon had after the 2023 season — an injury that kept her out most of that season. Lemmilä played hurt most of her first year so the surgery was welcomed. Then Lemmilä added a second surgery on her leg. Those two procedures kept Lemmilä out of the entirety of summer practice.
Even so, Lemmilä began the year in the starting lineup, but the big was clearly not close to 100%. After two non-conference games, Lemmilä was in against the UConn Huskies.
The game continued to show that Lemmilä was not ready for the minutes required for a starter in a Power Four conference, at no fault of her own. Injuries put her weeks behind her teammates and opponents.
Against UConn, Lemmilä scored 2 points and had 4 rebounds in 20 minutes. Nowhere close to the production the center had even in her first season off the bench. Head coach Kevin McGuff sat Lemmilä for a game and when she did return, Lemmilä played off the bench.
In eight games off the bench, Lemmilä averaged 6.9 point and 5.3 rebounds. Then, on December 28 against the UCLA Bruins, Lemmilä returned to the starting lineup and got better as the season went on.
Lemmilä averaged 10.5 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in the remaining 23 games of the season, complete with six double-doubles. The Finnish big also stayed relatively healthy and averaged over 30 minutes per game in the same stretch.
For all of Lemmila’s work to return last year, a situation where Ohio State was building a plane while it was in the air, the center led the Big Ten in blocks, even over UCLA Bruins center Lauren Betts.
Lemmilä earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Defensive team and showed what could happen on the court when Lemmilä is fully healthy.
What to Expect
Lemmilä is what you expect from a 6-foot-6 European big. The center does not have many equals in the conference who match her size, Lemmilä has the upper hand near the basket. In three games, Lemmilä is 18-for-19, with all 18 of those points coming inside the arc.
The European part comes from her total basketball ability. Lemmilä has speed for her size, makes moves around defenders and will do reverse layups if she gets a pass or offensive rebound directly under the basket, which she has done consistently to start the 26-27 season.
“I know when I throw the ball to Elsa, she’s gonna go get it,” point guard Jaloni Cambridge told reporters.
There is also the shooting. For the last two seasons, teammates urged the big to take more shots from deep, but consistent shooting from beyond the arc takes confidence for when the shots do not fall. Lemmilä has second guessed taking deep shots, especially after misses.
So far, Lemmilä is 1-for-1, so the start is strong but if she gets going consistently, it will create loads of space for any of the other four starters to get inside the paint.
In the offseason, Lemmilä spend two weeks with the Buckeye coaches before she left for Finland National Team duty. That couple of weeks replaced the summer practice she would miss and in that time the coaches worked with Lemmilä on her strength in the gym and on the court.
Last season especially, Lemmilä was not keen to use her size to her advantage and took more fadeaways near the basket when her size allows her to take up more space and back in defenders. With the extra work in the gym this offseason, Lemmilä can use the strength and size combination to compete in-conference and exploit the sides who don’t have a strong interior game.
“Having an offseason is really important for me, and I haven’t had that in probably over five years,” Lemmilä told reporters. “Coming coming off of a full season and then getting to kind of work on the things that you don’t have the opportunity to work on during the season is really important.”
Prediction
As long as Lemmilä stays healthy, the center is set to have a career season, as she has already shown in the early non-conference slate. The big will lead the Big Ten in blocks again and will average at least 15 points per game as the key piece of Ohio State’s inside game.
That is if she can sustain minutes. While Lemmilä did enter this season healthy, the big has a history of injuries based solely on a teenager shooting up to 6-foot-6 and all of the growing pain that comes with it. Basketball is a physical game and as Lemmilä‘s season goes on, she will receive more attention and more physical play from the bigs against the Big Ten.
Lemmilä has the ability to make the First Team All-Big Ten, if healthy.
Highlights
Watch Lemmilä in her career high 23 points. Lemmilä showed her ability inside to score and to find open teammates.
Miss any player previews? Here’s the list so far:
- Ava Watson
- Adriana Díaz
- Sydney Mobley
- Kennedy Cambridge
- Bryn Martin
- Ella Hobbs
- Atlee Vanesko
- Seini Henry
- Kylee Kitts
