Both Ohio State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams are dancing this year! The men’s team will be making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022, while the women’s team will be hosting first and second round games for the fourth straight season. Jake Diebler’s team will kick off this year’s tournament when they square off with TCU on Thursday, followed by Kevin McGuff’s squad hosting Howard on Saturday.
The Buckeye women’s team should be able to get by Howard at home on Saturday, which possibly
sets up a second-round matchup with Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish are led by Hannah Hidalgo, who has averaged at least 20 points per game in each of her three collegiate seasons. If Jaloni Cambridge and company can make it through two games in Columbus they’ll be making their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2023.
After looking like they would be one of the teams left out of the NCAA Tournament, Ohio State’s men’s team used wins over Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, and a victory over Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament to secure a spot in the tournament. The Buckeyes will have their work cut out for them if they want to make their first Sweet Sixteen appearance since 2013, as they’ll have to take down TCU and most likely Duke in Greenville.
Today we want to know which player the Buckeyes could see in the Round of 32 that worries you the most. Obviously, it’s not a given the men’s team is going to beat TCU on Thursday since 8/9 games in the first round are normally toss-ups, but for the purpose of this exercise we are going to move Ohio State on to the second round. Luckily, the women’s team shouldn’t have to sweat as much, especially since they’ll be on their home court when they face Howard.
Today’s question: Which potential Round of 32 opponent should most worry Ohio State?
We’d love to hear your choices. Either respond to us on Twitter at @Landgrant33 or leave your choice in the comments.
Brett’s answer: Cameron Boozer
If we are being honest, what is most frightening about Duke are cutaway shots of Carlos Boozer in the crowd since his beard looks like it is straight out of those Wooly Willy magnetic games from years ago. This year’s edition of the Blue Devils is led by Cameron Boozer, who should be one of the first three players taken in this year’s NBA Draft. At 6-9 and 250 pounds, Boozer enters the tournament averaging a double-double this season, scoring 22.1 points per game and pulling down 10.2 rebounds per game.
What makes taking on Boozer so concerning is that the Buckeyes have had issues with size this year. Just look at what Yaxel Lendeborg, Morez Johnson Jr, and Aday Mara were able to do in three games for Michigan against Ohio State this year. Not saying Christoph Tilly, Devin Royal, and the rest of the Buckeyes can’t slow down Boozer, but it’s tough to have a lot of confidence in them doing so when they haven’t consistently kept talented bigs from doing damage this year.
Boozer isn’t just a talented big man, he might be the best overall player in the country. The freshman can do a little bit of everything for the Blue Devils. In the ACC Tournament Championship Game against Virginia, Boozer flirted with a triple-double, finishing with 13 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists in the victory over the Cavaliers. Boozer has taken on even more responsibility lately since Duke is dealing with injuries to guard Caleb Foster and center Patrick Ngongba II.
One thing is for certain: if Ohio State is able to get by TCU on Thursday, they’ll have to be at their best on Saturday if they want to send Boozer and Duke home a lot earlier than the Blue Devils are anticipating.
Matt’s answer: Hannah Hidalgo
Yes, of course, Buckeye fans should be concerned about Boozer (and Duke in general) should the men’s team advance on Thursday. However, I think that there is a lot more to be concerned about on the women’s side. If Jake Diebler’s team does beat TCU, that in itself would be a monumental success for a team that — as Brett noted — was not even a favorite to make the tournament a few short weeks ago, let alone to be the better seed in its opening-round matchup.
So, going up against the greatest basketball program of the past half-century would be daunting, but you would likely be happy to have the opportunity and just go in, give it your best shot, and hope for the best.
On the women’s side, however, should Ohio State win its opening game against No. 14 Howard, the Scarlet and Gray would not only be the higher seed against the winner of No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 11 Fairfield, but they would also be the host school, playing at the Schottenstein Center. That adds some extra pressure to the equation, and the Buckeyes haven’t handled that specific brand of pressure all that well in recent years.
This is the fourth-straight season in which OSU has hosted the opening week of the Big Dance, securing a No. 3 seed in 2023, a No. 2 in 2024, a No. 4 in 2024, and another No. 3 this season. In those previous three seasons, only once — in 2023 — did the Buckeyes advance out of the Round of 32. So, Kevin McGuff’s squad is coming into the tournament on a two-year streak of losing at home as the higher seed in the NCAA Tournament; not the kind of momentum you want to carry into the Big Dance.
So, if the Buckeyes beat Howard, they will need to be on their A-Game when they take on one of the best scorers in all of college basketball, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. The 5-foot-6 guard enters the postseason as the third leading scorer in the sport, putting up 25.2 points per game; for reference, OSU’s Jaloni Cambridge leads the Big Ten with 22.8 ppg. Hidalgo put up more than 30 points nine times this season, including 44 against Akron in November.
Check out highlights from the first half of Hidalgo’s season:
The ND guard puts up a lot of shots, averaging 19.4 attempts per game, connecting on 48.1% of them. She is also a menace on the defensive end, leading the country with 5.41 steals per game, 1.2 more than the second-place player on the list. OSU’s Kennedy Cambridge leads the B1G in the category with 3.88 per game, so what Hidalgo has been able to do is approaching mind-boggling.
The one saving grace in Hidalgo’s game that the Buckeyes might be able to take advantage of is the fact that when she doesn’t shoot well, Notre Dame is far more likely to lose. In the 16 games this season in which she was held under 50% from the field, the Irish lost nine times. That means that only once this season has ND dropped a game when Hidalgo hit more than half of her shots.
So, the game plan for Ohio State, should they beat Howard, will almost certainly be something along the lines of “Don’t let Hidalgo beat us.” Obviously, you can’t just put five players on her and hope that everyone forgets how to play basketball, but if you’re looking for a player who should most worry you in the Round of 32, look no further than Hannah Hidalgo.
