Buckeyes look to pile up more hardware

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)—A visitor steps inside the door to the Ohio State women’s basketball office and is immediately funneled along the left wall of the hallway.

There’s not much room to get through. Stacked along the right wall are seven towering Big Ten championship trophies, their shorn nets neatly circling each base.

It might get even tighter in that hallway.

Ohio State, ranked No. 3 in the nation in the Associated Press preseason poll, is loaded with talent. Even though the Buckeyes graduated two starters, there are plenty of possibilities waiting in the wings to improve on last year’s squad that went 29-6, won its fifth straight Big Ten regular-season and second conference tournament title and then made it to the NCAA regional semifinals before falling.

Still, don’t expect coach Jim Foster to get tendinitis from patting himself and his players on the backs.

“I tell my kids, we’re the preseason favorite—what do you want us to do? Have a banquet now?” he said, sort of joking in a caustic way. “What is it? It’s like winning the pole in an (auto) race.”

The thing is, Foster has quite a driver in this race. Point guard Samantha Prahalis is as flashy—no-look and behind-the-back passes—as any guard in the country. But it’s more than glitter; she was among the national leaders last year with 6 assists a game. She triggers an Ohio State team that is not like what most people expect when they think of the Big Ten. The Buckeyes are fast, athletic, can jump and can play a variety of styles.

“I think we’re capable of winning the national championship,” said Prahalis, the conference’s freshman of the year last season. “Some people think we can get there, some people think that we won’t. But we know that we can get there. It’s a long way off, so we’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

The key inside and out is Jantel Lavender, a 6-foot-4 track star of a pivot. Faster than most teams’ point guard, she is usually Prahalis’ wingman on the break. When she’s not sprinting 70 feet to hit layups—a slower defender well behind her—she can post up for spin moves and bank shots. Try to muscle her and she’ll face the basket and hit a 15-footer or drive past slower players for easy buckets.

“The reason why the team is a lot better is because we have everything,” said Lavender, an All-American and Big Ten player of the year each of her two seasons who averaged 20.8 points and 10.7 rebounds a game last season. “We can play defense, we can play great offense, we can run. Everybody’s fast. You add all those things together and it’s why we’re so highly ranked at the start of the season.”

Foster isn’t one to blather on about how good his team is. But even he is quietly optimistic.

“We’ve got a chance to be pretty good,” he said in what passes for hyperbole from him. “We’ve got pieces.”

Lots of them. Shavelle Little is a two-time defensive player of the year in the conference who averages almost 3 steals a game. She runs the show in Ohio State’s frequent forays into fullcourt pressure. Brittany Johnson is a pure shooter who has yet to really find her role, even though she hit 44 3-pointers a year ago.

The Buckeyes’ blend of size, speed and athleticism continues through the roster. Guards Alison Jackson, Maria Moeller, Cherise Daniel and Amber Stokes each add something different. Andrea Walker and Sarah Schulze provide strength, defense and rebounding.

On top of that, Foster has signed the No. 1 player from a different state each of the last three years, adding Tayler Hill this season. A two-time player of the year in Minnesota, she scored almost 4,000 points in high school.

No wonder everyone thinks so highly of the Buckeyes.

“I love it,” Prahalis said. “It’s like, they’re all expecting a lot from us. Everyone’s looking at us now as No. 3. It’s a big deal. But for us it’s good that everyone thinks we’re that good because we have to live up to it. We’ve got to work hard and really push because we want to stay right up there.”

Do that, and Ohio State might just have to build a bigger hallway.