BIG TEN BASKETBALL MEDIA DAYS

October 12, 2022

Kevin McGuff

Ohio State Buckeyes

Women's Head Coach

KEVIN WARREN: The next basketball coach we're going to announce is the women's basketball coach at The Ohio State University, Kevin McGuff. He has worked very closely with LandOn a Cure Foundation, which raises money for young children who are battling rare diseases.

Coach had an outstanding season last year, grabbing a share of the Big Ten title. He has another exciting team coming back this year. We're looking forward to see his team play.

We'd like to welcome to the podium the head basketball coach at The Ohio State University, head coach Kevin McGuff.

Good morning, everyone. Appreciate you guys being here. Thank you, Commissioner Warren, for the kind remarks.

It's great to be here in Minneapolis. Obviously an incredible basketball town. We're very fortunate, we had the women's basketball Final Four here which was a tremendous experience for the coaches and student-athletes involved. I'm really looking forward to the end of the regular season and coming back here for the Big Ten tournament.

Having said that, a little bit about our team. Today on this trip I have Jacy Sheldon and Taylor Mikesell, two of our upperclassmen who are First Team All-Big Ten preseason and are coming off great seasons. They're going to be the core of our leadership group in leading us in what I think could be an excellent season.

I like our team. We had great success last year, a share of the Big Ten title, reaching the Sweet 16, then losing a close game to Texas in the NCAA tournament.

With the core of that team back, I'm very optimistic that this year could be another special season for us. We've got great kids. They've worked incredibly hard to this point.

I'll kind of start with we have a very difficult non-conference schedule, open up with Tennessee, one of the best teams and most talented teams in the country. We're going to play at Louisville, who will be probably pre-season top 10 in the ACC Big Ten challenge. Also have several other challenging games. That will lead us into the Big Ten slate which is going to be one of the best conferences in the country for women's basketball, with the amount of great players that have returned and the coaching. It will be as competitive as ever. I think one of the most exciting years in history.

So I'll open it up to questions at this point.

Q. You finished last season top 30 in the nation in home attendance. What are you doing to improve attendance this season?

KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, great question.

We've got certainly passionate fans in Columbus who really support our program and all the Ohio State programs.

We really struggled coming out of COVID initially because we've been historically among the top 10 usually in the country in attendance.

I think we'll be much more in that range this year. We've really ramped up our marketing efforts. I think people feel much more comfortable getting out. Our fan base feels much more comfortable coming to the games now.

We've had a great response with our early season ticket campaigns. I think the Schott will once again this year be one of the tougher places in the country to play.

Q. You were just talking about how you had a special season last year. You think back to the pre-season, you guys were in a tough spot. How different does it feel right now getting this season underway and being here than it did a year ago?

KEVIN McGUFF: Yeah, we had a tough two years because we had a post-season ban, and prior to that we had the COVID where we didn't get to go to the tournament. Then, quite frankly, we had a tough early season injury with Madison Greene going out.

That, I think, speaks to the leadership and resilience of our upperclassmen from last year's team. That gives me great optimism for this year, is we've got some of the same kids with the high character that they have. It is nice to really just be focused on our season and what the possibilities could be. Just a lot less of the distractions we had for a couple years there.

Q. You brought up Madison Greene. You had one of the best backcourts around last year. Is she healthy? Has she been practicing? How does that impact what you're going to do with the three positions?

KEVIN McGUFF: Right. First, yeah, she's practicing. She's full go every day. She was incredibly diligent and worked very hard with her rehab, so she's back. She looks very good.

We did have great chemistry and a great backcourt last year. It's a great opportunity to infuse Madison back in and get them playing together. I think we'll only get better because of it.

But we will have to kind of work we get her back in there the way we want for us to be effective.