Ohio State women’s basketball is a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Buckeyes, who will host first- and second-round games at the Schottenstein Center for the fourth straight year, will play No. 14 seed Howard in the first round on Saturday (11:30 a.m., ESPN2). If they win their first-round game, they’ll face No. 6 Notre Dame or No. 11 Fairfield in the second round on Monday.
UConn is the No. 1 seed in Ohio State’s bracket, followed by Vanderbilt as the No. 2 seed. Ohio State is in the Fort Worth 1 region, so its Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games will be in Fort Worth, Texas, if the Buckeyes advance that far.
The Bracket.
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Ohio State is a No. 3 seed for the first time since 2023, when the Buckeyes made a run to the Elite Eight. That’s also the last time Ohio State made it to the second weekend of the tournament, as the Buckeyes lost in the second round on their home floor despite being a No. 2 seed in 2024 and a No. 4 seed last year.
The Buckeyes enter the NCAA Tournament with a 26-7 overall record for the season. Led by unanimous first-team All-Big Ten point guard Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State is one of the nation‘s top offensive teams, averaging 81.7 points per game (13th in Division I), but must now prove it can string together wins against some of the top teams in the country to make an NCAA Tournament run.
Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff believes his team is on the upswing entering the NCAA Tournament, but believes it’s important for his team to focus on one game at a time, starting with its first-round game against a Howard team that holds the same 26-7 record as Ohio State this year.
“I think we have to start with Howard, obviously, and make sure we're as prepared as possible. And then we'll kind of regroup if we're fortunate enough to win that game,” McGuff said. “What has allowed us to win this year is just the fact that we've gotten better from start to finish. And so hopefully this week can be good, we can get a little bit better at some things. Our attention to detail and focus on preparation has been as good as it's been in years, so I think that's where we're going to have to hang our hat on this week, like we have all season.”
Ohio State guard Chance Gray said she thinks the Buckeyes are entering the NCAA Tournament with “great chemistry” and believes that gives them a chance to make a deep tournament run.
“We all lean on each other and believe in each other, so I think that will carry us a long way if we just keep believing in everything that we've built this year,” Gray said. “I think that we've taken in everything the coaches have said offensively, cutting, spacing and then defensively, just being more aggressive and being a better rebounding team.”
