Jaloni Cambridge and the Ohio State women’s basketball are antsy to begin NCAA Tournament play.
It’s been nearly two weeks since the Buckeyes lost to UCLA in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament, and they’ve been waiting and preparing for their first NCAA Tournament game ever since. So as Jaloni Cambridge and her teammates met with the media on Friday, one day before Ohio State’s NCAA Tournament opener vs. Howard, she was eager for gameday to arrive.
“I’m excited. I'm just ready to play, honestly,” Cambridge said. “Tomorrow just needs to hurry up. I'm ready to play.”
If all goes according to plan, Ohio State’s first-round game shouldn’t be close. The No. 3 seed Buckeyes are favored to beat the No. 14 seed Bison by 38.5 points. But Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff has told his team not to take any NCAA Tournament game for granted, and that’s a message the Buckeyes have taken to heart, especially as they begin the tournament playing in front of their home crowd for the fourth year in a row.
“Any day that we get to step on the court, it's amazing, but I'm excited that we get to play at home in front of our fans because we have some of the best fans in the country,” Cambridge said. “They always show up for us, so I know they're going to be there.”
That said, the Buckeyes don’t want to end their NCAA Tournament playing at home. Each of their last two seasons have ended with second-round NCAA Tournament losses, so the Buckeyes are hungry to make it out of the first weekend of the tournament this year.
Ohio State knows it has to take care of business against Howard first before it can worry about a potential second round game, which would be on Monday against the winner of Saturday’s second game at the Schottenstein Center between No. 6 Notre Dame and No. 11 Fairfield. But the Buckeyes are starting the tournament motivated to make a deep run.
“We've made it our mission to get out of the Schott,” said Ohio State center Elsa Lemmilä. “We have to focus one game at a time, but it's definitely our biggest mission is to get out of the Schott this week.”
Saturday’s game between Ohio State and Howard tips off at 11:30 a.m. and will be televised by ESPN2, and you can hear more of what Cambridge and Lemmilä had to say entering the NCAA Tournament in the videos above. Below, you can also check out our interview with Ohio State forward Seini Henry, the older sister of Buckeye football freshman Chris Henry Jr., who talked about what it’s like to have her brother on campus and the possibility that their younger brother – five-star forward DeMarcus Henry – could become the third Buckeye in the family if he chooses to play for Ohio State men’s basketball.
