Buckeyes betting on graduate transfers to stay afloat in the Big Ten this season
Last year, the Ohio State women’s basketball team finished 28–7, won a Big Ten championship, scored the fourth-most points per game in the country, and saw star guard Kelsey Mitchell picked second in the 2018 WNBA Draft. It would be easy for a team to rest on its laurels after a season like that, except that in this case, two-thirds of the 2018–19 team wasn’t in Columbus a season ago.
How Ohio State will fare this year is anyone’s guess. The Buckeyes graduated five seniors, lost redshirt junior Sierra Calhoun (who transferred to Rutgers), and also have to replace Chelsea Mitchell, a redshirt junior who left the team in January to focus on academics. In total, the Buckeyes lost all five starters and their top six scorers. The departed players accounted for 93% of the team’s points scored and 87% of its minutes played last season. The team’s top two rebounders, top three shot blockers, top four in assists, and top five in steals are all gone. There are only four returning players, and none started a single game last season or scored more than four points per game. Only one, forward Makayla Waterman, averaged more than nine minutes per game.
While most coaches would likely go into rebuilding mode after losing so much talent, Ohio State’s Kevin McGuff has retooled. Alongside a three-player freshman class, McGuff added an entire starting lineup’s worth of graduate transfers. (Unfortunately, we almost certainly won’t see them all on the court at once, as all five are guards.) These transfer players combined for 61.9 points per game in their most recent seasons on the court, with four of the five in double figures. One player averaged nearly nine rebounds per game, and two ranked in the top 50 nationally in steals per game.
Ohio State is one of 17 Power 5 schools to add at least one graduate transfer this season, but the only Power 5 school to add more than two. The potential upside is undeniable: these graduate transfers are proven players at the mid-major level and have experience in a college program. But, unlike freshmen, they only have one year of eligibility remaining, so it’s this year or bust to get them acclimated to the team culture and the level of play in the Big Ten. With so many on a roster at once, both the risk and reward are magnified, as it becomes harder for a coach to integrate the new players and fit the pieces together. Here are the five graduate transfers McGuff will try to integrate this year, in order of points scored in their most recent season on the court:
Ashanti Abshaw
At Cleveland State: 31.7 minutes per game, 19.2 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, 2.1 assists per game, 2.7 steals per game
Abshaw is a scorer who can also do a little bit of everything, like Kelsey Mitchell. She ranked in the top 50 nationally in points and steals per game last season. She’s also used to having the ball in her hands, ranking tenth in the country in usage rate (35.1%). In comparison, Mitchell was thought to have the ball in her hands a lot, too, but her career high in usage rate was 32.2% (in her freshman season).
Adreana Miller
At La Salle: 33.5 MPG, 13.6 PPG, 3.4 RPG
Miller, the daughter of former Villanova player Lance Miller, was La Salle’s second-leading scorer last season. She also led her team in three-pointers made with 62. Her outside shooting could be a real boost to a Buckeyes team that graduated all four players who attempted even one three-pointer per game last season.
Carly Santoro
At Bowling Green: 31.7 MPG, 12.8 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 1.5 SPG
Last season, Santoro led Bowling Green in both scoring and rebounding and was second in assists and steals. She had 21 double-digit scoring games and 12 double-digit rebounding games last season despite being only 5’10”. McGuff has unproven options in the post behind Waterman, so out of all the ways Santoro can stuff the stat sheet, her work on the glass might be the most crucial.
Carmen Grande
At Ball State: 35.0 MPG, 11.5 PPG, 9.2 APG, 2.6 SPG
That’s not a typo: Grande averaged over nine assists per game last season, good for second-best among all NCAA Division I players. Her 42.3% assist rate was fifth best nationally, and she was also in the top 40 in steals per game. Abshaw, Miller, and the other Ohio State shooters will be thrilled to have a teammate with Grande’s court vision.
Najah Queenland
At Pacific (2016–17): 22.1 MPG, 4.8 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 2.0 APG
Queenland sat out her senior season for Pacific before transferring to Ohio State. She was a key member of the rotation as a junior at Pacific, playing over 20 minutes per game, and will add versatility and depth to the Buckeyes’ roster.
On the whole, McGuff seems optimistic, telling a local newspaper, “I’m trying to figure out a lot of strengths and weaknesses with so many new faces, but I like the team so far. … It’ll be my job to put them in the best position possible.” But he doesn’t have much time left to figure those things out, thanks to an unforgiving nonconference schedule. Ohio State opens the season on November 6 against South Florida (Her Hoop Stats rating last season: #21), then travels to UConn (HHS 2017–18 rating: #1) and Stanford (HHS 2017–18 rating: #18) for its third and fifth games of the season. Whatever the team’s record in those games, though, it’ll be fascinating to watch whether McGuff’s bet on graduate transfers pays off in the Big Ten race, or even in March.
If you like this content, please support our work at Her Hoop Stats by subscribing for just $20 a year. All stats are compiled from Her Hoop Stats and the Ohio State women’s basketball website unless otherwise noted. Thanks also to WBB Blog for its comprehensive information on transfer players.
