Ohio State women’s basketball head coach Kevin McGuff (left) and men’s basketball head coach Jake Diebler (right) during each team’s first practice of the 2026-27 season on Monday. Credit: Cassandra D’Angelo | Sports Photo editor
Ohio State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams will each return to the court in six weeks.
On Nov. 2, the men’s team will face BYU in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the women’s team will play University of Illinois at Chicago at the Schottenstein Center.?
Despite each team starting its 2026-27 season on the same date, that’s largely where the similarities between the teams end.??
The men’s team has added nine new players and four new members to its coaching staff, while the women’s team returns four of its five starters from a season ago.
Prior to the teams’ first official practice of the 2026-27 season, men’s basketball head coach Jake Diebler and women’s basketball head coach Kevin McGuff each addressed the media on their upcoming seasons in the Schottenstein Center Monday.
Here are takeaways from Diebler on the men’s basketball team
Ohio State enters its 2026-27 campaign coming off its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2022.
The Buckeyes added nine new players, including five-star freshman Anthony Thompson and transfers Justin Pippen, Jimmie Williams, Curtis Givens III and Andrija Jelavic, while returning last season’s starting guard John Mobley Jr. and forward Amare Bynum.
Diebler said the new-look roster has impacted how the Buckeyes could play offensively this season.?
“We don’t want to just bring [the ball] up and run a set every time, we’ve really drilled playing out of concepts,” Diebler said. “We’ve adjusted some of the concepts of our base offense to fit the personnel of this team and I’m really excited about that. It gives us more versatility, I think we’re less predictable and our guys have bought in.”
Diebler said that after coaching the Buckeyes during the offseason, which included two exhibition wins in the Arroyo Puerto Rico Classic, he’s confident in the depth of the upcoming team.
“I thought on paper we had great depth, I’m even a bigger believer in it after working with this team now for a couple months and we have to utilize that as a strength,” Diebler said. “We need to be able to put pressure on other teams and wear them down a little bit with our defense. We need to be able to wear teams down with the pace we play offensively.”
Now entering his third season as head coach, Diebler returns two starters, brings in his highest-rated recruiting class and four transfers, all of which have two or more years of college basketball experience.??
“I’m not afraid of the expectations, I’m not afraid of the standard that is this program,” Diebler said. “In fact, we’re trying to take it up to the top and that’s the mentality I want our guys to have.”?
Here are takeaways from McGuff on the women’s basketball team?
Ohio State returns four of five starters from last year’s NCAA Tournament team, including last season’s second-team All-American guard Jaloni Cambridge.
McGuff explained his preference on keeping and building players in the program rather than looking in the portal to fill out the roster every year.
“It’s my preference to hang our hat on continuity,” McGuff said, “We want the core of our team to be from people who come here and are here multiple years.”
The 2025-26 team hosted a regional in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year, but the Buckeyes lost in the second round for the third straight season.?
McGuff said the team is set on breaking the trend and returning Ohio State to the Sweet 16 for the first time since the 2022-23 season.
“I think it says a lot about them, that they want this for this program and their community,” McGuff said. “For me, I just hope I’ve helped them kind of reach their potential and do something special.”
Of the few players the Buckeyes lost at the end of 2025, none were more significant than Chance Gray, who was drafted in the second round of the 2026 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.?
McGuff said he looks for Kennedy Cambridge, who returns for her third season at Ohio State, to make a significant leap this upcoming season and fill the offensive void with Gray’s departure.?
“I think a lot of people saw how good [Kennedy] is on the defensive end, but she also had a good offensive year,” said McGuff, “I think she’s going to take a step on that end of the floor and be even more assertive as an offensive player here.”
Ohio State will face Texas and UConn, who each made the Final Four last season, in its nonconference schedule to start the season.
McGuff believes this competition will help them evaluate where they stand to start the year and help them as they look to make a sixth straight NCAA tournament appearance.
“We returned enough that we wanted to see where we measured up with some of the country’s best programs,” McGuff said, “As we look all the way towards the end of the season and given the opportunity to play in the postseason, we want to give ourselves the best chance possible.”
