Buckeye Blogger Network
On Sunday the Ohio State women’s basketball team wrapped up the Big Ten season with a win over rival Michigan and now the Buckeyes turn their sights to the Big Ten women’s basketball tournament. After years of taking place in Indianapolis, this year the tournament moves to the Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. This is only the second time the tournament has been played outside of Indianapolis, the first ever women’s basketball tournament took place in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As part of a new deal signed by the Big Ten last year, the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will alternate between Chicago and Indy, the men’s tournament will be played at the United Center when the tournaments are in Chicago.
Personally I am not a fan of this plan as I felt that Indy was the perfect city for the basketball tournaments; the arena was nice and it was in easy walking distance of numerous bars and hotels which kept all the fans of various teams in a small area, improving the atmosphere. The men’s tournament has been in Chicago before and while there is nothing wrong with the United Center, it is far from the main part of the city and there isn’t much around it; this means that fans and teams are more spread out and you don’t get the fun atmosphere that Indy has. Having the women’s tournament in a suburb of Chicago will have many of the same issues as people will have to drive to hotels and most bars and restaurants, spreading out the fans and hurting the atmosphere of the weekend. I will give the event organizers this year some credit as they do seem to be trying to schedule more side events in order to improve the atmosphere, I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it goes.
This is the first in a two part series about Ohio State women’s basketball and it’s bookend dominance of the B1G since play began in 1982. I will be highlighting the B1G champs during their dominance as well as some very special players and coaches at OSU in the last thirty years.
Let’s get things started with the eighties and how the Lady Buckeyes led the way. They won 7 of the first 8 titles in the B1G and 8 overall in the early era. If you include the ones that aren’t officially counted by the B1G they won 11 since the 1975-76 seasons.
The Lady Buckeyes really got started in the 1965-66 season under the direction of Phyllis Bailey as they made the transition from an intramural team to big time college basketball. The ERA movement was in full swing and the ladies were moving into the sports realm with basketball being one of the first and most popular of college sports to see this growth.
They struggled to find their way in the early years until OSU hired a young lady who would turn things around and eventually leave coaching to become a renowned psychologist. Debbie Wilson led the Buckeyes from 1972 thru 1980 season and even thought there wasn’t a B1G tournament officially, she led them to three straight titles in 1976, 77, and 78 and thus set the standard for what would become the most dominating team in B1G basketball history. Read More
Thank you Sammy Prahalis for four wonderful years as the point guard for THE Ohio State women’s basketball team. You are going to be missed!!!
As Sammy starts her next phase of basketball in her life with the Phoenix Mercury, she’ll playing with arguably the best in the game in Diana Taurasi. We revisit my article from February 16th. Then a recap of her career and what she’ll mean to the Mercury. Thank you to Grant Edgell for the artwork.
Sammy Prahalis is taking her talents west as the 6th overall pick to the Phoenix Meecury
If all you ever knew about Ohio States starting point guard was that she was the only player in tOSU women’s basketball history to score 1,000 points and give out more than 700 assists? It would probably be more than enough. One things for sure, she has definitely given a great lesson in point guarding.
Sammy stepped in as a freshman and let people know she was serious. She went on to become the B1G freshman of the year and set a new freshman assists record with 203 that season. Prahalis also led all B1G freshmen in scoring at 10.2 points, assists at 5.8, and steals at 1.9 per game.
Her sophomore year would be even better as she became just the second player since the 1999-2000 season in D1 to average 16 ppg and 8 apg. During her run that season she set a school record with 48 straight made free throws and set a new tOSU single season assists record with 289. She was the B1G leader and second in the nation with her 8 assists per game average. Finally, she set a new tOSU NCAA tournament record with 13 assists against St.Francis and finished as a unanimous first team all-conference selection. Read More
