The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary » Jim Foster

B1G Dominance: OSU Women’s Basketball Part Two ’98 – ’13

WVaBuckeye — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:27:05 +0000

This is part two in my series on Ohio State Women’s basketball. Originally had intended to do these in back to back weeks, but it became apparent early on that Coach Foster may have been coaching his last season, and that became true. So with the help from Charles, this is the finishing product on the women’s dominance of the B1G. Check out my previous article here.

Beth Burns

After the firing of Nancy Darsch following the 1997 season, the Buckeye brass wasted little time stealing Beth Burns away from San Diego State. Coach Burns returned to SDSU after her brief stint with the Buckeyes form 1997 to 2002 at which point she was replaced by Jim Foster. After a combined 16 seasons at SDSU before and after OSU she resigned unexpectedly recently. Let’s take a good look at her term with Ohio State.

She finished her stint 81-65 overall and never really hit her stride while … [Read More]

A Closer Look at Kevin McGuff

Charles — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 12:00:59 +0000

As Ken reported on Tuesday, after four weeks of searching, Ohio State announced the hiring of Kevin McGuff as the new women’s basketball head coach. While McGuff doesn’t have the level of name recognition as some of the other candidates for the job, he is a far better hire than many people realize and is the type of coach that I wanted when the job search began. McGuff is a relatively young be coaching standards, he is 43, and is an up-and-comer who has a very solid resume that has shown that he can build programs.

Like many of Ohio State’s recent high profile head coaches, Kevin McGuff has ties back to the Buckeye state. McGuff was born in Hamilton, Ohio and after leaving the state to attend Saint Joseph’s College in Indiana, returned to begin his coaching career as an assistant coach at Miami of Ohio. The next … [Read More]

Welcome to Columbus, Kevin McGuff

Ken — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 02:04:35 +0000

Ohio State announced the hiring of Kevin McGuff as the new Ohio State University Women’s basketball coach. Coach Jim Foster retired this year after 11 seasons at Ohio State, where his teams were 279-82 (.772), having accomplished the most wins and highest winning percentage in school history.

Coach McGuff has 11 seasons as head coach; two years most recently at University of Washington preceded by nine years at Xavier (sound familiar?). In those 11 years, McGuff’s team achieved a record of 255-99 (.720), so he brings an impressive record of accomplishment with him to Columbus. In a sense, Kevin and his family are returning home; he is a native of Hamilton, OH.

Below are excerpts from Gene Smith’s announcement, as well as a link to the full announcement.

April 16, 2013

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Gene Smith, Ohio State associate vice president and director of athletics, announced today Kevin McGuff has … [Read More]

Search for the Next OSU Women’s Basketball Coach: A Progress Report

Charles — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 12:00:55 +0000

It has been a month since Ohio State announced that Jim Foster would not be returning as coach of the women’s basketball team and the OSU athletic department has been busy searching for a new coach.

When the announcement of Foster’s firing was made, OSU said that they expected to be in the Final Four every few years, clearly setting a high bar for the program in the upcoming seasons. Considering the fact that Ohio State has only ever made one Final Four, this would seem a bit unrealistic but with the resources of OSU and the talent produced in Ohio and elsewhere in the Midwest, it is a very achievable goal.

However, to meet this goal OSU will need to find a coach that can properly take advantage of these resources and lead the program to the next level.

While women’s basketball coaching searches aren’t followed as closely as … [Read More]

Monday Musings

Ken — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:39:25 +0000

I was on sabbatical last week because of the focus on this, this and this. A win-win, except for Nebraska, Michigan State and Wisconsin. Another week, grab your coffee and let’s get right to it.

OSU Wexner Medical Center

“Deep brain stimulation” may sound like science fiction–but at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, it’s changing patients’ lives. Led by Dr. Ali Rezai, the neuromodulation team places a small implant in the brain that regulates electrical signals with tiny electrodes.

Learn how this cutting-edge technology is eliminating tremors and could treat Alzheimer’s, autism, seizures, migraines, addiction, and more.

Miscellaneous
While several teams were wrapping up conference championships and NCAA bids, this was being wrapped up in Steubenville. The suspects were convicted and sentenced. At this point, one would think that this tawdry event would be over. One would be wrong, since two teenage girls have now been … [Read More]

A Look at Jim Foster and His Legacy

Charles — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:00:05 +0000

The firing of coaches is met with a wide range of emotions by fans, with some firings eliciting happiness and shouts of “good riddance” from the fans while others spark anger in the fans for the loss of a beloved coach. The announcement that Jim Foster would not be returning as the head coach of the Ohio State women’s basketball team was met with a more complex set of emotions by many, including myself. My feelings regarding Foster’s firing would best be described as bittersweet. Foster was a great coach, and even better person, who markedly improved the women’s basketball program. At the same time, despite Foster’s dominance in the Big Ten he was never able to get the team to take the next step and the past three seasons had seen a decline even in the performance in conference.

As WVaBuckeye pointed out in the excellent first part of … [Read More]

The Madness Of Silver Bullet Points

MaliBuckeye — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:54:31 +0000

Welcome to the calm before the storm… unless you’re an NIT junkie, then your Madness has already started. In honor of Coach Calipari’s fantastic coaching job on Tuesday night, today’s soundtrack channels the thoughts of Wildcat fans as they get to watch the rest of the tournament. Hey… you think they’ll have time to join our Bracket Challenge?

Buckeye 411

We Talkin’ About Practice? Tuesday was a return to the WHAC for the Buckeyes after Spring Break, and it sounds as if it was a bit of a “rusty day” for the Scarlet and Gray. No need to panic, though- this is typical for teams the first time they put the pads on in the spring or in the fall.
Injury Update- Barrett, Shazier, Wood, and Bogard were in “orange” jerseys today, although JT was taking mental reps behind Braxton as the practice went along. Jordan Hall had

[Read More]

Ohio State Falls to #7 Penn State 76-66

Charles — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 02:23:42 +0000

Yesterday’s win over Minnesota in the first round of the Big Ten tournament was huge for the Ohio State women’s basketball team’s hopes of making the NCAA tournament. Today’s matchup with top seeded and 7^th ranked Penn State was an opportunity for the Buckeyes to improve their NCAA resume and virtually assure themselves a spot in the Big Dance. This was also a chance for OSU to get some revenge after Penn State overcame a halftime deficit to beat the Buckeyes in their only regular season meeting.

The game started out as a tight, back-and-forth defensive battle with both teams having to work hard to get an open look. The opening five minutes saw both team trading baskets with neither able to open up more than a three point lead. Ohio State led 14-13 at the fourteen minute mark but then Penn State scored six straight points to take … [Read More]