The Buckeyes are home for the first two rounds of March Madness after making it into the tournament as a No. 4 seed
It’s been nearly a year since Ohio State women’s basketball crashed out of the NCAA Tournament in the Second Round. After going up 16 points in the first half against the Duke Blue Devils, the ACC side stormed back to knock the Buckeyes out of March Madness. Now, the Scarlet and Gray know their road to make up for that defeat and try to make their first NCAA National Championship game since 1993. It all begins against the Montana State Bobcats, who won the Big Sky Tournament.
The Buckeyes have not faced Montana State. The Bobcats made the tournament after defeating Montana in a nail biting 58-57 win over in-state rivals Montana on Wednesday, March 12.
Ohio State will also host for the third consecutive season, and enter as a four seed, after narrowly making one of the top-16 spots in the field of 68 teams. With it, the Buckeyes welcome Montana State, the University of South Florida Bulls and Tennessee Volunteers to Columbus for the first two rounds of the tournament.
If the two highest seeded teams prevail in the first round in Columbus, the Buckeyes will face the Vols, a side that Ohio State played twice in the past two seasons, winning both games. However, that’s before head coach Kim Caldwell took over the Tennessee side in the offseason.
USF and Ohio State also have history, playing each other in December of 2022 when the Buckeyes battled back from a late deficit to beat the Bulls by two points.
This season, the Buckeyes have not had the luxury of taking any games off, but should the side make it through the two games in Columbus, it will potentially mean a game against the No. 1 Texas Longhorns in the Birmingham 3 region.
In the Big Ten, three other programs host in this year’s March Madness. The UCLA Bruins, USC Trojans and Maryland Terrapins each made a top-four seed. UCLA and USC each earned a No. 1 seed. Also, the Bruins earned the No. 1 overall seed in the country for the first time in program history, dethroning the South Carolina Gamecocks.
This is the 29th time Ohio State made the annual tournament and fourth consecutive season, following sanctions leaving the Buckeyes out of the 2021 edition, the 2020 tournament cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and failing to earn an at-large bid in the 2019 season.
The 2025 edition of March Madness means the final games for four Buckeye upperclassmen. Guard Madison Greene and forwards Taylor Thierry, Eboni Walker and Ajae Petty are all in their final year of eligibility at Ohio State. From here on, every game is potentially their last and each matchup is the difference between moving on in the tournament or heading into the long, nearly eight-month, offseason.
Since head coach Kevin McGuff joined Ohio State in April of 2013, the Buckeyes have not lost a first round game in eight appearances but have three losses in the second round.