WBB Preview: Aggies Draw Brooks' Former Team

For Utah State, it’s time to face the juggernaut. The 1-5 Aggies have another quick turnaround after their overtime loss to Omaha on Tuesday night, getting on a plane and flying straight to Florida to prepare for the Daytona Beach Classic where they are set to play Ohio State.

The longtime head coach of the Buckeyes is Kevin McGuff, and he’s seen an incredible amount of success in his 11-year tenure. He has amassed a record of 256-106 and four conference championships with the Buckeyes, leading them to seven NCAA tournament berths, including three in the last three seasons.

One manifestation of his success is Utah State’s very own Wes Brooks, who came up under the tutelage of McGuff. Before earning the head coaching gig in Logan, Brooks was an assistant at Ohio State for three years, from 2022 to 2024. Naturally, he knows McGuff and the program very well. After the loss to Omaha, he said, “We got the juggernaut coming,” of his former group.

“(They are a) really, really, really good team,” Brooks said, calling Ohio State “one of the best teams in DI women’s college basketball.

“They have a strong team, I think they might be a little bit stronger than they were last year… It’s a tall task."

The team in question is the 2023-24 Buckeyes, who were plenty strong. That squad went 26-6 and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a bunch of future pros on the roster. If this team is better than the last, as Brooks predicts, it will indeed be a juggernaut.

Ohio State has looked the part so far. The Buckeyes are 6-0 and currently ranked 11th in the nation, executing McGuff’s signature defense – a press-heavy, havoc-causing swarm – while their ultra-talented offense has been efficient and destructive. There are no real gaps in their game, and despite some turnover on the roster, the Buckeyes really have not shown any weakness thus far. 

They've already notched two 100-point games, a 104-69 win over Cleveland State to open the season and a 106-42 win over Ohio. Their closest game, the only one that was remotely competitive, was a 67-63 win over Belmont. They're averaging 89.5 points per game and allowing just 54.5, boasting a tyrannical 35-point average margin. The Buckeyes are by far the toughest team the Aggies have faced this year, and it will probably stay that way throughout the entirety of the season. There aren’t many teams tougher than this one.

There are a few standouts on the roster but it’s solid from top to bottom. Ohio State has five players averaging double-digit points per game and three averaging more than five rebounds. The team is deep, talented and well-coached. Brooks knows what he’s up against, and he’s using the game against his old squad as an opportunity to fortify his new one.

“You play for small wins and just try and get better,” Brooks said.

Players To Know

Jaloni Cambridge: Cambridge is having a sensational freshman campaign for Ohio State this year. She is the younger sister of fellow Buckeye, Kennedy Cambridge, who started her career at Kentucky and arrived in Columbus a year before her younger sister, redshirting in 2023-24. Now that Jaloni is in the rotation as a freshman, the sisters are teaming up. The family reunion has gone well so far for the Buckeyes – Kennedy is doing her part, averaging 5.8 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game, but Jaloni has become a superstar in just six games.

The first thing you’ll notice about the younger Cambridge is her speed. The next thing you’ll notice is just about everything else. She can do it all on the basketball court. Her speed and playmaking ability will be on full display in a McGuff system that loves offensive transition and a full-court press.

Cambridge was a highly-touted recruit and has lived up to the hype so far. She was the No. 2 overall 2024 recruit, a McDonand’s All-American, and a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year, in Tennessee as a junior and in Florida as a senior. 

She opened her Ohio State career with a stunning 31-point performance in the season opener, the most by any freshman in their debut in program history. She added six rebounds, six assists, five steals and two blocks for good measure.

Cambridge certainly didn't stop there. She's filling up the stat sheet for the Buckeyes, leading the team in points, assists, and steals. She has started all six games in her career and is averaging 16.7 points, 5.0 assists, 4.0 rebounds, 2.7 steals and half a block per game. She's shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 31.6 percent from three, getting to the line more than anyone else on the team, and shooting 87 percent once she's there. She has played well in the Daytona Beach Classic so far and had 15 points, three rebounds, six assists and three steals against Old Dominion.

Chance Gray: Gray is an Ohio native, but the junior point guard took a detour before returning to the Buckeye State. After becoming a McDonald's All-American and the 2022 Ohio Gatorade Player of the Year, she started her college career at Oregon, where she continued to excel. She started every game she appeared in and averaged 11.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in her two years with the Ducks, earning a Pac-12 All-Freshman Team nod in 2022-23 and was an All-Defensive Team honorable mention. In her sophomore season, she averaged 13.9 points, 3.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 0.8 steals per game.

So far this season, the two-way guard has continued to improve and is causing problems on both sides of the ball for Ohio State's foes. Her stats can be a bit deceiving, portraying her as more of a pure-scoring point guard, but she’s a menace in McGuff’s defensive system. She doesn’t tend to fill up the box score with rebounds and assists, though she does just fine in those categories, and she’s not much of a shot blocker, but her game is anything but one-dimensional. Another facet of her game that doesn’t show up in a box score is her leadership and veteran presence. This Buckeye team is pretty young, and while there are some returners, Gray is one of the leaders of this team.

She is averaging 15.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals per game. Her season high is 31 points, which she achieved against Charlotte, though she added just one assist and one steal. Her next game displayed her versatility a bit more as she went for 13 points, four rebounds, an assist, four steals and a block in a win over Belmont.

Elsa Lemmilä: One of a few impressive newcomers, Lemmilä is a 6-6 freshman from Espoo, Finland. The center is coming off the bench so far for the Buckeyes but has been playing significant minutes and making the most of her time on the court.

With the talented guard lineup of Gray, Cambridge, Ava Watson and others, Lemmilä is anchoring the front court and is leading the team in rebounds and blocks, with over three times as many swats as the next leader.

Her scoring numbers are a bit lower than her teammates, but she’s efficient and does everything else she’s asked to. She is a little sporadic offensively, not scoring at all against Belmont, though it wasn’t because she was missing a lot of shots (she only took one). To pitch in elsewhere, she had six rebounds, an assist and two blocks. In her next game, she put her scoring ability on full display, recording a double-double with 21 points, 14 rebounds, two steals and five blocks. 

She is averaging 6.7 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game, while shooting 53.6 percent from the field and 83.3 percent from the line, making her a reliable scoring force when she has the ball. She’s also only averaging one turnover and 2.2 personal fouls per game, adding to her reputation of being so reliable.

Stats To Know

Turnover Percentage: McGuff’s teams love to force turnovers, a trait Brooks inherited and has been vocal about trying to instill at Utah State. In Columbus, they’ve practically perfected the art. The Buckeyes are snatching 15.3 steals per game, the fifth most in the country. The Aggies have imitated that nicely and are averaging 13.7 steals per game, the 11th most in the country.

Ohio State is on another level, though. Beyond steals, Ohio State’s opponents are turning the ball over 26.2 times per game for a turnover rate of 29 percent. The Buckeyes are forcing their opponents to give the ball up on nearly a third of their possessions. Utah State is especially vulnerable and is averaging 18.8 turnovers per game for a turnover rate of 19.8 percent. This game will be lopsided anyway, but if the Aggies can’t protect the ball, it will get that way in a hurry.

Offensive Efficiency: The Ohio State offense is high-scoring and hard to stop. There are so many weapons on this team, not just in terms of personnel, but in the many ways they can get to the basket and generate offense. The Buckeyes are earning 1.1 points per scoring attempt and 0.95 points per possession. To pull it off, they're doing just about everything right on the offensive end. They are scoring in transition, moving the ball, shooting at a high clip and grabbing rebounds for second-chance points. 

On the year, Ohio State is averaging 16.8 assists per game with a 1.31 assist-to-turnover rate, while shooting 47.2 percent from the field and 35.9 percent from deep. And when the Buckeyes do miss, they are there to clean it up with a terrific 37.4 percent offensive rebound rate.