Most of the calendar year is spent without college basketball. After a whirlwind of games that stretch from November to March, and a skilled few get to play into April, the offseason is quiet. Sure, there are transfers and commitments, but all of that is off-court competition where most fans only focus on the end product. For seven months, fans count down the days until the next competitive basketball game, and everything else flies under the radar.
In Columbus, the Ohio State women’s basketball program had a more volatile offseason than most, and it came from the top down with the May 6 OVI arrest of head coach Kevin McGuff.
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After nearly four months of silence, McGuff spoke with the media on Thursday. The head coach talked about incoming transfers, key departures, and what fans can expect from this year’s edition of the Buckeyes.
More importantly, McGuff addressed his May 6 arrest.
“I wanna address that, unfortunately, I had a terrible incident personally in the spring with an arrest for driving under the influence,” said McGuff. “And really, really just horrible situation of which I take very, very seriously, the opportunity to be the head coach at Ohio State and how I represent the university. Most importantly, the young women in our program.”
In normal circumstances, McGuff is known for brevity with the media. Whether that’s a defensive mechanism for team strategy or general disinterest in talking into a microphone, McGuff was different on Thursday. It was as if he understood the gravity of his actions and the need to address them.
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When it came to addressing the women on the team, there was a problem – it was the summer break.
“Unfortunately, no one was here at that time, because I’m the type of person that most things like that I would prefer to do in person,” said McGuff. “Since I couldn’t do that with the players, I made sure that I was able to reach each of them individually with a phone call and have a conversation with them about what had happened and kind of how we’re gonna move forward.”
Since the charges went public on May 12, Ohio State announced a transfer and commitment flip signing with Kylie Kitts’ move from Florida and first-year guard Bryn Martin’s decommitment from McGuff’s previous employer at the University of Washington. It did not look, publicly, that Ohio State’s competitive recruiting was impacted, but what was the response from the players themselves? The ones who look to McGuff and his coaching staff for development and support?
“They have been very supportive, and we’ve been very fortunate here to recruit terrific young women. And I’ve been fortunate to develop, I think, very positive, healthy relationships with them,” said McGuff. And so, they’ve been supportive, and they want somebody that can invest and pour into them. And I think they’ve seen that this summer coming out of that situation.”
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Also coming out of the OVI situation was a two-week unpaid suspension handed down from Ohio State athletic director Ross Bjork. In addition to the forced time away, McGuff reached out to the Wexner Medical Center for support and treatment.
Legally, the situation is not over yet for the Buckeyes’ program leader. McGuff’s initially scheduled pre-trial session was moved to Oct. 7, at the discretion of his lawyer, whom McGuff praised for his support during the process.
How do the decisions of McGuff on that day impact both himself, the team, and Ohio State in the long run? That will take time. McGuff understands that some people who support the team do not want to see him coach the team again following a situation that was fortunate to end without anyone being physically hurt on that May 6 night. He supports those people’s rights to have those opinions, but McGuff is looking past that and is now working on how he can grow the team on and off the court.
“I wanna just kind of reinforce just how fortunate I think I am to be the head coach here and how much I love it here and how appreciative I am of the support that I’ve always gotten from the administration and certainly in a tough time like this,” said McGuff. “And just probably even more important than all that is just how much I really, really enjoy coaching the young woman in our program and how much I believe in what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. And just wanna make sure I’m really ready to make sure I can give everything I can to these players, because that’s what they deserve, and I’m looking forward to doing it.”
