Love it or hate it, the Big Ten moved to 18 teams before the 2024-25 academic year, and with that came a new schedule for women’s basketball.
Every team plays all 17 of the other teams and, with an 18-game conference schedule, there is one home-and-home matchup. These are rivalry matchups that go back decades like the Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers or USC and UCLA.
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Ohio State and Maryland women’s basketball is unique in that it is the longest distance between two “rivalry” schools and it is also has some of the most drama. The Big Ten could have saved both schools some travel if they gave Maryland two games against Rutgers and two matchups between the Nittany Lions and Buckeyes, but Maryland and Ohio State is worth the 400 miles between the schools.
Back in 2014, when the Terps left the ACC for the Big Ten, it was Ohio State and Maryland that was the top matchup in the conference. Over the first five seasons, the Buckeyes had a 4-3 record against head coach Maryland Frese’s side and it was Ohio State that stopped a three-year run of undisputed regular season championships for the newly minted Big Ten side.
From the 15-16 season through the 17-18 campaign, Ohio State and Maryland were No. 1 and No. 2 in the conference every season, although the two sides swapped who was the top program. During the Big Ten Tournament, the Buckeyes and Terrapins faced off three times in championship games in the previous 10 years of Maryland involvement.
Having Ohio State and Maryland play each other twice in the regular season each year just makes sense.
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“We’ve had a lot of meaningful games,” head coach Kevin McGuff told reporters. “And if you go all the way back to when Maryland first came in the league, we’ve had a lot of games where there’s been conference championships on the line and so forth.”
Due to recruiting violations with assistant coaches in Coach McGuff’s time at Ohio State, the 16-17 and 17-18 conference titles for the Buckeyes were vacated. They no longer count in program history books but the passion between the two sides cannot be erased.
Over the past four seasons, there is still plenty of moments that fuel the rivalry, despite more competition near the top of the Big Ten than there was 10 years ago. On Jan. 20, 2022, the Buckeyes shocked a Terrapins team that featured All-American and eventual national championship-winning forward Angel Reese, All-American guard Ashley Owusu and WNBA guard Diamond Miller.
Then, one year later, Ohio State nearly defeated Maryland on Feb. 24, 2023 when a last-second buzzer beater to tie the game at the end of regulation was called back for being a fraction of a second too late. The next season, when the Buckeyes won an outright Big Ten regular season title, Maryland humbled the Buckeyes in Ohio State’s first game of the conference tournament 82-61, motivated by forward Cotie McMahon who called out the Terps late rebounding in a regular season matchup.
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Last season, Ohio State’s trip to College Park, Maryland has a permanent place in the rivalry. Freshman point guard Jaloni Cambridge missed most of the game with foul trouble, guard Madison Greene made key plays in the fourth quarter and a clutch three-point shot in overtime for Maryland guard Sarah Te-Biasu was the difference in the 93-90 Terps win.
Then there is the middle finger from McMahon towards the Maryland student section that the University of Maryland fans will not forget anytime soon, even if the forward moved on to Ole Miss in the SEC.
The Big Ten implemented a two-year schedule plan with the current format, which means the conference goes back to the drawing board this offseason. Ohio State and Maryland is one pairing that does not need cut down to a single matchup, or none at all.
“I don’t want to speculate too much, but I think the league likes that, because we’ve played in a lot of big games. It’s good for TV,” McGuff said about keeping the pair together. “If you’re going to have a dual opponent, to have a great program like Maryland, at least it’s another opportunity to kind of measure ourselves against one of the best teams in the league.”
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This season, the Buckeyes and the Terrapins are in different places than the previous years of domination at the top of the standings. Ohio State is young, with three upperclassmen and only four returning players who played any minutes last season for McGuff.
Maryland’s roster is decimated with injuries like guards Kaylene Smikle and Bri McDaniel, who are both out for the remainder of the season. Plus freshman guard Lea Bartelme, a promising athlete out of Slovenia who played four games before suffering a season-ending injury.
Regardless, Ohio State and Maryland are 4-1 in conference play, and the Terps have a 16-1 record overall. The Buckeyes are succeeding due to the growth of a talented roster and the Terrapins’ continued success is twofold.
First, there is the roster depth. Frese brought in two foundational transfers in former Duke Blue Devil Oluchi Okananwa and ex-Hoosier guard Yarden Garzon. Those two, plus graduate senior guard Saylor Poffenbarger, bring veteran leadership while freshman guard Addi Mack adds 11.3 points per game after injuries put her in the starting lineup.
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The second is the program Frese built.
“Brenda’s done a great job just really installing a winning culture. And they just find ways to win” McGuff said. “Recently, they’ve recruited a lot of versatile players and so now, when they have some injuries, they just kind of move people around at different spots.”
Maryland has the experience advantage and home. court. The Xfinity Center on a Sunday afternoon has the ability to get loud. When Ohio State is on the court, it is a little louder than usual. Outside of a versatile group of upperclassmen from strong programs around the country all on the same roster, the young Buckeyes have to contend with a crowd that will rival the loudest away fans they have seen this season, back on Nov. 16 against the UConn Huskies, in Connecticut.
For most of the Ohio State roster, it is the introduction of the rivalry. A matchup that, in a short period of time, is one of the best in the Big Ten.
