Celeste Taylor, Kevin McGuff Lead Ohio State Buckeyes in Big Ten Awards
The Ohio State Buckeyes were well-represented in the Big Ten postseason awards announcement Tuesday.
Head coach Kevin McGuff led the way for the Buckeyes all year and claimed Big Ten Coach of the Year. This was the Buckeyes’ seventh winner of the award all time, following two-time winner and current Stanford head coach Tara VanDerveer and four-time winner Jim Foster.
McGuff led Ohio State to a 25-4 record and an outright regular season conference title, winning 15 games in a row before their first loss at then-No. 6 Iowa Sunday.
This title was also thanks in part to conference graduate guard Celeste Taylor, who took home conference Defensive Player of the Year and All-defensive honors. Taylor led the league with 65 steals and the Buckeyes finished with the top turnover margin and most total steals in the league.
Taylor was also named to the All-Big Ten Second Team, along with junior forward Taylor Thierry.
Graduate guard Jacy Sheldon joined Taylor in the backcourt, picking up unanimous All-conference First Team honors herself. After only playing 13 total games last season, Sheldon returned right to the spotlight, returning to the All-Big Ten First Team.
Sophomore forward Cotie McMahon joined Sheldon on the First Team as well. After a rocky start to the season, McMahon ended as the team’s second-leading scorer with 14.1 points per game.
That made four of the five Ohio State starters to be named to All-conference teams.
The Centerville, Ohio, native finished in the top 15 in the league in points, rebounds, field goal percentage, and free throw percentage.
The Buckeyes take action in the Big Ten Tournament Friday vs. the winner of Maryland and Illinois.
