Ohio State women's basketball coach Jim Foster isn't a guy prone to hyperbole, not one to oversell. The fact that his program last year reached the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005 last season was, in his estimation, "a step in the direction of success."The steps that come next are much bigger and much harder. Case in point: the Buckeyes haven't been to the Elite Eight since 1987.
But this might be the team to break through that barrier.
Ohio State, with the inside-outside core of Jantel Lavender and Samantha Prahalis (pictured), are ranked as high as No. 3 in the country in the preseason magazines, behind only Connecticut and Stanford. The Buckeyes are favored to win their sixth consecutive Big Ten title with four returning starters, three of those among the top players in the conference.
There is no doubt the expectations are high, both inside the program and outside.
"Some people have ranked us really high, but I think our expectations are higher," Prahalis said. "We know what we can do."
Lavender, a 6-4 junior, is one of the country's best post players. The State Farm All-American and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year has 37 career double-doubles in two college seasons, including averaging 20.8 points and 10.7 rebounds as a sophomore.
She spent the off-season improving her face-up game, her three-point shooting -- and lamenting last year's season ending.
"It showed that the teams that go deep in the tournament are mentally tough," Lavender said. "Everybody that makes it to the tournament is really good. Everybody is tired at the end of the year, everybody is hurt. But it's the team that's going to be tough overcomes all that. Those are teams that have a 40-game season."
Prahalis grabbed attention last year for her entertaining game, a mix of skill, flash and East Coast swagger. The Comack, N.Y., native scored 19 points in the Sweet 16 loss to Stanford last March, cementing her status as one of the country's most exciting young talents.
Senior guard Shavelle Little, the conference defensive player of the year, is also back on the floor, along with a quartet of talented freshmen ranked among the nation's top 10 recruiting classes.
Foster said his experienced squad has been unaffected by the early-season accolades and already seems to understand what it will require for the program to move beyond what it accomplished last season, breaking a streak of three straight early NCAA exits.
"We need to win more in the postseason," Foster said. "You can't ask more of them in the regular season; we've been very successful there."
This is still a young team. The Buckeyes' starting lineup may only end up with one senior.
"We are still a work in progress, but that's all relative, because we've won our league five years in a row and that makes us a target," Foster said. "That's not easy to sustain."
Lavender said she's spent months anticipating another opportunity to make up for last season's unsatisfying end.
"I thought about it all the time," Lavender said. "Our team is capable of being a Final Four team. We need to find our chemistry and flow, the things that those teams that go to the Final Four have."
