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Possible Caitlin Clark upset? Ohio State women look to snap No. 2 Iowa’s 15-game winning streak

Published

6 months ago

January 21, 2024

Possible Caitlin Clark upset? Ohio State women look to snap No. 2 Iowa’s 15-game winning streak

In front of what is expected to be the largest home crowd in program history, Ohio State’s women’s basketball team will have its most anticipated matchup of the season against Iowa at noon Sunday.

With the biggest name in college basketball, Caitlin Clark, playing in what might be her final collegiate game at Value City Arena, and the Hawkeyes riding a 15-game winning streak, the ball is in the Buckeyes’ court to make a statement and pull off the upset.

Ohio State is no stranger to this Iowa roster and has seen Clark in its past five outings against the Hawkeyes. The Buckeyes have a 3-2 record in those matchups over the past three seasons, but the losses are fresh wounds as both occurred last year, the most recent one being a 105-72 loss in the Big Ten tournament final.

The impact of having a player such as Clark can never be understated. It is something that Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff has seen become even more of a threat every year.

“I think where she’s impacted their program the most this is, just last year and especially this year, she’s making everybody around her better,” McGuff said. “I think early on people focused on how much she was scoring. She’s going to score, but it’s really about how well she makes everybody around her better.”

More on Caitlin Clark in Columbus: The Caitlin Clark effect: How it’s impacting young women’s basketball fans in Columbus

Defending against Clark and the Hawkeyes

Averaging around 90 points per game, all the Hawkeyes’ scoring can’t just come from Clark, even if she does lead the nation with 31 points per game and is fourth on the NCAA all-time scoring list. Around her, there are players such as Kate Martin and Hannah Stuelke, who are contributing by averaging double-digit scoring.

As a team that usually relies on an “all or nothing” press to generate turnovers and has been improving in its half-court defense, Ohio State will have to be locked in while defending against Iowa. One of the Buckeyes’ newest additions, Celeste Taylor, who is the reigning ACC Defensive Player of the Year, is confident in her team’s abilities based on their practices.

“When we go against each other in practice, we’re playing against great players all the time,” Taylor said. “That helps us prepare for games like this against really good players, who have multiple threats on the floor.”

Knowing how important the time between the Maryland victory on Wednesday and the upcoming Iowa game has been, having strong outings in practice is Ohio State’s main focus. McGuff admits it is difficult to simulate the skills of Clark during practice because of the way Iowa’s offensive runs through her.

The sellout crowd will also factor into the game. With more than 18,000 people expected to attend, Value City Arena is going to be loud. To help ensure his team can communicate through the noise, McGuff considered turning up the music at practice.

The challenge of containing Clark excites the Buckeyes, especially Taylor, who hasn’t faced Iowa since her junior year at Duke.

“We’re going be all over the place. It’ll probably be between me and TT (Taylor Thierry),” Taylor said in terms of who will be defending Clark. “But everybody’s going to have their hand in it, because it’s not just one-on-one, it’s a team against another team.”

The road to the Hawkeyes

There have been other challenges the Buckeyes have had to face prior to this game.

Opening the season up with a loss to Southern California and then falling to then-No. 2 UCLA a month later, Ohio State saw tough competition early on. More recently, the Big Ten schedule has proven to a challenge, with Ohio State already being handed a conference loss on the road against Michigan.

Even in their last two victories over Michigan State and Maryland, the Buckeyes were fighting to the end.

“These difficult teams leading up to this Iowa game has been really good for us,” Theirry said. “It’s exposed us in some areas that we need to improve in.”

The Buckeyes are ranked third to last in the conference in rebounding and will be going up against and Iowa team that is leading the Big Ten in that category.

If the Buckyes are going to win this game, they need everyone to be contributing on offense. After going 4 for 26 from the 3-point line against Maryland, the Buckeyes will need to find ways to get to the basket if that trend continues on Sunday, which might prove to be difficult against Iowa’s defense.

“They play a lot of zone,” McGuff said. “So I think they’re going to try to force us to score from the perimeter. So we have to make shots and but also execute in a way where we can get some balance in our offense.”

bmackay@dispatch.com

@brimackay15

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Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week

Published

6 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week

Tropical Storm Beryl continues charging toward Texas Sunday morning, and forecasters still expect it to continue strengthening before making landfall in Texas early on Monday morning.

While Beryl is expected to bring hurricane conditions to Texas on Monday, strong winds and rain from the cyclone will move into the Midwest by midweek.

Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are among the states that will feel the impact of Beryl.

Once Beryl hits Texas, the cyclone is expected to travel north throughout the South and Midwest.

Beryl forecast cone
(FOX Weather)

Beryl’s current forecast cone shows the storm will weaken as it moves north but maintains tropical depression strength from Arkansas through Michigan throughout the week. A tropical depression is a cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 38 mph or less. Unlike tropical storms and hurricanes, tropical depressions are identified by numbers rather than names.

Current forecasts have Beryl’s remnants extending into Ohio and Michigan by the end of the workweek.

Several inches of rain are possible as the storm treks north, leading to significant flash flooding concerns.

Forecasters expect heavy rainfall to spread from eastern Texas through central Illinois by midweek.

“At this time, the higher (…) amounts focus over northwest Arkansas to central Illinois with the highest over the Ozarks. Areal averages are expected to be around 2 to 5 inches with local maximums upwards of 8 inches,” the Weather Prediction Center wrote Sunday.

Beryl forecast cone
(FOX Weather)

Beryl formed in the Atlantic Ocean on June 29 and became the season’s first hurricane. The storm broke records throughout its trek and is expected to strengthen ahead of its impending Texas landfall.

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Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio

Published

13 hours ago

July 7, 2024

Press Room

Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio

By Dave Hart LocalSportsJournal.com MUSKEGON – Rough pitching has suddenly been a weakness in recent contests for the Muskegon Clippers. On Friday, the Clippers allowed eight late runs before falling to Southern Ohio. It was a similar result on Saturday night as the Clippers’ bullpen allowed eight runs in the seventh inning and six more

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Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio

Published

20 hours ago

July 6, 2024

Press Room

Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio

LEXINGTON, Ohio – With a brand-new tool at the drivers’ fingertips and countless more data figures to track and analyze, two of the best teams and drivers in IndyCar couldn’t help but make series history Saturday afternoon.

In the debut of hybrid technology in qualifying at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou edged Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 24 ten-thousands of a second to take pole for Sunday’s 80-lap race, marking the tightest front row in the Fast 6 qualifying format’s history that dates back to 2005 (0.0027 seconds in the 2023 GMR Grand Prix on the IMS road course).

“It means he went to the bathroom before qualifying,” quipped O’Ward to thunderous laughs in the Mid-Ohio media center. “We’re all out here pushing, pushing, pushing. That’s the beauty of it and what makes it exciting and fun. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

“It’s irritating and annoying to miss it by just that little bit. I was really happy with the lap, but there’s always more available. You find little bits and pieces here and there, but this is a really strong start for tomorrow, and it should be a good race.”

At a track that has seen nine different winners in its last 10 IndyCar races – with seven of those winners coming from the front row – starting position means everything at Mid-Ohio, particularly with a brand-new repave and where teams will be learning on the fly about how to best maximize the new 60 horsepower boosts available each lap.

‘Combatting the change’: How introduction of hybrid will (and won’t) change IndyCar in 2024

O’Ward and Palou agreed that a car, driver and team reaping the full benefits from IndyCar’s new Energy Recovery System might gain a maximum of two tenths a second per lap, making the bespoke system something too impactful to ignore – but not something to prioritize while forgetting about traditional driving and optimal car balance across an entire lap.

“You don’t want to give up one-and-a-half tenths for free that’s available to you, but it’s a lot of work to get those,” Palou said. “But it’s free lap time, so you need to take it.”

“I think tomorrow, it’ll be a challenge for everybody to see whether you’re going to keep the same strategy or change it up a little bit,” added O’Ward. “It’s become a tool for all the drivers and the teams to either make your lives a lot easier or harder. I think it will be interesting.”

The relatively small amounts of boost – drivers are allowed to use 310 kilojoules of energy from the ERS per lap, amounting to eight or so seconds of 60 additional horsepower – have made for a bit of a paradox for teams in the leadup to this weekend as they try to decipher what to tinker with and how much.

Every change leads to another – potentially leading to information overload, Palou admitted. The system isn’t expected to lead to or allow for a massive sea change in the drivers finishing on podiums, winning races or capturing poles, but it’s also something that can have just enough an impact that teams can’t ignore it entirely and solely treat it as a 100-pound brick in the back of their cars either.

“There’s too much stuff to look at now – too many options to get distracted with,” said Palou, adding that the amount of information to scroll through in the cockpit has already made an impression. “The engineers have the ability to focus on what’s really important. This morning, I was saying, ‘Let’s take a look at deploy and regen,’ and my engineer said, ‘Don’t look at that. Look at your driving first, and then focus on the percent of charge.’”

After nearly five years, it’s arrived: Explaining IndyCar’s new hybrid system

Several of Palou’s title challengers starting in a hole Sunday

Staring from pole Sunday at a track that has favored strong qualifying performances has a chance to pay big dividends for Palou, as the two-time champ enters the oval-heavy portion of the 2024 schedule starting next weekend. Yet to log an oval win among his 11 career victories that have all come in the last three-plus years, Palou currently holds a 23-point cushion over 2022 champ Will Power and 32 over his Ganassi teammate and six-time champ Scott Dixon.

Only three members of the current top-10 made Saturday’s Fast 6 – Colton Herta qualified 4th – and five of those failed to make it out of the first round, including Power (who qualified 16th and is 2nd in points), Dixon (14th/3rd), Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood (15th/5th), Josef Newgarden (18th/9th) and Felix Rosenqvist (13th/10th).

Standout performances

Two of IndyCar’s young guns shined Saturday, including:

David Malukas: qualified 3^rd in just his second race back from his surgically-repaired left wrist and in his second race with Meyer Shank Racing. The 22-year-old’s results also marks the best for the team’s home track in MSR’s history.

Christian Rasmussen: After a rough start to his rookie IndyCar campaign where he currently sits 22nd in points, the young Dane made his first career Fast 12 Saturday at Mid-Ohio. Ahead of this weekend, he’d only started inside the top-15 twice. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver qualified 9th for Sunday’s race.

How to watch, listen: IndyCar Series Mid-Ohio schedule, TV, streaming in hybrid engine debut

IndyCar qualifying results at Mid-Ohio

1. Alex Palou

2. Pato O’Ward

3. David Malukas

4. Colton Herta

5. Marcus Armstrong

6. Marcus Ericsson

7. Scott McLaughlin

8. Alexander Rossi

9. Christian Rasmussen

10. Christian Lundgaard

11. Linus Lundqvist

12. Romain Grosjean

13. Felix Rosenqvist

14. Scott Dixon

15. Kyle Kirkwood

16. Will Power

17. Nolan Siegel

18. Josef Newgarden

19. Graham Rahal

20. Rinus VeeKay

21. Santino Ferrucci

22. Agustin Canapino

23. Pietro Fittipaldi

24. Kyffin Simpson

25. Toby Sowery

26. Sting Ray Robb

27. Jack Harvey

*For undergoing an unapproved engine change by moving to their fifth of the year, Armstrong, Rosenqvist and Fittipaldi all will drop six spots on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

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