COLUMBUS, Ohio – A dozen folding chairs have been moved from one side of Ohio State’s practice gym to the other, lined up in two rows facing a flat-screen. This portends the Very Important Work of watching tape on the next opponent. But before that, there is the Apparently Also Very Important Work of trying to bounce a basketball into the ball rack from a good 20 to 30 paces away, give or take, as opposed to just walking over and putting it there.
Our competitors on an early January afternoon are Taylor Mikesell, the Buckeyes’ deadeye leading scorer, and assistant coaches Carla Morrow and Wes Brooks. They start right before Enzo Ortiz’s “Always on Time” remix ironically kicks in over the sound system. Nearly 10 minutes pass. Nobody pulls off the trick. Nobody seems inclined to stop until someone does. And that, finally, is Mikesell, who racks her ball off one bounce. She flashes a No. 1 sign as she walks to the ad hoc film room, where multiple teammates are singing when she arrives.
The next night in Minnesota, Ohio State comfortably secures a 16th win in 16 tries. Nothing’s actually easy about putting together the best start in program history. Particularly not when a semi-risky philosophical reset preceded it all. Still, it’s hard to imagine a group more at…
