The Bobcats will begin NCAA Tournament play Saturday against the third-seeded Sun Devils.
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The majority of Ohio’s roster wasn’t even born the last time the Bobcats participated in the NCAA Tournament.
Second-year coach Bob Boldon was in his early 20s. Some members of his coaching staff were in grade school.
The world has changed a lot since March 1995.
Same sex marriage has been legalized in 37 states. Three presidents have taken the Oval Office. Microsoft, which released Windows 95 that spring, is one of the most valuable brands on Earth.
But not a whole lot has happened for Ohio since its last NCAA Tournament berth, when it lost to Washington in the first round.
For the next two decades, Ohio had middling success. The team went 223-332 from 1996 to 2014 and notched nine or fewer wins in eight of those seasons.
History has not been kind to the Bobcats.
But now, No. 14 Ohio has made its way to Tempe, Arizona to compete against No. 3 Arizona State in the Bobcats’ first NCAA Tournament game since 1995.
“It’s a true road game,” Boldon said. “This will be different because we are going to play Arizona State at Arizona State. I’m sure they’re going to have a good crowd, I’m sure they’re excited to host an NCAA Tournament first round and we have our work cut out for us.”
Odds stacked against Ohio
The Bobcats may have their hands full against the Sun Devils on Saturday.
Arizona State was ranked No. 9 in the most recent Associated Press poll and will square off against Ohio on its home court, Wells Fargo Arena.
Arizona State defeated every Pacific-12 Conference team this season except Oregon State, which won the conference’s regular season title.
“It’s going to be like every team, we know they’re going to be bigger than us,” Ohio sophomore Quiera Lampkins said. “We just have to stick to our principles and do what we do best and listen to the coaches and what they’re saying.”
During Wednesday’s practice — Ohio’s last in Athens before departing for Arizona — sophomore Hannah Boesinger said the Sun Devils are similar to the Bobcats in terms of size and skill set. Arizona State is stout defensively, only allowing a little more than 55 points per game.
Boldon, who also has installed a defensive-first mentality in some of his players, coached the Bobcats to be one of the best defensive teams in the Mid-American Conference this season. Ohio has given up an average of 56 points during its 31 games so far this season.
“They’re a team much like we are — stats and everything — matchup like us,” junior forward Lexie Baldwin said. “But I don’t feel nervous or anything. This is a good opportunity for the team, good experience to go this far.”
Since the start of the Women’s NCAA Tournament in 1982, a No. 14 seed has never won in the first round.
The highest seed to upset a team was in 1998, when No. 16 Harvard defeated No. 1 Stanford.
The Bobcats have a 6 percent chance of defeating Arizona State and a little better than a 1 percent chance of winning the NCAA Tournament, according to calculations from FiveThirtyEight, an ESPN website known for its statistical analysis.
Playing the underdog Role
Statistics don’t tell the whole story, however.
Ohio was picked to finish fourth in MAC preseason coaches’ poll. Based on such early-season projections, the Bobcats’ shouldn’t even be in the NCAA Tournament to begin with.
But the Bobcats are the best team in the MAC — and the only one in the NCAA Tournament.
“We might have nerves, but not enough to make us play bad,” sophomore guard Yamonie Jenkins said. “We have the experience from playing Louisville (and) from playing Maryland to come out and play. We know we can play with anyone if we do what we have to do.”
By all indications, Ohio’s season is already a success. But another win Saturday would keep the Bobcats’ turnaround season — they won 15 games during the past two seasons — alive for two more days. They would face the winner of Saturday’s game between No. 6 Texas A&M and No. 11 University of Arkansas at Little Rock in Tempe on Monday.
“I think it’s been really fun, we’ve had a great time — it’s completely different from last year,” Boesinger said. ”We’ve worked really hard for this, so it’s a really good feeling finally getting here because we definitely deserved this.”
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