This time last year, Ohio's women's basketball program seemed to have a clear direction and future. A young team featuring four key underclassmen — sophomore Jaya McClure and freshmen Bailey Tabeling, Laylay Fantroy, and Monica Williams — producing ahead of schedule led the Bobcats to a surprise Mid-American Conference Tournament appearance.
Despite losing to No. 2 seed Ball State in the first round last year, Ohio's young core was a clear positive and something to build on in the future.
Expectations for the 2024-25 season were fairly high despite losing Fantroy to the transfer portal and seeing key bench pieces Peyton Guice and Madi Mace graduate. In the preseason coaches poll, Ohio was selected to finish tied for sixth.
After adding transfers in seniors Anyssa Jones and Aliah McWhorter, the roster appeared to be coming together nicely for Ohio coach Bob Boldon and his staff.
By the start of MAC play expectations for the season were heavily dampened. Ohio sat at 2-8 before starting conference play. By that time Jaya McClure had missed the start of the season with injury and Monica Williams suffered a season-ending knee injury.
The MAC wasn’t much kinder to the Bobcats. With McClure ruled out for the remainder of the year, Ohio went 4-14 in the conference, finishing eleventh out of 12 teams.
Injuries forced freshmen like Gigi Bower and Dani Scully to step up and provide big minutes as raw prospects. Although the two freshmen showed various flashes throughout the season, the plan was for McClure and Williams to receive those minutes instead.
As another result of injuries, Tabeling was forced to transition into more of a point guard role, running the offense and bringing the ball up the court, whereas in her freshman year, it was clear she was more of a catch-and-shoot type of player from the outside.
A season full of everything you wish to avoid as a basketball team eventually culminated in a 6-23 record, the second time in the last three seasons Ohio has won just six total games.
With the 2025-26 season on the horizon, the future and direction of the program have become cloudy. After a disappointing season and in an era where players are on metaphorical one-year contracts with the transfer portal looming, Ohio’s biggest goal needs to be retaining and developing the talent on its roster.
If Ohio can retain its major pieces, what will they look like next season? Jaya McClure and Monica Williams are both natural point guards. How will Tabeling adjust if Williams and McClure come back? With Ohio’s only All-MAC honoree, Kennedi Watkins, graduating, who will be able to fill her scoring role, especially in the paint?
There are many more questions than answers entering next season, and the offseason and transfer portal could add even more questions about the future of the team and the overall roster as well.
Even with all of the uncertainties for next season, Ohio still has a veteran head coach in Boldon, who is back on a new contract, and players who should make returns from injury next season. However, the outlook for the program is murky. Ohio appears to be stuck in no-man's-land, a place that no team ever wants to be in.
