Ohio State women’s basketball begins competitive games on Nov. 2 against the University of Illinois Chicago. When the Buckeyes take the court, there will not be too many changes in the available players for head coach Kevin McGuff’s side.
Of the regular starting five, four players return including point guard Jaloni Cambridge, guard Kennedy Cambridge and bigs Elsa Lemmilä and Kylee Kitts. A big question surrounding those four is who steps into the shooting guard role, vacated by Chance Gray who had a career season in her final collegiate year.
The start of Land-Grant Holy Land’s player preview series is the athlete most likely to take up that role — guard Ava Watson.
After two seasons of mixed results, Watson’s third year gives her a clear path to being the Buckeyes’ fifth starter. How will Watson fill that role? Where is the junior’s focus headed into the 2026-27 season?
Name: Ava Watson
Position: Guard
Class: Junior
High School: Buford High School (Buford, Georgia)
2025-26 Stats: 7.2 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.3 apg, 40.3 FG%, 35.6 FG%, 90.0 FT%
Last Season
To say that Watson was not a starter last season is not entirely true. Watson was one of only six Buckeyes who started at least 10 games but the guard’s path came due to injury.
When Kitts suffered an injury against the TCU Horned Frogs on Jan 19, 2026, Watson stepped into the starting rotation and kept it through the final game of the season, in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.
Watson played the fifth most minutes on the team and was second on the team with two steals per game, behind only Kennedy Cambridge who led the conference with 3.7 takeaways per contest.
Throughout her 32 appearances, Watson had at least five steals in seven different games, plus a career high seven steals against Northern Kentucky and Niagara. Against stiffer competition in the Big Ten, Watson had six in her first collegiate start, up against the Indiana Hoosiers.
Offensively, Waton’s 7.2 points per game was a career high, but that is in comparison to 25 appearances and no starts in her freshman season. Once Watson made the starting five, the guard scored double-digit points on six different occasions.
On Nov. 26, when the West Virginia Mountaineers forced most of the starting lineup to foul out, Watson had 4 points, 3 steals and 2 assists in the fourth quarter. That stat line included an assist on the game-winning shot and the then sophomore hit the final two free throws of the game to secure the win.
It was moments like that and more that helped Watson earn more of McGuff’s trust. It showed at the start of Watson’s jump in minutes when the Buckeyes faced TCU.
Watson went head-to-head against guard Olivia Miles, who recently won the WNBA Rookie of the Year award in her first year with the Minnesota Lynx. In that 71-69 Buckeye victory, Miles gave the ball away four times.
What to Expect
Like many young college players who join a Power Four program and go from being the big fish in high school to a small fish in an ocean at the collegiate level, Watson admitted that her first two seasons lacked one specific area.
“The past two years, I had zero confidence just within myself, and that’s never something that I’ve dealt with ever,” Watson told reporters.
To work on it, Watson worked with her dad, Ohio State coaches and her guard group in the offseason to build on that confidence.
That did not always show on the court with a small sample size of moments off the bench but this season Ohio State needs more from the guard. Watson knows this and has prepared in the offseason as if the starting shooting guard role now belongs to her. Specifically, on the offensive side of the ball.
“My sole focus was defense,” said Watson. “This year, being my third season, I’ve kind of earned it, where I can go out there and kind of just be free and help my teammates in other ways, not just defense.”
Gray was only one of two Buckeyes to average at least 10 points per game during the 25-26 season. The guard had a career high 14.7 points per game, hit a team high 2.4 three-point shots per game and at a personal best 40.5% from beyond the arc.
“Now that Chance is leaving, that leaves me a little bit more room to shoot because she left. She gave us a lot, so I got to fill some shoes,” said Watson.
That puts pressure on the guard, but the defensive work shown over the previous two seasons shows how important Watson is in the current window of Ohio State women’s basketball.
Prediction
The first true test for Watson — and the Buckeyes — comes quickly.
On Nov. 12, the UConn Huskies descend on the Schottenstein Center after star forward Sarah Strong had a career day against Ohio State last year in Connecticut. That gives Watson three regular season games to work on that offensive improvement in game speed.
Even though they all come against mid-major sides, the Buckeyes can build momentum.
Watson played with the Cambridges for at least seven years, dating back to the middle school years. That and those 15 starts last season means that Watson’s integration as a full-time starter should not have too many hiccups.
Watson is part of the junior class that includes Jaloni Cambridge and Elsa Lemmilä, so nobody who will get starting minutes can claim their teammates are a stranger.
As is the case with every shooter, there will be hot and cold spells for Watson. The games to pay close attention to for the guard are the ones that follow a cold shooting day.
Past shooting guards who excelled in McGuff’s system, Gray and Taylor Mikesell, both knew that if they underperformed that it would not stop them shooting in the next game. Watson’s focus on building confidence will come in handy in those moments as Watson adjusts to being the primary No. 2 guard for the Scarlet and Gray.
Highlights
In this clip, Watson is in the point guard role and shows her connection with her teammates, ability to read space and speed with the ball.
This kind of play from a shooting guard can open Ohio State up and give teammates more space to work on offense.