The junior from Centerville swaps the Big Ten for SEC
It’s been relatively quiet in the transfer portal for Ohio State women’s basketball since forward Cotie McMahon announced her intention to leave Columbus on March 26. No one else has entered the portal since McMahon left, and head coach Kevin McGuff has not yet added anyone either. On Thursday, On3 reported that McMahon has committed to the Ole Miss Rebels of the SEC.
In the conference, Ole Miss ended sixth in the highly competitive Southeastern Conference with a 10-6 record with a 22-11 record overall. Ole Miss made it all the way to the Sweet Sixteen before falling 76-62 to the UCLA Bruins.
Ole Miss needs the scoring impact of McMahon after the program lost its top three scorers to expiring eligibility at season’s end. The three accounted for 34.1 of the team’s 75.3 points per game.
McMahon led the Buckeyes with a career high 16.5 points in the 2024-25 season and was the team’s top scorer in nine of Ohio State’s 33 games. That production earned McMahon an honorable mention in the Associated Press’ All-American Team. McMahon’s 1,484 career points as a Buckeye leave her at No. 19 in program history.
The Centerville, Ohio native does not head to Ole Miss alone, with three other players committing this offseason to head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin’s program. The highlight of the trio joining McMahon is former UCF guard Kaitlin Peterson. The guard averaged 21.4 points per game for the Knights last season and made the 23-24 Big 12 First Team after scoring a then-career high 20.7 points per game.
McMahon is the second player this offseason to enter the transfer portal from Ohio State. The forward followed redshirt sophomore center Faith Carson, who announced her move to the portal on March 25.
Ohio State has not added anybody from the portal, with a sizable gap left by not only McMahon but the departures of guard/forward Taylor Thierry, guard Madison Greene, forward Eboni Walker, and forward Ajae Petty, who all played through their NCAA eligibility.
The portal closes on April 22, which gives McGuff and the Buckeyes 12 days to convince a player in the portal to commit.
In previous seasons, McGuff used the portal to fill in spaces left by departing players or to fill problem areas in his on-court system. In three of the last four seasons, McGuff brought in four players from the portal who started immediately. Guards Taylor Mikesell, Celeste Taylor, Chance Gray, and forward Ajae Petty each came in and made more immediate impacts.
Currently, the Buckeyes have a size problem inside the paint, and need reinforcement on the offensive side of the ball in the paint and from beyond the arc with the roster’s current state. Ohio State has one recruit coming into the program this summer, 6-foot-1 guard Daria “Dasha” Biriuk out of Bell Buckle, Tennessee, following a move out of Ukraine two years ago.
That puts the Buckeye roster count at nine players for the 2025-26 season.