OSU coach relishes chance to face UConn

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

It’s impossible for anyone to talk about the women’s NCAA tournament without confronting the 500-pound gorilla sitting on the bracket, mighty Connecticut.

Ohio State coach Jim Foster doesn’t go running from the discussion.

Even though his second-seeded Buckeyes (30-4) would have to win three games for even a potential shot at the unbeaten Huskies, Foster would relish the chance to upset UConn and his former assistant, Geno Auriemma.

“There’s 347 Division I schools,” Foster said Thursday, two days before his team opens NCAA play against St. Francis (Pa.) in Pittsburgh. “There’s one that’s dominating and there’s a handful that have put themselves in the position with the right mindset and the right talent to walk in the door. I would love the opportunity.”

For now, it’s a distant goal. Ohio State hasn’t won three games in the tournament in 17 years — and that’s the only time the Buckeyes have done it.

Ohio State has plenty of work to do before it can contemplate playing the Huskies, who are 33-0 this year and riding a record 72-game winning streak going into their first-round game Sunday against Southern in Norfolk, Va. The Buckeyes must get past St. Francis (17-14), followed by the winner of Mississippi State (19-12) vs. Middle Tennessee (25-5), and then the survivor from Tallahassee, Fla., a bracket that includes third-seeded Florida State (26-5) and sixth-seeded St. John’s (24-6).

Of course, UConn also must survive, although almost no one believes the Huskies will falter — either in their first three games or the three that would follow.

What makes any prospective Ohio State-UConn meeting even more interesting is that the game would be played March 30 at the University of Dayton Arena, about an hour from the OSU campus.

“Are you asking me if [I’d like it if] we were fortunate enough to be able to play them in a situation in our own state where the people of Ohio, with great civic pride, come out to support the state university?” he said with a wide grin.