Jacy Sheldon Is Propelling the Ohio State Buckeyes With a Pro-Ready Skill Set

After the Ohio State Buckeyes lost to Virginia Tech in the 2023 NCAA Tournament Elite 8, ending a dazzling run, leaving for the WNBA Draft never crossed Jacy Sheldon's mind. As soon as the run ended, all Sheldon could come back to was the group the Buckeyes had returning, how she could contribute to that, and getting healthy to help push Ohio State over the top.

Roughly halfway into her final collegiate season, the Buckeyes are currently 4-1 in Big Ten play, 13-3 overall, and battle-tested after a difficult non-conference schedule.

The Buckeyes aren't where they want to be yet, but they're on track. This season is about improving what's in place and preparing to make an even deeper run in the March; Ohio State's halfcourt defense is substantially better this season, currently sporting a 75.1 Adjusted Offensive Rating (adjusts for difficulty of schedule) per CBB Analytics, compared to 83.1 last season. They've been better on the defensive glass this season, another emphasis of focus.

The Buckeyes have taken lumps early, but sport the 12th strongest schedule in the country to date according to Basketball Reference.

"Last year, we had a lot of success right off the bat," says Sheldon. Ohio State started the season 19-0, climbing all the way to #2 in the AP Polls.

"We didn't really hit adversity until 20 games in maybe, and this year, starting the season with a loss (to USC) was an adjustment... I think honestly it'll help us in the long run. You start off with a loss, you don't want to feel that feeling again. That motivated us to go back through film, sit down and really identify the areas in which we needed to get better in which has benefitted us. Being in a situation like that so early in the season, the Penn State game instead of us freaking out when we're down 10, we found a way to win the game and come together as a team."

She follows up that if she could take it back and win that first game against Southern Cal, she'd do it without hesitation, but she's grateful for the lessons learned and the team's progress since.

Sheldon is a competitor through and through, a huge reason for why she and Ohio State are such a synergistic match. While proximity to home played a factor in Sheldon going to Ohio State, she played high school ball at Dublin Coffman just a handful of exits up Route 315 and over on 270, the culture of the Buckeyes and style on and off the court fit her to a high degree.

The Buckeyes will run plays of course, but empower players to push the pace constantly and seek out early offense opportunities, which Sheldon is amongst the best in the country at doing. Practice is a highly competitive atmosphere and much of the team leadership and direction is player driven; if more is needed from you or you're slacking, a teammate isn't letting that slide. While they bring an intensity and fire on the court, they separate that off the court with a tight knit family atmosphere.

"That goes back to being as competitive as we are," says Sheldon.

"It's pretty cool when you can have that atmosphere out there and come back in here and know these are your sisters next to you. The people coming in are adding to that culture and adapting to it really well, it's easy to fit in. It's been fun to see it in action the past couple years."

That culture and competitiveness is what makes Ohio State a special place, but also made last season Sheldon's toughest in Columbus. While she was able to return in spurts for the Big Ten Tournament and ramp up before the NCAA Tournament, Sheldon missed all but one conference game after suffering a foot injury early on in the season. She was still ever present, but in a much different way than she was accustomed to.

Watching games from the bench, she got a more encompassing view of the game and would key in and coach her teammates during stoppages in play. Taylor Mikesell and Rikki harris would come to her and ask what she was seeing and how they could better approach.  Sheldon's someone typically leading by example, vocal and pushing her teammates, but that's harder to do when you're not actually playing alongside them. She had to step back and find new ways to lead without being able to be physically involved, something she's benefitted from this season.

Many pre-professional athletes have a learning and acclimation process to get in top condition or fine tune the way they train; Sheldon endured the inverse due to her injury.

"That was one of the hardest things I've had to go through... I've always been one to push through and kind of ignore injuries. My trainer will be mad at me for saying that, but it's something I did for a while my first couple years here, and this one, I wasn't able to ignore," says Sheldon.

Prior to injury, it was normal to see Sheldon come to the practice arena to shoot multiple times a day. In before practice to shoot and warm-up. Staying after practice to get more shots up. Going back to do schoolwork and then returning late at night to get shots up again. 

Notably one of the best conditioned players in the Big Ten and the country, Sheldon doesn't do any sort of cardio work. She's just all basketball all the time.

"I probably was doing it a little too much," says Sheldon with a laugh.

Learning when not to workout and how to take better care of herself outside of physical exertion has been her biggest development. Time spent on her craft hasn't changed, but time utilization has. She's more focused on prehab, rehab, and treatment, making sure she gets her body right and ready to go before and after practice. If something hurts or is sore, she doesn't ignore it and gets to icing. She's learned when she needs to take time off or take a break, even if it goes against what she wants to do; she takes immense pride in how she approaches practice and skill work.

"Taking accountability in that aspect, and not just the basketball aspects, but taking care of my body, learning what makes me feel better and what I need is a huge thing," says Sheldon.

Her work ethic was instilled early on by her father Duane, who was formerly the Head Coach at Baldwin Wallace University and Heidelberg College. He and her younger brother Ajay (currently a Sophomore on Ohio University's team), were always in the gym and bringing her along, but it quickly became Jacy bringing or asking them to go to the gym with her to get shots up.

No person motivates Jacy more than her 16 year old sister Emmy. If you ever take in a home game at the Schottenstein Center, you'll be able to locate where the Sheldon family sits before the first media timeout. There is no bigger fan, enthusiast, and ardent supporter of the Ohio State Buckeyes than Emmy Sheldon.

Emmy has Down Syndrome and was born with two holes in her heart that required surgery at a young age. Jacy points out that while Emmy has a wealth of opportunities in life, part of growing up was realizing that she and Ajay had doors open that Emmy would not.

"Playing sports probably won't ever be something she can do. So that just motivates me, and honestly every aspect of my life, it pushes me when I'm going through a hard time to think about 'is it really this big of a deal?' and 'it shouldn't stop you from working hard every day.' So she's someone who just pushes me a ton in every day life, mostly when I'm down and I'm not feeling good, in those days I think about her and I'm like, alright I'm doing this anyways. She's made a huge impact in my life."

Jacy is focused on the now; what can she do to be her best? How can she make the Buckeyes better? How can she elevate her teammates? 

A pro future is on the horizon, but Sheldon isn't looking past March, or past whatever game is next up on the schedule (Maryland tonight at 7pm EST on Peacock). She just wants to win and will continue doing whatever it takes to push Ohio State towards a Final Four.

***For the second part of our interview, I sat down with Jacy to watch through the Penn State game, talk through what she's seeing, ask questions about her game, and get her insight to how she's breaking things down in real time. This has been edited for brevity.***

Film Review

Mark Schindler (MS): Watching this one, Rikki (Harris) comes up to set a screen, looks like you're calling for a handoff with Celeste (Taylor), but then shoot the gap, drive, and kick it back to Rikki, ends up a post bucket. What are you feeling out her and what caused you to shoot the gap, end up drawing two there... what are you reading and seeing?

Jacy Sheldon (JS): That was the original play for Celeste there, but coming towards Celeste, I saw T (Taiyier Parks) and I saw T on the post, I didn't think I could get it to her. Once Rikki's person came towards me, I thought I'd swing it back and Rikki would have a better post entry. Sometimes I think just noticing where to get the ball into the post is so important.

(JS) ***Before the play is started***: Oh I remember this one.

(MS): So just coming off double drags right into a pull-up. What hits me about this one is how quick you do it. So often when you see someone coming off and they're scanning, which isn't necessarily wrong, but what stands out is that you're hopping into the jump right off the second screen. When are you seeing you have that opening and it's what you want to get to?

(JS): Watching back, so Rikki actually set a really good screen.

(MS): She's a hell of a screener.

(JS): Ohh yeah and she's a great player! Noticing what that player she screens does though with that split decision that they have to make, I think we ran this in the second half and she actually went over, probably because I did this in the first half. But right when you see them start to go under, you know in my mind, I'm like alright I got enough space to get that up and get it up quick. So like you said, I knew I could get it up quick, but right when I saw them take the step to go under the screen, that was kind of my thought process.

(MS): So I wanted to pull this one, because when we talk about defense, especially guarding on the ball, one of the things that stands out about you is your ability to absorb contact and your body control. Often on that step back through, a lot of people are going to foul the ball-handler, but you're able to pull back a bit. 

It doesn't necessarily happen in this play, but in general, I feel like you're really good at using verticality. I wanted to spin the block on that, because so often, when people think about on-ball defense it's all about locking someone one on the perimeter, but I think you do that in a somewhat different way, again, absorbing contact, use your length, just deterring people like that.

(JS): This game specifically, they did a lot of re-screens, and our big Rebeka (Mikulasikova) is really good at talking to us. One of the reasons we're so good defensively is because we trust each other. So first, she tells me the screen is coming and she always tells us what to do, telling me right now either to go over or under, and we went under on this one. 

But like you said, using that contact, one of the most important things as a defender is to not get screened, and everybody gets screened sometimes, but when guarding the ball my first thought is always find a way to get through this screen and stay on the ball as much as you can.

Also in this game, she's really quick, likes to shoot it, she can get to the hoop too. So I don't look at her eyes, I look at her hips. this play specifically I was looking at her hips just for change of direction to read her before she knows where she's going.

And then at the end there walling up and using my length. She's a shorter guard so my goal was to use my length to my advantage without fouling.

(MS): This is a longer clip, but my favorite sequence of the game.

So you hit the stunt right at the beginning which is huge in forcing them to start fumbling the possession. You go up above the break, but then end up pulling back a bit, slowing the pace, then you hit that angle early on when it looks like when you're starting to set up into something.

Obviously, this was one of the most important moments of the game, large reason why you were able to secure the lead and then the win. This hits a lot on the composure we talked about and also what you bring off the ball as a defender.

When you're feeling through this possession where were you at on it? What made you want to slow things down at first?

(JS): To start it there, I probably could've been a little higher in the gap, I know I still made a play on the ball, but a guard like Makenna (Marisa) I. probably should've been a little higher to prevent that drive from happening, but once we did get that board it's see what we can get and if not, set up a play. Even sometimes when you set up that play, you see something different.

So I attack that gap, something I saw, and then open up that space for Cotie (McMahon) and Cotie doesn't need a lot of space to get a bucket.

That's where my head was at, and honestly, a lot of plays there throughout the game we had a play set up and it broke down where we got another option and that's kind of just our offense.