Ohio State women’s basketball release full schedule, TV games and UCLA incoming

Over the past two months, the non-conference schedule for the Ohio State women’s basketball team has trickled in here and there. On one day it's the team announcing a big game, an opponent releasing a non-conference schedule, or ESPN posting a new game seemingly out of nowhere.

Tuesday, the Buckeyes stopped the waiting and schedule investigating, releasing a full 23-24 schedule, including national television games and a diverse lineup of streaming platforms. What sticks out the most is a potential season-making home game in December against a future Big Ten team.

The biggest news of the release is the Buckeyes welcoming the UCLA Bruins to the Schottenstein Center on Monday, Dec. 18. Ohio State and UCLA tip at 6:30 p.m. ET on FS1.

Last season, the Associated Press had the UCLA Bruins ranked No. 14 at season’s end, two spots below the Buckeyes, after making it to the Sweet Sixteen. The Bruins fell to the No. 1 overall ranked South Carolina Gamecocks but come into the 23-24 season stronger than ever.

That’s because of the team’s growth that includes four top-100 2022 freshman returning, led by guard Kiki Rice. The Pac-12 All-Freshman and All-Tournament team selection averaged 11.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in her first season alone.

Joining Rice are fellow sophomores in forward Gabriela Jaquez, guard Londynn Jones, and forward Christeen Iwuala, with Ohio State forward Cotie McMahon knowing two of them well.

McMahon played alongside Rice and Jones with Team USA over the past two summers. This year, the U19 side won gold at the U19 World Cup. In 2022, the U18 Red, White & Blue won the FIBA Americas Championship. Now for the first time in their young NCAA careers, they go from teammates to opponents.

UCLA is big, but the overall schedule has other highlights that put the Buckeyes back in the national spotlight. The Buckeyes have six games across major outlets. On Dec. 3, when Ohio State travels to the University of Tennessee, the two teams tip at 5:00 p.m. ET on ESPN.

Then, to end the month, the Buckeyes get their first network game of the season, facing the Michigan Wolverines on Dec. 30 at noon on FOX. It's one of three games across the big networks, with the other two games coming against the Iowa Hawkeyes. On Jan. 21, Ohio State and Iowa feature on NBC, and the final game of the regular season, in Iowa, on FOX.

In total, the scarlet and gray play 11 times across legacy cable and network channels. However, to get the full season of games there are streamed games aplenty. There are 17 games split across three streaming services. Peacock airs six, with Jan. 17’s Maryland matchup and Feb. 28’s home game against Michigan as highlights.

The Big Ten’s own streaming platform B1G+ carries eight. Those are mostly non-conference home games against teams like IUPUI, Ohio, and Belmont. Only two conference games fall to the streaming service, against the Northwestern Wildcats on Jan. 5 and the Purdue Boilermakers on Jan. 28. Both of those game times are also pending because the home schools haven’t determined when they want to host.

The last two streaming-only games are for the Buckeyes trip to the Bahamas for the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo tournament, in November. Those games against East Carolina (Nov. 20) and Oklahoma State University (Nov. 22) are exclusively on FloHoops, the same service the Buckeyes were on at last season’s San Diego Invitational against USF and Oregon.

Tuesday’s announcement doesn’t give the 100% complete schedule, with the tip-off against USC still not releasing any network to watch the game, but the release puts the season that much closer on the horizon.

Here’s the full schedule, including tip-off times and where you can watch: