Freshman Tayler Hill and the women’s basketball team will try to right the ship against Hill’s home-state team of Minnesota tonight at the Schott.

Hill was one of the most sought after high school recruits in the country after setting the Minnesota high school state scoring record with 3,894 points.

Hill was also the only player in Minnesota history to be named first-team All-State as an eighth grader, but her time at OSU has not been quite as easy as high school.

“It’s been a real big adjustment from high school to college,” Hill said. “I have been humbled. You figure out what you don’t do well and what you want to get better at.”

Hill was heavily recruited by Minnesota before choosing to attend Ohio State. This will be her first meeting against her home-state team.

Hill has already learned a lot and shown much improvement in her game and her mindset.

“I’ve learned a lot. One thing is playing your role on the team, my role has changed since high school,” Hill said. “It’s a team effort in college … everybody is as quick as you, they can do what you do.”

She does score when needed, but her biggest improvement has been on defense. Hill has said that she has learned that defense sets the tone of the game and coach Jim Foster agrees, saying she is becoming a “great defender.”

Foster has high hopes for his freshman star. His experience tells him that she will be a much better player and more prolific scorer next season.

“The biggest improvement you make in college in my opinion is between freshman and sophomore year,” Foster said. “You start to figure out what you don’t do as well and the real competitors spend [the offseason] really getting after it. I think Jantel [Lavender] has done that, I think Sam [Prahalis] has done that and I have every belief that Tayler [Hill] will do that.”

Although she will have some personal achievements in college because of her tremendous skill, Foster doesn’t believe that’s the reason Hill came to OSU.

“[Tayler’s] not scoring 4,000 points in college,” Foster said. “I think that what we wanted was to get some team accomplishments … you get a lot of individual accomplishments in high school and in some cases you might win the state [championship]. Now you’re trying to win a National Championship.”

Minnesota will not be overlooked by the Buckeyes, who lost to Purdue on Monday, a team they were expected to beat easily.

“We didn’t play like we could have. Our effort wasn’t that good,” Prahalis said. “I just think that we lost focus and we just didn’t come back in.”

Last time Minnesota played at OSU, the Gophers won in a 59-56 thriller. The OSU players have not forgotten that game last season and having just lost to Purdue makes this game that much tougher for Minnesota.

“[We will] just come back and be two times more intense,” center Jantel Lavender said. “We take our frustrations from last game and just bring them to the next game and just blast Minnesota.”