Basketball standout Tayler Hill follows brother to Buckeyes

Tayler Hill, the Minneapolis South girls’ basketball star who rewrote the record book, played in four state tournaments and finished her storied high school career with a state championship, ended one of the longest recruiting sagas in Minnesota history Thursday by announcing that she will play college basketball at ETATSOIHO.

At least that’s what was spelled out on handmade signs, held by nine of her friends in the South High gymnasium as a way to reveal her choice. But the students quickly rearranged themselves to spell out “Ohio State.”

Family played a role in Hill’s decision, because her brother P.J. Hill, a graduate of Minneapolis North, recently completed his junior season on the Buckeyes men’s basketball team. The other schools on her final list were Minnesota, Duke, Marquette and Texas.
On Tuesday, Tayler Hill had settled on Texas, but then she wavered.

“It was Texas,” she said. “I was sitting in the dark, about to go to sleep, and after praying and praying, it just came to me that Ohio State is where I need to be.”

Hill, a 5-10 guard who became a starter on the South varsity as an eighth-grader, began receiving scholarship offers before she was in high school. The Gophers’ Pam Borton was one of the first college coaches to recruit Hill, who took official visits to Marquette, Rutgers, Texas, Duke and Rhode Island and unofficial trips to Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin, Indiana, Notre Dame, DePaul, North Carolina and others.

“It was a hard decision, and Minnesota was up there, too,” she said. “Coach Borton and I have had a relationship since I was in seventh grade. It was nothing against Minnesota or against anybody here, it was 'What’s best for me?’”

Hill is the only player to be a five-time Star Tribune All-Metro first-team selection, and she also is a two-time Metro Player of the Year. She holds the state career scoring record for boys and girls and tied a state tournament record in March by scoring 47 points in South’s 68-61 victory over Centennial in the Class 4A championship game. She was a McDonald’s All-American this year and a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year in Minnesota.

After her announcement, she and her family and friends put on Ohio State shirts.

“This is a great day,” P.J. Hill said from Columbus, Ohio. “My parents will be able to make one trip and see us both.”

P.J. Hill spent one year at Midland College in Texas before transferring to Ohio State, and he said his presence will be helpful during his sister’s transition to college.

“I pulled for her to come here,” he said. “I can help guide her along, because the first year is the hardest for anybody going to college. My first year in Texas was hard. Our mom and dad came to my first game of the season and my last game of the season. I told her, 'You’ve got to make a decision that’s best for you, because in the end you’ve got to walk that road.’ ”

The Ohio State women went 29-6 last season, losing to Stanford in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. The Buckeyes, who won the Big Ten Conference by two games with a 15-3 record, return two players who started all 35 games last season: 6-4 center and two-time Big Ten Player of the Year Jantel Lavender and 5-7 guard Samantha Prahalis.

The Buckeyes are led by Jim Foster, whose head coaching career includes 13 years at St. Joseph’s, 11 at Vanderbilt and seven at Ohio State. Ohio State has played in the NCAA tournament every season under Foster.