COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Before her first appearance for Ohio State in a competitive setting, albeit only a closed-door scrimmage against Louisville in October, Stephanie Mavunga experienced a moment of uncertainty. She looked to her teammates for an answer as the tip approached.
They were playing the game in quarters, right?
Change is in the details. A transfer from North Carolina, Mavunga sat out the 2015-16 season, the first to utilize quarters. She assured teammates who were both amused and incredulous that she had paid attention the previous season. But, you know, the world looks a bit different from the court.
"My teammates were laughing at me," Mavunga said.
With Ohio State the most notable participant in a phenomenon of player movement, the college basketball season might turn on how comfortably the Buckeyes adjust to a whole lot of change.
Ohio State has arguably the nation's best player in junior Kelsey Mitchell. The supporting cast was already far from barren, but transfers Mavunga, Sierra Calhoun and Linnae Harper create what on paper looks like a super team as capable as any of stepping into the void left by the departure of Connecticut's senior class and its four national titles.
"I feel like we're one of the teams that have got enough talent and depth and balance that we could make a run at the national championship." Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff
Keeping Mitchell in the state was the first building block, and as Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff's fourth season begins, for the first time, a championship is a realistic objective.
"It was partly everybody was kind of looking at it [as] UConn and everybody else," McGuff said. "And then we were still trying to add the right pieces to where I felt like we had the balance inside-out and the depth to do something like that. Now I think we have the pieces in place.
"It's obviously extremely difficult to do, but I feel like we're one of the teams that have got enough talent and depth and balance that we could make a run at the national championship."
The conundrum is that rarely -- maybe never -- has a team with so much proven talent provided so little evidence of how the pieces fit together. Calhoun, Harper, Mavunga and Mitchell have played a combined six and a half college seasons. We know they are excellent. Yet none has played an official college game with any of the others.
"We got a lot of chemistry-building to do," Mitchell said. "We've got a lot of growing to do, as far as knowing what people can do and what they can't do, where they're most comfortable and where they're most uncomfortable. I think it's a growing stage for us."
Ohio State is not alone in conducting an experiment under these conditions. Once novelties for elite programs, high-profile transfers are rapidly becoming commonplace. When South Carolina visits Columbus on Monday, the Gamecocks will have both Allisha Gray, Mavunga's former teammate at North Carolina, and Kaela Davis at their disposal. Baylor is a title favorite in large part because Alexis Jones is settling into her second season in Waco after starting at Duke. That is the same Duke that hopes transfer Lexie Brown can help it bounce back from a disappointing season that ended with Azura Stevens transferring to Connecticut, where she will sit out this season.
Why there is so much movement remains a topic of debate. Systemic answers range from a sense of entitlement among a generation raised in the often maligned AAU culture to the increasing empowerment of student-athletes to reject dictatorial coaches.
Each player has her own story. Mavunga said she had no regrets about choosing North Carolina or spending two seasons in Chapel Hill and that being so far from her home in Indiana forced her to mature. She said she just didn't feel the program, which saw most of her recruiting class transfer, was the best place for her to keep growing.
The larger debate will continue. That movement is the new reality isn't up for discussion.
"I think we're going to keep seeing it," McGuff said. "It's just hard. I think we're in a generation when [if] expectations aren't met quickly, then kids move on to the next thing. It's not always bad. It's not always bad at all. I've had plenty of transfers come in, and I've had some come out. It's just the way it is and every program is. I don't think that's going away anytime soon."
The corresponding reality is that programs must incorporate new moving parts alongside returning players and incoming freshmen. Ohio State must do so three times over.
Last we saw her, Mavunga averaged 14.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game for the Tar Heels. She gives the Buckeyes a true back-to-the-basket post presence to pair with Alexa Hart's shot-blocking athleticism. Harper, who will be eligible for the Buckeyes at the end of the fall semester, was a defensive and rebounding standout for Kentucky two seasons ago and the most-used sub on a United States Pan-Am roster that included the likes of Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson. Ranked 16th in her recruiting class by ESPN HoopGurlz, Calhoun started and averaged 10 points per game as a freshman at Duke. Then she left the team at midseason.
On top of that, Ohio State added a well-regarded freshman class headlined by 6-foot-4 Tori McCoy, a prep All-American ranked among the top-10 recruits. That leaves the matter of chemistry. To those who believe teams that play well get along well, Mitchell remains the key figure. After leading the nation in scoring as a freshman, she averaged 26.1 points per game as a sophomore. Although a commendably efficient scorer, she attempted 1,308 field goals and 447 free throws in her first two seasons, in each case more than a quarter of the team's total. Yet not just her coach but also some of those who lose sleep about trying to slow her down think she is suited to the task at hand and that the most prolific soloist in the country can be the conductor of a multipiece ensemble.
"I think one of her greatest strengths, and we'll find out this year because she's surrounded by a lot of really great players, is her ability to pass the basketball and her ability to see the floor," Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico said. "I think a lot of people see her as a pure scorer because that's what she's had to do for her team the last couple of years. But I've seen her pass the ball, and she has vision as great as anyone I've ever seen."
For their part, as Mitchell alluded to, the Buckeyes seem to believe that a team plays well when it already has chemistry and common purpose.
"As talented as UConn's been, they've kind of out-cultured everybody for years," McGuff said. "We had to make a lot of progress in that area, and we're working on it."
That ultimately comes down to the people involved. The transfers aren't strangers. All were around a season ago. But like playing by quarters for the first time, it's a different experience. It's about Mitchell learning that she and Harper are similarly soft-spoken and that the gregarious Mavunga is not.
Different roads led them all to Columbus. Only one road will lead them to Dallas, host of the 2017 Final Four.
"I'm still learning a lot about each and every one of them," Mitchell said. "But I wouldn't want them anywhere else."