Ohio State land commitment of Spain youth international center Adriana Díaz

Basketball player holding up her left arm, wearing a yellow jersey that reads Estudiantes and No. 18.

Ohio State women’s basketball is firmly in its 2026 offseason, and on Wednesday the university received its second commitment of the 2026 freshman class. Spanish center Adriana Díaz announced on Instagram her decision to play for Ohio State.

Díaz is a 6-foot-1 post player who plays professionally for Movistar Estudiantes Madrid and internationally for the Spain’s youth team. On April 8, Díaz celebrated her 18th birthday, making her fairly young to play professionally. In Eurocup play with Estudiantes, Díaz averaged 7.1 minutes per game, and 6.2 minutes in her club’s regular season slate of games. However, Díaz shows promise that will now go up against Big Ten competition.

Internationally, Díaz represented Spain at the 2025 U18 EuroBasket tournament. The center appeared in seven games and averaged 9.4 points, 4.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 16.7 minutes, coming off the bench for the gold medal-winning side.

As a post player, Díaz plays inside the paint with physicality. That means using her size to muscle opponents, grabbing rebounds and putting in second chance baskets. In addition, Díaz can shoot from beyond the arc, something that head coach Kevin McGuff uses in his Five Out system. The skillset of the incoming freshman matches that of previous European bigs on the Buckeyes roster like former forward Rebeka Mikulášiková and current center Elsa Lemmilä.

For Díaz, her best game in the professional ranks came on November 5, 2025 for Estudiantes. In 13 minutes, Díaz scored a personal season high eight points and went 2-for-5 from beyond the arc.

That puts the Ohio State roster up to five inside players. Díaz joins the aforementioned Lemmilä and redshirt sophomores Kylee Kitts, Ella Hobbs and Seini Henry. In the 25-26 season, Lemmilä led the three returning post players with 26.4 minutes per game. Kitts started the first 19 games but suffered a shoulder injury on Jan. 19, 2026 against the TCU Horned Frogs that put her in a bench role for the remainder of the regular season and through postseason play.

While Kitts was injured, Ohio State did not have another inside presence who can play the No. 4 position, which put guard Kennedy Cambridge in the game with power forward responsibilities. Height-wise, Díaz’ 6-foot-1 frame makes her the shortest of the Buckeyes’ centers, behind the 6-foot-6 Lemmilä and 6-foot-4 Hobbs. Depending on how acclimation goes for the Spaniard, there is a place off the bench as a freshman playing behind Kitts if McGuff opts to play taller sets.

Díaz is the second commitment for the 2026 class. The center joined guard Atlee Vanesko on the Ohio State roster that currently sits at 10 players after guards Chance Gray and T’Yana Todd graduated and Dasha Biriuk entered the transfer portal.

There is still a likelihood that McGuff and the Buckeyes add someone from the transfer portal or through recruiting.