Kelsey Mitchell Ohio State Stats: Breaking Down Her Impressive College Record, Achievements, and More

Can we agree that it’s quite warming when children share their interests with their parents? Even more, soaring to new heights under their parents’ guidance while sharing a similar passion. That’s exactly what happened with Indiana Fever’s forward, Kelsey Mitchell, whose mother and father were both collegiate athletes.

While her father, Mark, was a football player at Eastern Kentucky, her mother played basketball for Mississippi Valley State before transferring to the same college as her father. Like Mitchell, her mother was also a star player, averaging 260 rebounds in a single season (1988-89). But it wasn’t only her mother who guided her.

The Mitchells’ guidance that drove their daughter to success

Kelsey Mitchell’s father also offered unwavering support throughout her career. The Indiana Fever star was one of two twins whom he coached at Ohio State’s women’s basketball team. Before Kelsey and Chelsea were born, Mark began his coaching career at Cincinnati Public School. Later, he became an assistant coach for the team where both his daughters played at the collegiate level.

“I’ve been fortunate to have a really great father in my life for the past 28 years, who passed recently. To all the fathers out there, keep doing your thing; we couldn’t be here without you guys,” Mitchell addressed from Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Father’s Day. Mark was her biggest supporter until he passed away in March earlier this year at 56.

But what he left behind is a nurtured Kelsey Mitchell, who has become a scoring phenom. The training toward excellence began during her collegiate days at Ohio State. Mitchell entered as a freshman in 2014-15 and left as the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Player of the Year, as voted by the conference’s coaches.

Her college basketball was a turning point.

In her college debut, Mitchell finished the season with 873 points, the second-most by a freshman in NCAA Division I history. She was just 25 points short of Tina Hutchinson’s record at San Diego State. Dominant from the start, expectations rose. And she lived up to them. During her senior season, she averaged 24.4 points per game (PPG) with 46.1% shooting accuracy.

Additionally, she averaged 4.1 assists and 3.2 rebounds per game. By the end of her collegiate career, she accumulated 3,402 points, becoming second all-time in NCAA Division I trailing only Kelsey Plum. Caitlin Clark, a few years later, would push her to third. Regardless, this earned her the Dawn Staley Award and paved her path into the WNBA. Soon after, Mitchell entered the WNBA as the second overall pick in the 2018 draft by the Indiana Fever. She was dominant right from the start, earning a spot on the 2018 WNBA All-Rookie team alongside A’ja Wilson, Diamond DeShields, and Ariel Atkins.

She also showed her prowess during the All-Star game, becoming the only rookie participant in the 3-point contest in 2018. She ended her debut season with 432 points and a 34.6% field goal (FG) percentage. In 2019, she maintained her momentum, with the standout performance being her 38-point game against Connecticut, which included 9 three-pointers—the most by a Fever player in a single game, etching her name in franchise history. That was just the beginning.

She was No.2 overall draft pick in 2018

The following year, she completed her master’s in sports administration from the University of Cincinnati. Even on her graduation day, she played and became the second-fastest player in Fever history to reach the 1,000-point milestone. Once again, she ended the season as one of the top six scorers in the WNBA.

In 2021, Mitchell faced a setback. Despite her 569 points, she dropped to eighth on the scoring leader list from sixth. Yet, she remained focused on improvement. In 2022, she made a stunning comeback, with career-high averages of 18.4 points, 4.2 assists, and 43.8% shooting over 31 games.

Playing in all 153 games for the Fever, she became the player with the longest active streak in the WNBA at the time. But destiny had other plans. She injured her left foot and missed the final five games of the season—a situation Mitchell wasn’t accustomed to.

She returned for the 2023 season as the third-highest scorer in Fever franchise history and second in three-point field goals. Fast forward to 2024, her performance hasn’t dimmed despite the addition of highly anticipated rookie Caitlin Clark to the roster. Instead, she has continued to achieve more records.

“She makes my life easier out there,” Clark mentioned in a post-game interview. Even the rookie sensation recognizes the 28-year-old point guard as a standout. From the All-Star roster to making history together on the court, Mitchell’s success can be traced back to her father’s early guidance.