Other B1G Team Notes 2022-23

Bfan · Jan 4, 2023

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA women's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2023-24 season.

apnews.com

Surging Illinois just missed top 25, first team out.

Ohio State holds at #3.

Indiana falls 2 to #6.

UCLA down 2 to #12.

Maryland up 3 to #13.

Michigan at #14.

Iowa down 4 to #16.

Next season Gophers to make list.

AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll

The official page for the AP Top 25 women's college basketball poll. Keep up to date and view the latest NCAA women's basketball ranking updates each week for the 2023-24 season.

apnews.com

gopher572 · Jan 8, 2023

adamj95 · Jan 8, 2023

How odd to do this in the middle of the season. Hope she's okay.

Bfan · Jan 8, 2023

gopher572 said:

2020-21 unanimous honorable mention All-Big Ten

2021-22: Started 16 games, averaging 33.7 minutes per game, ... ranked second on the team with 12.8 points per game, ... scored in double figures in 15 games ... shot a season-best 54.8% from the field

This season: She no longer appears in current player stats to easily see the stats this season.

Glancing at her recent games her production is off and down in those games despite playing lots of minutes.

Women's Basketball vs Illinois on 12/29/2022 | Box Score | Wisconsin Badgers

The official box score of Women's Basketball vs Illinois on 12/29/2022

uwbadgers.com

This article says,

"The 5-foot-11 guard from Monroe missed the first eight games of the basketball season, but her return might be just in the nick of time for the Badgers....

“I’m really thankful to be out there in general,” she said. “I’m not really looking at stats or anything, just trying to play and do what I can for this team. And like I said, I’m just happy to be out there.”

Before her comeback, Hilliard had not played a game in 10 months. She took a leave of absence for the final nine games of last season and this year had to fully recover from off-season surgery on her right knee before seeing the floor.

The injury, although mine wasn’t too bad, you had to be careful with it,” she said. “When I first came back to practice, I could feel that I wasn’t quite where I needed to be, but being able to step in and do the reps in practice and now being able to do it in games has helped me a lot.”"

'I’m just happy to be out there': Sydney Hilliard returns in time to give Wisconsin women's basketball a boost

The 5-11 guard took a leave of absence from the team at the end of last season and missed the first eight game this year due to a knee injury.

www.jsonline.com

Bfan · Jan 10, 2023

Some highlights from the Big Ten Women's Basketball news release:

For the first time in 8,072 days (more than 22 years), Illinois earned a place in the national polls this week, as the Fighting Illini were ranked No. 24 in both the Associated Press and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today Top 25 polls. Illinois, which was last ranked on Nov. 27-28, 2000 (also 24th in both surveys), is the seventh different Big Ten Conference program to be ranked in the Top 25 this season, while the Big Ten currently leads all conferences with six Top 25 programs in both polls, as well as a season-high four schools ranked in the top 10 in one or both polls.

Following Sunday’s 87-81 win over Illinois, No. 3/3 Ohio State continues to extend the best start in school history, now at 17-0 and one of three remaining unbeaten teams in the country (along with South Carolina and LSU). This year’s record eclipses the Buckeyes’ previous best start in 2011-12 (15-0), while the 6-0 record to begin Big Ten play is OSU’s best since 2009-10, when it won its first seven conference games.

Two Big Ten programs captured their first conference wins of the 2022-23 season on the home hardwood over the weekend, with Rutgers downing Nebraska, 57-45 on Saturday (on Theresa Grentz Day at Jersey Mike’s Arena) and Wisconsin edging Minnesota, 81-77 on Sunday at the Kohl Center.

Big Ten Conference women’s basketball is reaching new heights in its television exposure this season. Of the 26 highest-rated women’s basketball games in 2022-23, 11 of them (42.3 percent) have involved a Big Ten program, including two of the top five and five of the top 13. The Nov. 27 Iowa-UConn game at the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland drew 597,000 viewers on ABC (second in the nation), while the Dec. 11 Maryland-UConn game on ABC (the first-ever Big Ten regular season home game on ABC) had 470,000 viewers, fifth in the country. These figures do not yet include the Jan. 7 Iowa-Michigan on FOX, the first-ever Big Ten women’s basketball game televised on the FOX broadcast network.

There have already been eight Big Ten Conference women’s basketball games this season that have attracted more than 200,000 viewers after four Big Ten games reached the 200,000-viewer mark last season. In addition, the Nov. 8 Ohio State-Tennessee game on Big Ten Network drew 100,000 viewers, the second-largest audience for a regular season women’s basketball game in BTN history.

More news at:

Big Ten Weekly Women's Basketball Central - Jan. 10-16

The Big Ten Conference has a season-high six Top 25 teams this week, including No. 24 Illinois, which is ranked for the first time since November 2000

bigten.org

Bfan · Jan 10, 2023

Ohio State and Rutgers Earn Big Ten Weekly Women’s Basketball Awards

Buckeyes’ Mikesell and Scarlet Knights’ Smikle chosen as this week’s conference honorees

bigten.org

Ignatius L Hoops · Jan 29, 2023

MSU women's basketball coach hospitalized after car crash, to miss next game

Suzy Merchant, Michigan State's head women's basketball coach, will miss the team's game Sunday after being hospitalized following a car accident, the team announced Saturday.

www.wxyz.com

Merchant did not coach today's game versus Illinois

EAST LANSING, Mich. (WXYZ) — Suzy Merchant, Michigan State's head women's basketball coach, will miss the team's game Sunday after being hospitalized following a car accident, the team announced Saturday.

According to the release posted on the team's Twitter account, Merchant was involved in a minor one-car crash, due to an undisclosed medical incident, Saturday morning. She was hospitalized, is undergoing testing and is expected to be okay.

As of Saturday evening, the team has not mentioned when Merchant will return as coach.

Bfan · Feb 16, 2023

Various Women's Basketball News Big Ten Related:

Minnesota's Angelina Hammond and Isabelle Gradwell, two standouts in yesterday's win, on the GoldBlooded Podcast. It was warming to see them at the game with such happy, elated expressions, the crowd clapping, cheering, loving their performances.

ESPN Analyst Article with Predictions for NCAA Tournament, MVP, and More:

Women's Final Four predictions: Indiana's rise, UConn's vulnerability and the Boston-Clark debate

Can anyone stop South Carolina? Is Indiana a Final Four team? Is it time for injury-riddled UConn to panic? We update our predictions a month before March Madness tips.

www.espn.com

Bracketology: Probably 7 Big Ten Teams headed to NCAA Tournament and Early Seeding Projections:

Women's Bracketology: No. 1 seeds survive opening day, but make way for Michigan

The Big Ten is flexing one day into the season. The conference has two 1-seeds and matches the SEC's 11 teams as Michigan jumps into the field.

www.espn.com

Iowa to Break Attendance Record at College GameDay contest:

"Iowa’s regular-season average of 10,705 will break the conference women’s basketball record during this game. Wisconsin currently holds the 10,455 mark from the 1997-98 season. The game was previously announced as a sell out in the 14,535 seat arena.

Iowa sets record attendance for Big Ten women during College GameDay competition - Iowa News

For the first time, ESPN will broadcast College GameDay live from Iowa City for a basketball game -- a competition that could decide the women's Big Ten

localtoday.news

College Women's Basketball Popularity Continues to Soar. 1.466 million viewers watched South Carolina vs LSU:

Four Big Ten Coaches Named to Naismith Coach of the Year Watch List (10 total)

Werner Ladder Naismith Women’s College Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List Revealed | Naismith Awards®

naismithtrophy.com

The analysts in the previous ESPN article unanimously guessed Teri Moren of Indiana most-likely for Coach of the Year:

Teri Moren - Women's Basketball Coach - Indiana University Athletics

Teri Moren is in her 11th season as head coach of the Indiana Women’s Basketball program in 2024-25. The program’s all-time winningest coach holds a record o...

iuhoosiers.com

Minnesota's Rose Micheaux and Mara Braun make top 20 scoring list in Big Ten conference games (as of yesterday):

Minnesota's Mallory Heyer, Micheaux, and Amaya Battle make top 20 list for rebounds in Big Ten conference games (Heyer and Micheaux in the top-5 and tied at 15):

Amaya Battle makes top 10 list for assists in Big Ten games:

Various women's basketball weekly news bullet points from Big Ten:

BIG TEN WEEKLY RELEASE - FEB. 14

Less than two weeks remain in what has been one of the most competitive regular seasons in Big Ten Conference history. Indiana continues to hold the top spot in the standings at 14-1, followed closely by Iowa (12-2) and Maryland (12-3). Michigan (10-4) and Ohio State (10-5) are separated by one-half game in the race for the final double-bye for the Big Ten Tournament, with Illinois (9-6) and Purdue (8-6) still in contention for that top-four tournament seeding.

Indiana extended its current winning streak to 12 games and improved to 8-0 against Top 25 teams this season with an 83-59 victory at No. 13/12 Ohio State on Monday night. The 12-game winning streak is the third-longest in program history and the longest in the nine-year tenure of head coach Teri Moren, who also collected her 98th win in Big Ten Conference play. In addition, the Hoosiers earned their fifth consecutive victory over OSU, tying their longest winning streak in the series between the schools that dates back to 1972-73 (Indiana also won five in a row over the Buckeyes from 2000-03).

Maryland went a perfect 18-of-18 at the free throw line in Sunday’s win over Illinois at the XFINITY Center. It was the fifth-best single-game free throw shooting performance by one team in Big Ten Conference history and the second-best in conference play. Wisconsin holds the record with a 21-of-21 effort against Illinois on March 7, 2013, at the Big Ten Tournament in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, while the only other Big Ten team with a better foul shooting day in a conference game was Michigan State, which went 19-of-19 against Michigan on Feb. 3, 2016 (the last time any Big Ten program had a better efficiency than Maryland did on Sunday).

Iowa set a program record for points in a Big Ten Conference game with its 111-57 victory over Rutgers on Sunday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes surpassed their previous mark that had been set twice before, most recently on Jan. 14 in a 108-67 win over Penn State, also in Iowa City. In addition, Iowa scored 60 points in the first half on Sunday against Rutgers, a program record for points in the first half of a Big Ten game, on the way to clinching their seventh consecutive 20-win season.

Michigan also earned its 20th victory on Sunday with an 80-75 win over Nebraska at Crisler Center. The Wolverines have reached the 20-win mark for the 14th time in program history and the 10th time in the 11-year tenure of head coach Kim Barnes Arico (the lone exception being the pandemic-affected 2020-21 season in which Michigan played just 22 games).

Purdue matched its win total from all of last season (17) with its 76-61 victory over Northwestern on Sunday at Mackey Arena. It’s the first time the Boilermakers have tied or bettered their win total from the previous season since 2016-17, which culminated with the program’s most recent NCAA Tournament appearance.

Single-session and all-session tickets are now on sale for the 2023 Big Ten Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament presented by TIAA, which will be played March 1-5 at the Target Center in Minneapolis. For more information, visit the official tournament web site at bigten.org/WBBT.

The Big Ten led all conferences with five schools among the top 16 seeds in the first NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee top-16 reveal that was released Feb. 9. Indiana was the No. 2 overall seed, followed by No. 7 Iowa, No. 9 Maryland, No. 11 Michigan and No. 16 Ohio State. The top-16 seeds announced in Thursday’s reveal (as well as those in the second Committee reveal on Feb. 23) will have no bearing on the final 68-team field for the 2023 NCAA Tournament that will be announced on March 12 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN).

Indiana announced Feb. 10 that tickets are sold out for its Feb. 19 game against Purdue at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (listed capacity of 17,222), marking the program’s first-ever home sellout. It will also represent the second time this season the Hoosiers and Boilermakers will play in front of a sold-out crowd — Purdue drew a school-record 14,876 fans (the 15th-largest crowd in Big Ten history) to Mackey Arena for its Feb. 5 matchup against Indiana.

On Feb. 3, Iowa announced its regular-season finale against Indiana on Feb. 26 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena is sold out. It will be the Hawkeyes’ first regular-season sellout (15,056) since last year’s finale against Michigan when Iowa earned a share of the Big Ten title. Also, it was announced the Iowa-Indiana game will now tip off at 2 p.m. (ET) and will be televised live on ESPN.

For the third time this season, a Big Ten Conference school has risen to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, as Indiana reached that position on Feb. 6, achieving the highest ranking in school history. Now in the second spot for the second week in a row, the Hoosiers are followed by No. 7 Iowa, No. 8 Maryland (tying their season high for the third week in a row), No. 12 Michigan (a season high for the Wolverines for the second straight week) and No. 13 Ohio State, with Illinois continuing to receive votes. The Big Ten leads all conferences with five schools among the top 15 in the AP poll.

With Indiana’s No. 2 ranking the past two weeks, and Ohio State’s No. 2 rankings on Jan. 16 and 23, this marks the first time the Big Ten Conference has had multiple schools reach as high as No. 2 in the AP poll in the same season since 1993-94. That year, Penn State spent three weeks at No. 1 and three more at No. 2, while Iowa was ranked No. 2 for the first eight weeks of the season.

The Big Ten continues to be among the national leaders with five schools in the Top 25 of the latest Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today poll. Indiana is up to No. 2, its highest-ever ranking in the coaches’ poll, followed by No. 7 Iowa, No. 8 Maryland (the Terrapins’ season high for a second straight week), No. 13 Michigan (a season-high for the Wolverines) and No. 14 Ohio State. Illinois and Purdue are also receiving votes in the WBCA poll this week.

The Big Ten leads all Division I conferences with a remarkable nine schools among the top 50 in the latest NET rankings, including five in the top 20 — No. 5 Indiana, No. 7 Iowa, No. 14 Michigan, No. 15 Maryland, No. 16 Ohio State, No. 34 Illinois, No. 42 Purdue, No. 43 Nebraska and No. 49 Michigan State. The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) is the primary sorting tool used by the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee for determining NCAA Tournament teams.

No fewer than 10 of the top 25 (and 16 of the top 45) largest single-game attendances in the country this year have been hosted by a Big Ten Conference program, all topping 10,000 fans. The Big Ten is No. 2 nationally with its 10 top-25 crowds and 16 top-45 audiences, which includes a season-high 14,876 fans (the 15th-largest crowd in conference history) for Purdue’s Feb. 5 home game against Indiana, as well as seven Iowa games (led by 13,843 fans on Jan. 28 for the Hawkeyes’ win over Nebraska), three Indiana victories (a school-record 13,046 on Feb. 9 vs. Iowa; 10,455 on Jan. 26 vs. Ohio State; 10,422 on Jan. 15 against Wisconsin), Maryland’s wins over UConn (Dec. 11 - 12,566) and Ohio State (Feb. 5 - 11,167) and Michigan’s first-ever back-to-back games with 10,000 fans (10,731 vs. Iowa on Jan. 7; 10,534 for a win over in-state rival Michigan State on Jan. 14).

No fewer than 13 of the 14 Big Ten programs have drawn at least one crowd of 5,000 fans or more this season, including five (Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan and Purdue) that have posted at least one audience of 10,000 fans. Ohio State almost joined the latter group with 9,955 fans for its Jan. 23 game against Iowa.

The Big Ten has consistently ranked among the top three conferences in women’s basketball attendance for the past three decades and that trend appears to be continuing this season. As of Tuesday, 11 Big Ten programs ranked among the top 40 in the nation (and five in the top 15, all averaging more than 5,000 fans per game) in average attendance, leading all Division I conferences by every attendance measure. Among the Big Ten contingent, Iowa is No. 3 in the nation (10,446), followed by Maryland (9th - 7,240), Indiana (10th - 6,651), Ohio State (12th - 5,734) and Nebraska (15th - 5,140).

At 10,446 fans per game, Iowa is challenging the Big Ten Conference single-season attendance average record. The only school to produce a higher overall average attendance for one season than Iowa’s current mark is Wisconsin (10,455 in 1997-98). Iowa is also averaging 11,339 fans during conference games, which would rank second in Big Ten history behind only Wisconsin (12,474 in 1997-98).

During non-conference play this season, the Big Ten Conference posted seven top-10 wins and 12 victories over ranked non-conference opponents, both leading all Division I conferences. The seven non-conference top-10 wins (which included three away from home) were the most by the Big Ten in the past 20 years, more than doubling the three top-10 victories in both 2004-05 and 2008-09. The 12 Top 25 wins (seven of which came on the road or at neutral sites) tied for the most for the Big Ten in the regular season during the past two decades, matching the total from the 2004-05 season.

Big Ten women’s basketball is reaching new heights in its television exposure this season. Of the 50 highest-rated games in 2022-23, 20 of them (40 percent) have involved a Big Ten program, including three of the top 10 and eight of the top 20. The Nov. 27 Iowa-UConn game at the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland drew 597,000 viewers on ABC (fourth in the nation), while the Jan. 7 Iowa-Michigan game (the first-ever Big Ten women’s basketball game on the FOX broadcast network) brought in 564,000 viewers, good for sixth in the country. The Jan. 28 Iowa-Nebraska game on FOX brought in 492,000 viewers, eighth-highest in the country and one spot in front of the Dec. 11 Maryland-UConn game on ABC (the first-ever Big Ten regular season home game on ABC), which had 470,000 viewers.

No fewer than 14 Big Ten Conference games this season have attracted more than 200,000 viewers (and eight have topped 300,000). By comparison, four Big Ten games reached the 200,000-viewer mark last season.

The Feb. 9 Indiana-Iowa game marked the first top-five basketball broadcast, women’s or men’s, in Big Ten Network history, and the results were record-setting. An audience of 325,000 viewers tuned in, the largest for a women’s basketball broadcast in BTN history. The previous record had been 286,000 viewers for the 2022 Big Ten Tournament semifinal between Iowa and Nebraska.

The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in scoring (74.0 ppg.), field-goal percentage (.443), assists (16.3 apg.) and steals (8.8 spg.), while ranking second in three-point percentage (.336) and third in free throw percentage (.735; first among Autonomy Five conferences).

In recent years, the Big Ten Conference has cultivated a deserved reputation as the home for an exciting brand of up-tempo basketball. This season, seven Big Ten schools rank among the top 30 in the nation (and five in the top 15) in scoring offense, led by Iowa, which is No. 1 in the nation in scoring at 88.5 points per game, while Ohio State (9th - 82.2 ppg.), Indiana (10th - 81.6 ppg.), Michigan State (13th - 79.3 ppg.) and Maryland (15th - 79.0 ppg.) are also in the top 15. In addition, nine Big Ten schools have scored at least 100 points in a game this season. Individually, the Big Ten has two of the nation’s top 10 scorers in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (2nd - 27.4 ppg.) and Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes (6th - 22.5 ppg.).

The Big Ten features five schools among the top 25 (and three of the top 10) in the country in field goal percentage. Iowa leads the way (2nd - .509), followed by Indiana (3rd - .504) and Michigan (8th - .478), with Ohio State (11th - .472) and Illinois (23rd - .459) also in the top 25 nationally. Individually, the Big Ten has three of the nation’s top six shooters this season in Indiana’s Mackenzie Holmes (2nd - .698), Iowa’s Monika Czinano (3rd - .667) and Ohio State’s Taylor Thierry (6th - .644). The Big Ten has produced the NCAA field-goal percentage champion seven of the past eight years, including Czinano the past two (she was also second to Oregon’s Ruthy Hebard during the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season).

It’s called “sharing the sugar”, and no conference is sweeter in the assist game than the Big Ten. Eight conference schools rank among the top 35 in the country in assists (three in the top 10), paced by Iowa, which is No. 2 in the nation at 21.0 apg., followed by Indiana (7th - 18.5 apg.) and Michigan State (8th - 18.1 apg.). Four Big Ten players rank among the top 20 nationally in assists — Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (tied-1st - 8.3 apg.), Purdue’s Jeanae Terry (10th - 6.5 apg.), Nebraska’s Jaz Shelley (11th - 6.4 apg.) and Michigan’s Leigha Brown (16th - 5.9 apg.).

Big Ten Weekly Women's Basketball Central - Feb. 14-20

Less than two weeks remain in the Big Ten regular season with three schools separated by two games atop the conference standings

bigten.org

gopher572 · Feb 20, 2023

Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin are both coming back for a 5th year at Iowa.

Bfan · Feb 21, 2023

NCAA MARCH MADNESS

How to fill out a tournament bracket:

How to fill out a tournament bracket: All the basics so you can join the madness

Joining the Women's Tournament Challenge madness for the first time? Have some questions? We've got you covered with a tutorial that covers all of the basics.

www.espn.com

From ESPN: "Welcome to the 2023 Women's Tournament Challenge. It's that time of year to make your picks and follow your favorite schools all the way to the Final Four in Dallas, Texas!" At this link: