Other Big Ten WBB News

[Bfan]

#1 recruit in the nation Juju Watkins commits to USC that is the Big Ten starting 2024.

Top women's hoops recruit Watkins chooses USC

Juju Watkins, the nation's No. 1 women's basketball recruit and two-time gold medalist with USA Basketball Women's U-17 team, has announced her commitment to play for the USC Trojans.

www.espn.com

 

[Bfan]

A few highlights:

• Big Ten Conference schools win more than 88 percent of their games.

• Indiana captured a landmark non-conference victory on Monday with a 79-67 win at No. 11/4 Tennessee. It was not only the Hoosiers’ first-ever win over the Lady Vols, but it was the first time a Big Ten Conference program has ever gone into Knoxville and defeated Tennessee at Thompson-Boling Arena. Coupled with Ohio State’s win over UT last week, the Big Ten has posted multiple wins over Tennessee in the same year for the first time in conference history (doing so in the opening seven days of the season) and has won its last three matchups with the Lady Vols, including Michigan’s victory in the second round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament in San Antonio.

• With the wins by Ohio State and Indiana over Tennessee on Nov. 8 and 13, respectively, three different Big Ten Conference schools have now collected five marquee top-five regular-season non-conference victories in the past four years. On Nov. 28, 2019, Indiana downed No. 5/6 South Carolina, 71-57 at the Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A week later on Dec. 5, 2019, Ohio State ousted No. 2/2 Louisville, 67-60 in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge at Value City Arena. More recently on Dec. 19, 2021, Michigan defeated No. 5/5 Baylor, 74-68 in overtime at the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase in Uncasville, Conn., securing the Wolverines’ first-ever top-five win.

• For the second consecutive week, the Big Ten Conference leads the nation with six Top 25 teams in both the Associated Press and Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today polls. In the AP balloting, Iowa remains steady at No. 4, while Ohio State is one of the high risers this week with a six-spot jump to No. 8. Indiana checks in at No. 12, with Maryland 19th, Nebraska 22nd and Michigan 23rd. The coaches’ poll was released Tuesday and the Big Ten now has three in the top 10 with No. 6 Iowa, No. 9 Indiana and No. 10 Ohio State — the Big Ten had three top-10 teams in the WBCA/USA Today poll for nine weeks last season, including the final poll taken after the NCAA Tournament. In addition, Maryland is ranked 21st, with Nebraska 22nd and Michigan 23rd this week.

• The first Sunday of the 2022-23 season on Nov. 13 turned out to be a fun day for the Big Ten Conference, which went a perfect 10-0 against its non-conference slate. It was the first time the Big Ten went unbeaten on a single day with a minimum of nine games played since the opening day of the 2017-18 season (Nov. 10, 2017), when conference teams went a combined 9-0.

• Big Ten Conference programs now have a 30-4 (.882) combined record this season, prevailing by an average margin of 28.5 points per game, with half (15) of those 30 victories coming by at least 30 points. Highlighting the early success for the Big Ten are a pair of wins over top-10 foe Tennessee, with Ohio State prevailing 87-85 on Nov. 8 and Indiana winning 79-67 on Monday. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Big Ten Conference schools have gone a combined 298-93 (.762) in non-conference regular-season games, the best stretch in conference history.

• Although many of the Big Ten’s wins to date this season have featured large margins, a handful have gone down to the wire and one has gone to overtime, with Iowa prevailing at Drake, 92-86 on Sunday. Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Big Ten teams are a combined 16-5 (.762) when going to overtime in non-conference regular season games and have won 11 of their last 13 OT contests against outside opposition.

• Ohio State senior guard Jacy Sheldon piled up a career-high (and school record-tying) 11 steals Sunday in the Buckeyes’ win at Boston College. It tied for the fourth-most steals ever by a Big Ten player and most since Nov. 14, 2014, when Northwestern’s Ashley Deary had 11 steals at Chicago State. It was the third time this season a Big Ten player had eight or more steals in a game — Sheldon had eight on Nov. 8 vs. No. 5/4 Tennessee, while Penn State’s Leilani Kapinus had nine in the Lady Lions’ win over Fairfield on Nov. 11.

• On Nov. 11, the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame unveiled the 12 finalists for the Class of 2023 induction class. Among that group at two Big Ten Conference legends — former Purdue head coach Carolyn Peck, who led the Boilermakers to their first NCAA national championship in 1999, and current Minnesota head coach/former All-America guard Lindsay Whalen, who guided the Golden Gophers to their first NCAA Final Four berth in 2004 and was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame back in September. This year’s Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame induction class will be announced Nov. 27 live on ABC at halftime of the Phil Knight Invitational championship game. There have been 12 enshrinees with Big Ten ties, with the most recent being former Ohio State All-America guard Katie Smith in 2018.

• The Big Ten Network announced its Nov. 8 broadcast of No. 14/15 Ohio State defeating No. 5/4 Tennessee drew 100,498 viewers, ranking as the second-most watched women’s basketball non-conference game in BTN history. The only higher-drawing game took place on Dec. 21, 2016, when 141,041 viewers tuned in for Nebraska’s matchup with UConn at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

• The Big Ten Conference has rolled out a robust women’s basketball television package for the 2022-23 season, with all 126 conference games nationally produced and distributed for the ninth consecutive season. All told, no less than 76 Big Ten women’s basketball games are scheduled to be televised nationally by three of the conference’s TV partners (Big Ten Network, FOX and ESPN). Included in this year’s Big Ten television package are 62 games on BTN, nine games on ESPN networks (highlighted by the first regular-season Big Ten women’s basketball game on ABC on Dec. 11 when Maryland hosts UConn), and five games on FOX or FS1, the first time the conference package has includes games on the FOX broadcast network (and the third consecutive year Big Ten games will air on FS1).

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference

bigten.org

 

[Bfan]

Winners for 2023 recruiting has been announced. Big Ten teams making the list are:

10. USC (Big Ten in 2024)

11. Maryland

22. Michigan

23. Indiana

24. Purdue

Last season, Minnesota was the highest ranked Big Ten team at #10. Other Big Ten teams making the list last year were Iowa and Michigan.

South Carolina and Notre Dame up, Stanford and NC State down: Ranking the top women's basketball recruiting classes

South Carolina, Notre Dame and USC made big splashes during the early signing period to move inside the top 10.

www.espn.com

 

[Bfan]

Indiana Women's Basketball: Teri Moren Named ESPN Coach of the Week

"...after a 5-0 start and a diverse lineup complete with veterans, transfers and freshmen rotations."

Indiana Women's Basketball: Teri Moren Named ESPN Coach of the Week

The Indiana women's basketball program announced head coach Teri Moren was named the ESPN Coach of the Week on Monday after a 5-0 start and a diverse lineup complete with veterans, transfers and freshmen rotations.

www.si.com

 

[Bfan]

In the AP Top 25 College Poll

Ohio State jump up 4 spots to #4.

Indiana jumps up 6 spots to #6.

Iowa dropped 5 spots to #9.

Maryland jumped up 5 spots to #14.

Michigan is up 1 spot to #22.

Minnesota Gophers will enter the Top 25 probably next year if the defense is at least middle of the pack in the Big Ten.

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

 

[Bfan]

Big, big news in the big-time Big Ten conference.

For two weeks in a row a Minnesota Gopher freshman won Big Ten Freshman Player of the Week.

First point guard Mara Braun last week and then power forward Mallory Heyer this week.

Congrats to Braun and Heyer -- and to the Gophers for a stellar rookie class!