• The Big Ten Conference title race is incredibly tight, with four teams (Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Ohio State) in a virtual tie for first place and a fifth (Iowa) just one game back entering the final two weeks of the regular season.
• The Big Ten Network and the FOX Sports app will have full coverage of the closing weeks of the conference season, broadcasting seven games within the next week alone. That includes a tripleheader on Sunday, as well as doubleheaders on both Thursday and Monday, Feb. 21, with at least one matchup of Top 25 teams on all three days.
• Nebraska captured its second top-10 win of the season on Monday with its victory over No. 5/6 Indiana in Lincoln. It marks the second time in program history the Huskers have defeated multiple top-10 opponents in the same season — in 2009-10, Nebraska earned three top-10 victories on the way to a Big 12 Conference title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
• Northwestern defeated its highest-ranked opponent in more than 40 years on Sunday with its 71-69 double-overtime win over No. 4/4 Michigan. It was the second highest-ranked victory in program history behind only a 75-58 win over No. 3 Long Beach State on Jan. 16, 1982, also in Evanston.
• Wisconsin set a Big Ten record on Sunday, rallying from a 22-point deficit to edge Purdue, 54-52 in Madison. It was the largest comeback victory ever in a conference game, supplanting the Badgers’ own 20-point rally at Michigan on Feb. 28, 2008. Wisconsin’s comeback was also the second-largest in Big Ten history for any game, topped only by Iowa’s 24-point rally to defeat West Virginia on Nov. 23, 2018.
• With Sunday’s win over No. 4/4 Michigan, Northwestern’s Joe McKeown became the 15th coach in conference history (sixth active, including Rutgers’ C. Vivian Stringer, who is not coaching this year) to record 100 regular-season conference victories. McKeown is 100-134 (.427) in his 14 seasons at NU. Michigan’s Kim Barnes Arico (97 wins) is next up to reach the 100 conference wins milestone.
• Michigan’s Naz Hillmon became the fourth 2,000-point scorer in program history with her 16 points in Sunday’s double-overtime loss at Northwestern. Hillmon now has 2,004 points, making her the 35th player in Big Ten history to score 2,000 career points. She is now 26 rebounds shy of 1,000 for her career, which would make her the 26th conference player (and first in school history) to hit that mark. Should she reach the latter milestone, Hillmon would be the eighth player in Big Ten history with 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds in her career.
• Michigan was the No. 5 national seed and Indiana was the No. 8 national seed in the second of three NCAA Women’s Basketball Committee regular-season top-16 seed reveals on Feb. 10. Both teams had also appeared in the first reveal back on Jan. 27, when Indiana was No. 6 and Michigan was No. 9. The last of the three regular-season top-16 seed reveals is slated for Feb. 28 before the official 68-team NCAA Tournament field is unveiled on Selection Sunday, March 13 (8 p.m. ET on ESPN).
• The Big Ten is among the national conference leaders with six teams in the top 30 (and five of the top 25) in Tuesday’s NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings. Maryland leads the Big Ten contingent at No. 14, followed by No. 15 Michigan, No. 17 Indiana, No. 18 Nebraska, No. 22 Iowa and No. 28 Ohio State.
• All-session and single-session tickets for the 2022 Big Ten Tournament presented by TIAA are now on sale for the 29th annual event that will be played March 2-6 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Tickets may be purchased through the respective school ticket offices, as well as the Gainbridge Fieldhouse box office or online at Ticketmaster.com, while media members should contact Chris Masters in the Big Ten Communications office to gather details on applying for credentials. For more on this year’s tournament, visit the official Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament web site at bigten.org/WBBT.
• The Big Ten ranks among the national leaders with five teams in the Top 25 in both of the latest major national polls. No. 5/6 Indiana leads the way, followed by No. 9/9 Michigan, No. 13/13 Maryland, No. 18/19 Ohio State and No. 22/25 Iowa. Nebraska is also receiving votes in both current polls.
• With Michigan’s No. 4 ranking last week, this is the second season in Big Ten women’s basketball history (first in nearly 30 years) the conference has had three top-five teams in the same campaign. In 1992-93, Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State were all in the top five at some point, with the Hawkeyes and Buckeyes reaching the NCAA Final Four (and OSU playing for the national title).
• As of Tuesday, 19 NCAA Division I players are averaging 20 points per game this season, and six of those play in the Big Ten. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark leads the country in scoring (27.2 ppg.), with Penn State’s Makenna Marisa currently eighth (22.4 ppg.) and Michigan State’s Nia Clouden is 12th (20.9 ppg.). Michigan’s Naz Hillmon is 14th (20.6 ppg.), Iowa’s Monika Czinano is 17th (20.1 ppg.) and Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon is 18th (20.1 ppg.). No other conference has more than half that many 20-point scorers this season (the MAC is next with three), and collectively, the Autonomy Five conferences, plus the BIG EAST, have only four 20-point scorers.
• The Big Ten has four of the nation’s top 12 scoring offenses (and three of the only seven in the country averaging better than 80 ppg.) residing in the conference — Iowa (3rd – 84.0 ppg.), Ohio State (4th – 82.2 ppg.), Maryland (7th – 80.4 ppg.) and Nebraska (12th – 78.3 ppg.). Only two other conferences have multiple schools among the nation’s top 12 scoring offenses (the Big 12 and Sun Belt have two apiece).
• When it comes to shooting percentages, the Big Ten also sets the pace. Iowa is first and Ohio State fourth nationally in field-goal percentage (Iowa at .494, Ohio State at .474), leading four conference schools in the top 20 in that category (Michigan is 15th at .457, Indiana is 18th at .456) — no other conference has more than two in the top 20 (the ACC, BIG EAST, OVC and SEC each have two). OSU also is the national leader in three-point percentage (.400), while Iowa is tops in free-throw percentage (.848).
• The Big Ten leads all conferences in scoring (71.0 ppg.), field-goal percentage (.434) and three-point field-goal percentage (.341), while ranking third in free throw percentage (.733; tops among Autonomy Five conferences), with the latter fueled by Iowa’s nation-leading .848 mark from the stripe. Iowa’s free-throw percentage is on pace to break the Division I record set last year by Milwaukee (.838) and would surpass the Big Ten record the Hawkeyes set last year (.800).
• 12 Big Ten players are on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) Wade Trophy Midseason Watch List (nearly one-third of that 37-player list, the most of any conference — the SEC is closest with seven), with seven on the Naismith Trophy Midseason Team, five on the John R. Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 List, and multiple conference standouts on nearly every position-based award finalist chart, as well as the Senior CLASS Award finalist list.
• The Big Ten leads the nation with five teams in the top 25 and 10 in the top 35 of Tuesday’s NCAA attendance report. Iowa is the top Big Ten team at No. 8 (6,806 fans/game), followed by Maryland (11th – 4,965), Nebraska (19th – 4,234) and Indiana (20th – 4,076). Michigan State is 23rd (3,556), with Minnesota at No. 27 (3,215), Purdue at No. 28 (3,207), Ohio State 30th (3,077), Wisconsin at No. 32 (2,955) and Michigan 33rd (2,910). In addition, Monday’s Maryland-Iowa game at Carver-Hawkeye Arena drew a Big Ten season-high 9.820 fans.
• Five Big Ten alums played key roles in the United States, Canada and Nigeria advancing to the FIBA World Cup (Sept. 22-Oct. 1 in Sydney, Australia) following FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournaments this weekend in Washington, D.C. (USA), Osaka, Japan (Canada) and Belgrade, Serbia (Nigeria). Maryland graduates Brionna Jones and Alyssa Thomas joined Ohio State graduate Kelsey Mitchell in pacing the United States to wins over Belgium and Puerto Rico. Michigan State graduate Shay Colley was an important contributor to Canada’s win over Bosnia-Herzegovina and its OT loss to host Japan, while Northwestern graduate Pallas Kunaiyi-Akpanah was part of Nigeria’s qualifying team that defeated France and Mali.
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