• This week’s Big Ten schedule tips off Thursday with six games on the docket, including a pair of nationally-televised contests on Big Ten Network and the FOX Sports app, as No. 12/11 Maryland visits No. 25 Ohio State (6 p.m. ET) and No. 25 Iowa travels to Minnesota (8 p.m. ET). Thursday’s other four conference games will be broadcast live on B1G+ (head to bigtenplus.com for more information).
• Michigan improved to 4-1 against Top 25 teams this season with its 69-49 win at No. 8/8 Maryland on Sunday afternoon. The Wolverines not only captured their first-ever victory in College Park (snapping the Terrapins’ 31-game homecourt winning streak in the process), but also picked up their second top-10 win of the season (both away from Crisler Center), having dispatched No. 5/5 Baylor. 74-68 in overtime on Dec. 19 at the Basketball Hall of Fame Showcase inside Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.
• For the first time in school history, No. 6/5 Indiana is 6-0 in Big Ten play, remaining atop the conference standings following Sunday’s 73-68 overtime win at in-state rival Purdue. The Hoosiers, whose previous best conference start was a 4-0 debut in 2019-20, have won nine in a row overall and have held all 16 opponents this season to fewer than 70 points (their opponent high came in a narrow 69-66 loss to defending national champion Stanford on Nov. 25 at the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Classic in the Bahamas).
• Ohio State has an opportunity to become the second Big Ten women’s basketball program in a week to record its 450th regular-season conference victory when the Buckeyes play host to Maryland Thursday night. OSU is 449-216 (.675) all-time in Big Ten games since women’s basketball was incorporated in 1982. Iowa reached the 450-win milestone on Jan. 13 with a 79-66 victory at Purdue and is 451-233 (.659) all-time in conference play.
• Wisconsin collected its first conference win of the season (and first for new head coach Marisa Moseley), as well as its first Big Ten road victory in nearly two seasons on Sunday, defeating Rutgers, 49-45. The Badgers last earned a road win in conference play on Feb. 2, 2020 (73-64 at Illinois) and won at Rutgers for the first time in six career trips to the Garden State.
• The Big Ten ranks among the national leaders with five teams among the Top 25 in one or both major national polls. No. 6/5 Indiana leads the way (sporting the highest coaches’ poll ranking in school history for the second consecutive week), followed by No. 8/8 Michigan and No. 12/11 Maryland. Iowa is No. 25 in the AP poll, while Ohio State holds that same spot in the WBCA/USA Today poll, with both receiving votes in the other poll. In addition, Nebraska is receiving votes in the coaches’ poll this week.
• The Big Ten has consistently been among the national conference leaders with four schools in the top 25 and six in the top 30 of Tuesday’s NET (NCAA Evaluation Tool) rankings. Indiana leads the Big Ten contingent at No. 9, followed by No. 13 Nebraska, No. 18 Maryland and No. 22 Michigan. Ohio State and Iowa are just outside the Top 25, with the Buckeyes at No. 26 and the Hawkeyes at No. 28.
• The Big Ten was among the national leaders with six players on last week’s ESPN midseason ranking of the nation’s 25 players (and five more receiving votes) — the Big Ten tied for top honors with three in the top 10 and four in the top 15 and second nationally with its six Top 25 selections. Those Big Ten players in the Top 25 includes No. 3 Caitlin Clark (Iowa), No. 5 Naz Hillmon (Michigan), No. 10 Ashley Owusu (Maryland), No. 12 Angel Reese (Maryland), No. 21 Mackenzie Holmes (Indiana) and No. 22 Nia Clouden (Michigan State). Those receiving votes included Grace Berger (Indiana), Veronica Burton (Northwestern), Taylor Mikesell (Ohio State), Diamond Miller (Maryland) and Jaz Shelley (Nebraska).
• Iowa’s Caitlin Clark tied a Big Ten record with her third triple-double this season on Sunday night against Nebraska, finishing with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. Clark matches the single-season conference mark first set by another Hawkeye, Samantha Logic, in 2014-15, and duplicated last year by Indiana’s Grace Berger. Clark now has four career triple-doubles, second-most in Big Ten history behind Logic (6 from 2011-15), and tops among all active Division I players (Berger is second with her three career triple-doubles).
• Clark’s triple-double on Sunday was also the sixth by a Big Ten player this season (one each for Nebraska’s Jaz Shelley, Penn State’s Makenna Marisa and Purdue’s Jeanae Terry). The Big Ten accounts for 30 percent of the triple-doubles in Division I this year (6 of 20), while Clark herself has as many triple-doubles (3) as the next closest Division I conferences (the SEC and MAC have three) and is one of two players nationwide with multiple triple-doubles this year (Fresno State’s Haley Cavinder has two).
• Northwestern’s Veronica Burton has 28 steals (5.6 per game) in the Wildcats’ first five conference outings this year, putting her on pace to obliterate the Big Ten records for total steals and steals per game in a conference season. Wisconsin’s Keisha Anderson holds both single-season steals records during Big Ten play with 76 steals in 16 games (4.8 per game) in 1996. Overall, Burton ranks third in the nation this year (first among Autonomy Five players) with 4.25 steals per game, and she is ninth in Big Ten history with 345 career steals.
• The Big Ten has developed a reputation in recent seasons for a high-scoring, exciting brand of basketball, something that has continued this year, with four of the nation’s top 11 scoring offenses (all averaging better than 80 ppg.) residing in the conference — Ohio State (4th – 83.6 ppg.), Iowa (7th – 81.9 ppg.), Nebraska (8th – 81.4 ppg.) and Maryland (11th – 81.3 ppg.). By comparison, only one conference has more than one school ranking among the nation’s top 11 scoring offenses (the Sun Belt has three).
• Iowa currently features the nation’s leading scorer on both the women’s and men’s sides in Caitlin Clark (25.6 ppg.) and Keegan Murray (23.9). Since the NCAA incorporated women’s basketball in 1982, no school has finished a season with the top scorer in both women’s and men’s basketball. What’s more, Clark, who was the country’s leading scorer last year, is contending to be the fifth Big Ten player in the last eight seasons to lead that category (Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell was No. 1 in 2015-16, while Iowa’s Megan Gustafson took top scoring honors in both 2017-18 and 2018-19, with that being the only time in NCAA history an Autonomy Five conference women’s basketball program has ever had the nation’s leading scorer in consecutive seasons).
• Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano each scored 31 points Sunday in the Hawkeyes’ 93-83 win over Nebraska. For Clark, it was her conference-leading fourth 30-point game this year, one more than fellow Big Ten Player of the Week honoree, Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon, who had 30+ points in both OSU games last week (career-high 33 vs. Michigan State on Jan. 12; 32 at Minnesota on Jan. 15). There have been 17 30-point games in the conference this year, including a school-record 50 points (tying for third-most in Big Ten history) by Michigan State’s Nia Clouden on Dec. 20 against (now) nationally-ranked FGCU.
• The Big Ten also features some of the most versatile guards in the country. Only six players nationwide have at least eight assists and five rebounds in a game this season, and three of those are from the Big Ten. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is tied for the national lead with seven such games, while Minnesota’s Jasmine Powell (5) is tied for third in the country, and Purdue’s Jeanae Terry (4) is tied for fifth.
• The Big Ten leads all Division I conferences in field-goal percentage (.438), while ranking second in scoring (72.0 ppg.) and three-point field-goal percentage (.337), and third in free throw percentage (.729), with the latter fueled by Iowa’s nation-leading .867 mark from the stripe. Iowa’s free-throw percentage is on pace to break the NCAA Division I record set last year by Milwaukee (.838) and would easily surpass the Big Ten record the Hawkeyes set last year (.800).
• The Big Ten leads the nation with six teams in the top 25 and 10 in the top 40 of Tuesday’s NCAA attendance report. Iowa is the top Big Ten team in the current rankings at No. 9 (6,151 fans/game), followed by Maryland (10th – 5,050), Nebraska (14th – 4,373) and Indiana (19th – 3,940). Michigan State is 22nd (3,600), with Purdue at No. 25 (3,294), Minnesota at No. 27 (3,090), Ohio State 31st (2,895), Michigan 32nd (2,881) and Wisconsin at No. 38 (2,492).
• On Jan. 4, the Big Ten Network debuted its latest documentary “The B1G Story: Naz Hillmon”, spotlighting the many accomplishments on and off the court by the Wolverines’ All-America forward and the reigning Big Ten Player of the Year (the first Wolverine ever to earn that honor). The documentary, the first of its kind to feature a Big Ten women’s basketball player, will re-air several times in the coming weeks (check local listings for broadcast times and availability).
• On Nov. 29, the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 announced a joint initiative entitled “Teammates for Mental Health,” which is designed to raise awareness about the importance of mental health and wellness among their more than 27,000 student athletes. This initiative builds upon the work all three conferences continue to dedicate toward mental health, including the creation of dedicated task forces and cabinets comprised of mental health professionals on campuses at the 41 world-class institutions that comprise the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12. The Alliance officially tipped off Teammates for Mental Health during the Big Ten/ACC Women’s and Men’s Basketball Challenges last month, along with Alliance basketball matchups during the regular season across all three conferences. These Alliance matchups – and others throughout the 2021-22 ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 college athletics seasons – will highlight the importance of mental health and wellness.
2021-22 Women’s Basketball Standings
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