Big Ten Weekly Women's Basketball Central - Jan. 13-19

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Big Ten Statistics | NCAA Statistics | National Top 25 Polls (Jan. 12-13)

Big Ten Weekly Release - Jan. 13

Big Ten. Big News.

• The final nonconference matchups of the 2025-26 regular season will take place Monday at the Coretta Scott King Classic in Newark, N.J. No. 14/15 Ohio State is set to face No. 10/8 TCU at 12 p.m. ET before No. 8/7 Michigan and No. 5 Vanderbilt meet at 2:30 p.m. ET. Both games will air on FOX.
• Heading into this week, Iowa and UCLA sit atop the conference standings at 5-0. Three teams are currently tied with a 5-1 mark – Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.
• Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge was tabbed as the Associated Press National Player of the Week and one of five Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) on Tuesday. The sophomore scored a career-high 41 points with six rebounds, six assists and two steals in a win at Illinois. She became the first Buckeye since Kelsey Mitchell in 2016 to score 40 points against a Big Ten opponent and is just the fourth player in program history to score at least 40 points in a game. Cambridge had a game-high 28 points in Ohio State’s first top-10 victory of the season at No. 8 Maryland. She notched a career-best nine rebounds and tied her career mark with eight assists against the Terps. Cambridge, who was named the conference’s player of the week and the Naismith Player of the Week on Monday, is the first Big Ten player to be recognized by the Associated Press this season.
• Fellow Buckeye Kylee Kitts was recognized at the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after pacing her squad in field goal percentage (.579) and three-point percentage (.667) during a 2-0 week. Kitts tallied 10 points and five rebounds at Illinois. Against No. 8 Maryland, she matched her career mark with 18 points and added eight rebounds, three assists and a steal.
• The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in assists (17.0 apg), field goal percentage (.458), three-point field goal percentage (.339) and free throw percentage (.732), while ranking second in scoring (77.3 ppg).
• Through games on Jan. 12, the Big Ten boasts nine teams in the top 25 and 12 in the top 50 of the NCAA’s NET Rankings, the top marks among all conferences. UCLA paces the Big Ten contingent at No. 2, followed by No. 6 Michigan, No. 7 Michigan State, No. 12 Maryland, No. 14 Minnesota, No. 15 Iowa, No. 19 Nebraska, No. 22 Ohio State, No. 24 Oregon, No. 28 USC, No. 32 Illinois and No. 34 Washington.
• This week’s Associated Press (AP) poll featured eight teams from the Big Ten. UCLA moved up to No. 3 and was joined by No. 8 Michigan, No. 11 Iowa, No. 12 Maryland, No. 14 Ohio State, No. 15 Michigan State, No. 24 Nebraska and No. 25 Illinois. Minnesota, Washington, USC and Oregon received votes.
• Six programs made an appearance in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today Top 25 poll – No. 3 UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, No. 11 Maryland, No. 13 Iowa, No. 14 Michigan State and No. 15 Ohio State. Illinois, Nebraska, USC, Washington, Oregon and Minnesota garnered votes.
• Illinois currently leads the nation shooting 83.3 percent from the free throw line while Minnesota has the top scoring defense (51.8).
• The Big Ten has multiple individuals leading the country in statistical categories, including Northwestern’s Carolina Lau with 9.3 assists per game and Penn State’s Gracie Merkle in field goal percentage (.746). Ohio State’s Kennedy Cambridge’s steals per game (4.12) ranks second nationally.
• Offensive production continues to be the calling card of the Big Ten Conference. The league has nine teams ranked in the top 25 in field goal percentage – UCLA (5th – .508), Michigan State (7th – .502), Nebraska (8th – .501), Iowa (10th – .491), Maryland (14th – .481), Michigan (19th – .473), Indiana (21st – .470), Oregon (23rd – .469) and Penn State (25th – .467).
• Sharing the rock comes naturally for the Big Ten with eight teams featured in the top 25 rankings for assists per game, including three in the top 10 – UCLA (3rd – 22.1), Iowa (5th – 20.8), Michigan State (9th – 19.4), Nebraska (12th – 19.0), Ohio State (17th – 18.7), Northwestern (21st – 18.2), Oregon (22nd – 18.2) and Maryland (23rd – 18.2).
• Illinois equaled its best 17-game start in program history (14-3) with a 92-76 road victory at Penn State.
• Maryland’s 47-point win over Rutgers, 88-41, was the program’s third-largest margin of victory in a conference game since joining the Big Ten. The Terps shot 16-of-25 (64%) from three-point range, the highest shooting percentage from beyond the arc in a Big Ten game with at least 25 attempts in program history.
• Minnesota rallied back from a 13-point deficit to defeat No. 21 USC on Sunday. It marked the first ranked win since 2019 for the Golden Gophers.
• Caroline Lau dished out a career-high 16 assists versus Rutgers to tie Northwestern’s single-game record.
• Madison Layden-Zay broke Purdue’s record for career three-pointers (246) in an upset of No. 23 Washington, the first ranked home win for the program since the 2018-19 season.
• The Big Ten has posted a 169-32 (.841) combined record in non-conference play, which ranks second behind the SEC (195-24, .890) and ahead of the Big 12 (156-38, .804) and ACC (144-71, .670).
• Big Ten Conference Deputy Commissioner and Michigan women’s basketball great Diane Dietz was honored Jan. 11 with the lifting of her No. 21 jersey into the rafters at the Crisler Center. Dietz, who competed in Maize and Blue from 1979-82, was the program’s first 2,000-point scorer, a record that stood for more than 30 years. She still ranks fourth all-time in scoring with 2,076 points, a feat she achieved before the addition of the three-point line to the women’s game. Dietz is also second all-time in 30-point games (11) and in field goals made (940) and is only one of two players with at least 900 makes. She graduated as the Wolverines’ all-time leader in steals (229), a mark that currently ranks fourth in program history. Dietz was also a standout in the classroom and is one of only two Michigan student-athletes to have been inducted into the Academic All-America Hall of Fame (2009). The three-time Academic All-American was the first female recipient of the Big Ten Medal of Honor in 1982, which is considered the most prestigious honor a Big Ten student-athlete can receive. Dietz was inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Fame in 1996 and is a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame after her induction in 2019.
• HISTORY. MADE. The Big Ten is the first conference to ever have nine teams ranked in three different Associated Press (AP) polls in a single season – Dec. 8, Dec. 15 and Jan. 5. The Big Ten has had nine programs ranked in the AP poll four times, first achieved on Dec. 2, 2024, and is the only conference to have nine ranked teams since 1996.
• The 2025-26 season will be the final ride for storied Northwestern head coach Joe McKeown, who announced on March 24 that he intends to retire at the conclusion of season. McKeown is the longest-tenured and winningest head women’s basketball coach in Northwestern history. This is his 18th season in Evanston and his 40th season overall as a head coach.
• Each Big Ten institution will play an 18-game conference schedule for the seventh time in eight seasons. During the conference season, each program will play one school both home and away, while facing 16 teams once. Of the single-play opponents, institutions will face eight at home and eight on the road.
• The 2026 Allstate Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament is set for March 4-8 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, marking the 27th time the tournament will be played in Circle City. Fifteen teams will qualify for the tournament, with three first-round games slated for Wednesday, March 4 on Peacock. The second-round, quarterfinal and semifinal contests on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will be carried on the Big Ten Network. CBS will broadcast the championship game for the third year in a row on Sunday.