Big Ten Weekly Women's Basketball Central - Jan. 19-22

BIG TEN WOMEN'S BASKETBALL | BIG TEN STANDINGS | BIG TEN SCHEDULE & RESULTS

2023-24 BIG TEN STATISTICS (XML) | 2023-24 BIG TEN STATISTICS (PDF) | 2023-24 BIG TEN MEDIA GUIDE

NCAA STATISTICS | NATIONAL TOP 25 POLLS (JAN. 15-16)

BIG TEN WEEKLY RELEASE - JAN. 19

Six games are slated to take place over Saturday and Sunday for the Big Ten Conference. NBC will televise its first-ever Big Ten women’s basketball game on Sunday when No. 2 Iowa battles No. 18/15 Ohio State at 12 p.m. ET. The action continues with Purdue hosting No. 16 Indiana at 2 p.m. ET on Peacock. The remaining four games on the docket will be streamed live on B1G+ (visit bigtenplus.com for more information).
Rashunda Jones had a career-high 23 points and went 10-for-12 at the charity stripe against Penn State. She is the first Purdue rookie to have a 20-point game against a Big Ten opponent since the 2017-18 season. Jones joined KK Houser as the only Purdue freshmen since 2009-10 to make 10 free throws in a game.
Mackenzie Holmes recorded 32 points on 15-of-17 shooting from the field against Minnesota. Her 15 made field goals tied for third all-time in a single game at Indiana.
With 32 points against Wisconsin, Cailtin Clark became the NCAA’s fourth all-time leading scorer with 3,306 points, surpassing Baylor’s Brittany Griner. Clark is just 97 points shy of overtaking Kelsey Mitchell for the No. 1 spot on the Big Ten Conference’s all-time scorers list.
Coming off a 96-68 win over Rutgers, Illinois has scored at least 90 points in its last two games, the first time doing so in consecutive Big Ten contests since the 1998-99 season.
Ohio State handed Maryland its first home loss of the season with an 84-76 victory. It was the Buckeyes’ first win in College Park since Jan. 2, 2016.
Iowa is off to its best start under head coach Lisa Bluder’s tenure at 18-1 overall. The last time the Hawkeyes started 18-1 was during the 1995-96 season. The squad also has a 7-0 mark in conference play for the first time since the 1995-96 campaign.
The Big Ten leads all Division I conferences with a remarkable 10 schools among the top 50 in the latest NET rankings (including four in the top 20, second behind the Pac-12) – No. 5 Iowa, No. 11 Indiana, No. 15 Ohio State, No. 18 Michigan State, No. 28 Maryland, No. 29 Nebraska, No. 31 Penn State, No. 36 Minnesota, No. 44 Michigan and No. 50 Illinois. 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.
The Big Ten has four teams making an appearance in this week’s Associated Press (AP) Top 25 poll. In the latest media survey, Iowa moves up to No. 2, its highest ranking since Nov. 13. Indiana drops to 16th, Ohio State falls to 18th and Michigan State is receiving votes for the seventh consecutive week.
The Big Ten has five programs in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today Top 25 poll. Iowa gains a spot to come in second (first time back at No. 2 since Nov. 14), Ohio State rises to No. 15 and Indiana is down three spots to 16th. Michigan State and Maryland are receiving votes.
Offensive production continues to be the story for the Big Ten Conference as 10 different schools (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State and Penn State) have scored 100 points in at least one game this season. Five Big Ten teams are averaging more than 80 points per game to ensure multiple national top 25 scoring offenses reside in the Big Ten, led by Iowa (3rd – 90.8), Michigan State (5th – 88.5), Penn State (6th – 87.2), Ohio State (16th – 81.5) and Maryland (21st – 80.4).
The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in scoring (76.0 ppg), three-point percentage (.350), free throw percentage (.739) and assists (16.5 apg), while ranking second in field goal percentage (.454) among Autonomy Five conferences.
With a 1.84 assist/turnover ratio, Michigan State sits at No. 1 in the NCAA’s national statistical rankings. Indiana (9th – 1.48) and Iowa (12th –1.45) are also included in the top 15. Individually, DeeDee Hagemann (MSU) has a 3.13 ratio, which places her eighth, and Chloe Moore-McNeil (IND) comes in 13th at 2.86.
The Big Ten features some of the best shooting teams in the country with four programs among the top 15, including three in the top 10, in field goal percentage. Indiana ranks third at 51.4 percent, followed by Penn State (6th – .509), Iowa (7th – .507) and Michigan State (14th – .484). Penn State is also efficient from beyond the arc, ranking second in the nation with a 41.5 three-point percentage while Indiana checks in at 10th with 38.7 percent.
Big Ten teams have been passing the rock quite well this season as five programs rank in the top 20 in the country in assists, led by Iowa (6th – 20.4), Michigan State (8th – 20.2), Indiana (15th – 19.1), Penn State (18th – 18.7) and Northwestern (20th – 18.5). A trio of Big Ten players rank among the top 25 nationally in assists – Iowa’s Caitlin Clark (2nd – 7.7 apg), Northwestern’s Caroline Lau (19th – 6.0 apg) and Purdue’s Jeanae Terry (25th – 5.6 apg).
Individually, Caitlin Clark (IOWA) leads the country in points (589), points per game (31.0) and assists (147). Serah Williams (WIS) and Julia Ayrault (MSU) are fifth (3.20) and 17th (2.41), respectively, in blocks per game. Mackenzie Holmes (IND) is shooting 67 percent from the field to rank third in field goal percentage, followed by Hannah Stuelke (IOWA) and Kendall Bostic (ILL), both with a 64.4 clip to stand eighth. Mara Braun (MINN) has the best free throw percentage (94.6) in the nation.
The Big Ten has consistently ranked among the top three conferences in women’s basketball attendance for the past three decades and that trend has continued into the 2023-24 season. Currently, 12 Big Ten schools rank among the top 50 in the nation in average attendance, including six in the top 20, with both figures leading all Division I conferences. Iowa is second nationally in attendance (14,998 fans per game), followed by Indiana (6th – 8,828), Maryland (10th – 6,716), Purdue (13th – 5,942), Ohio State (14th – 5,668) and Nebraska (15th – 5,526).
The Big Ten closed its non-conference slate with a combined 114-41 (.735) record. Among the 114 victories, five were over AP Top 25 opponents.
The 2023-24 schedule marks the most coverage on nationally distributed platforms in Big Ten women’s basketball history. Six Big Ten regular-season games will be televised on a broadcast platform, the most in conference history. NBC will televise its first-ever Big Ten women’s basketball game on Jan. 21 when Iowa visits Ohio State at 12 p.m. ET. Peacock carried its first Big Ten women’s basketball broadcast on Jan. 2, a thriller between Michigan State and Iowa.
No. 16/13 Ohio State claimed a landmark non-conference 78-58 win at No. 20/22 Tennessee. It was just the second time in Tennessee’s history that the Lady Vols have lost in Thompson-Boling Arena by at least 20 points. Ohio State is only the second Big Ten Conference program to defeat Tennessee in Knoxville, joining Indiana. It was the first time in conference history that the Big Ten has posted multiple wins over Tennessee in back-to-back years – Ohio State and Indiana both claimed victories over the Lady Vols during the 2022-23 season – and has won five of its last six matchups with Tennessee.
No. 21/19 Indiana secured an impressive non-conference 71-57 victory over No. 19/21 Tennessee on Nov. 23. It was the second time in as many years that the Hoosiers have bested the Lady Vols and the largest margin of victory (14) in the four-game all-time series. Last year’s Hoosier win was the first time a Big Ten Conference school defeated Tennessee in Thompson-Boling Arena. The matchup scored 1,118,000 viewers to rank as FOX’s most-watched women’s college basketball game ever and the most watched regular season women’s college basketball game on any network since last season’s 1,466,000 viewers for LSU vs. South Carolina on ESPN.