Big Ten Weekly Women's Basketball Central - Nov. 6-12

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

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NCAA STATISTICS | NATIONAL TOP 25 POLLS (PRESEASON)

BIG TEN WEEKLY RELEASE - NOV. 6

Coming off a record-tying season that saw seven Big Ten schools receive berths into the 2023 NCAA Tournament, a record-setting three teams (Iowa, Maryland and Ohio State) advance to the Elite Eight and Iowa reach the national championship game for the first time in program history, the Big Ten is primed to build off of last season's triumphs. The 43rd season of Big Ten women's basketball tips off Monday with seven schools taking the court and all 14 schools making their season debuts by Thursday evening. All but two Big Ten teams will begin the season on their home courts, with Ohio State facing USC in Las Vegas and Purdue visiting UCLA, both on Monday.
The Big Ten Conference has five Top 25 teams, including three in the top 10, in both the Associated Press (AP) and Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today preseason polls. Iowa leads the AP balloting at No. 3, followed No. 7 Ohio State, No. 9 Indiana, No. 14 Maryland and No. 23 Illinois with Nebraska receiving votes. In the WBCA/USA Today poll, Iowa is once again ranked third, Ohio State is sixth, Indiana is ninth, Maryland is 11th and Michigan is tied for 25th with Nebraska and Illinois garnering votes.
The opening week of the 2023-24 season features several high-quality matchups, including No. 7/6 Ohio State versus No. 21/21 USC in the Naismith Hall of Fame Series on Monday (2 p.m. ET on TruTV) and No. 3/3 Iowa at No. 8/5 Virginia Tech (8 p.m. ET on ESPN2) Thursday. It will be a rematch from last year's Elite Eight when No. 14/11 Maryland travels to No. 6/4 South Carolina (1 p.m. ET on ABC) on Sunday before No. 9/9 Indiana visits No. 15/13 Stanford (5 p.m. ET on ESPN) to close out the first week of action.
Two new head coaches joined the Big Ten for the 2023-24, as Robyn Fralick and Dawn Plitzuweit take the reins at Michigan State and Minnesota, respectively. Fralick spent the last five seasons at Bowling Green, where she went 88-73, including 69 wins and three postseason appearances. Fralick also took Div. II Ashland to back-to-back Div. II championship games. Plitzuweit brings 16 years of head coaching experience and 14 postseason appearances to Minneapolis after going 19-12 in one season at West Virginia. Plitzuweit took South Dakota to the Sweet 16 in 2022 and won the 2006 Div. II National Championship at Grand Valley State.
It’s anticipated that approximately 70 percent of the Big Ten’s first team, second team and honorable mention all-conference honorees from 2022-23 are returning this season (25 of 36). In addition, all four individual reward recipients from last year have returned – Player of the Year (Caitlin Clark, Iowa), Defensive Player of the Year (Mackenzie Holmes, Indiana), Freshman of the Year (Cotie McMahon, Ohio State) and Sixth Player of the Year (Hannah Stuelke, Iowa).
The 2024 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament returns to Minneapolis for the second year in a row and will take place March 6-10 at the Target Center.
Big Ten teams went 144-57 (.716) in non-conference regular season play last season. The conference boasted six teams with 20-plus wins and a conference-record four teams with at least 28 wins. Its seven top 10 victories and 12 top 25 wins led all Div. I conferences.
The Big Ten had five teams ranked in the final major national polls (#2/7 Indiana, #3/2 Iowa, #7/5 Maryland, #18/23 Michigan and #12/6 Ohio State) a season ago. It was the first time in conference history that four teams were ranked in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll and that the Big Ten finished a season with four programs ranked in the top 10 of the WBCA/USA Today coaches’ poll.