B1G Ten Women’s Weekly Awards

Big Ten Weekly Release – Jan. 14

• Another week, another full slate of Big Ten Conference action with 15 games taking place, including eight on national platforms. The remaining games will be streamed live on B1G+ (visit bigtenplus.com for more information).
• Competition begins Tuesday night with a top-25 outing between No. 24/25 Minnesota and No. 8/9 Maryland at 7 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network (and the FOX Sports App). Penn State and No. 1 UCLA will face off at 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday on Peacock. The game has been moved to Long Beach State’s campus due to concerns surrounding the area wildfires in Los Angeles.
• Thursday features a trio of nationally distributed matchups. Two games will tip at 7 p.m. ET – RV Nebraska at RV Iowa on BTN and Illinois at RV/NR Indiana on Peacock. No. 9/8 Ohio State closes out the evening with a 9 p.m. ET showing on Peacock against Wisconsin. Saturday’s doubleheader on BTN starts at 12 p.m. ET when Rutgers visits RV Michigan and concludes with Washington hosting Purdue at 5 p.m. ET. Sunday’s slate is highlighted by a noon ET showdown between No. 4/5 USC and RV/NR Indiana on NBC.
• Heading into this week, USC sits atop the conference standings at 6-0. Ohio State and UCLA both have a 5-0 mark to round out the top tier.
• This week’s Associated Press (AP) poll featured six teams from the Big Ten. UCLA remained in the top spot and was joined by No. 4 USC, No. 8 Maryland, No. 9 Ohio State, No. 22 Michigan State and No. 24 Minnesota. Michigan, Indiana, Nebraska and Iowa received votes. Minnesota is off to its best start in 17 games in program history with a 16-1 record and is ranked for the first time since Dec. 30, 2019.
• The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today poll featured six Big Ten teams this week. UCLA stayed at No. 1, followed by No. 5 USC, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Maryland, No. 22 Michigan State and No. 25 Minnesota. Nebraska, Iowa and Michigan garnered votes.
• USC’s JuJu Watkins was tabbed as one of five Ann Meyers Drysdale National Players of the Week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) on Tuesday and was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Monday. She paced USC in two wins by averaging 28.0 points, 10.0 rebounds, 3.0 steals, 2.5 assists and 2.0 blocks. Watkins tallied 21 points, nine rebounds, two assists, a block and steal in the Trojans’ road victory at No. 8 Maryland. She posted a double-double (35 points, 11 rebounds) with five steals, three blocks and three assists against Penn State. The sophomore has 18 30-point outings in her career, which ranks third all-time at USC behind Cheryl Miller (25) and Cherie Nelson (20).
• Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge earned the first weekly laurel of her career after being tabbed as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week on Monday. She had 29 points, four assists and tied her career mark with six rebounds at No. 25 Michigan and finished with 13 points, four boards and a steal in just over 20 minutes versus Oregon.
• Through Tuesday, three players are averaging at least 20 points per game during conference play – USC’s JuJu Watkins (26.1 ppg), Illinois’ Genesis Bryant (21.8 ppg) and Washington’s Elle Ladine (21.0 ppg). On the boards, a quartet averages at least 10 rebounds per game – Illinois’ Kendall Bostic (11.6 rpg), Maryland’s Saylor Poffenbarger (11.4 rpg), Rutgers’ Destiny Adams (10.8 rpg) and Washington’s Dalayah Daniels (10.8 rpg).
• The Big Ten leads all Division I conferences with 12 teams among the top 40 in the latest NET rankings, including six in the top 25 (which ranks second) – No. 4 UCLA, No. 6 USC, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 19 Maryland, No. 20 Michigan State, No. 24 Michigan, No. 28 Minnesota, No. 33 Iowa, No. 35 Nebraska, No. 36 Oregon, No. 37 Indiana and No. 39 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.
• Purdue currently has the hardest NET strength of schedule in the country. The Boilermakers are joined by USC (12th), Michigan (13th), Nebraska (22nd) and Indiana (24th) with some of the toughest schedules this season based on NET rankings.
• There are only three undefeated Division I teams remaining, two of which reside in the Big Ten – UCLA (16-0) and Ohio State (16-0).
• Individually, the Big Ten has three players ranked in the top 10 in the nation in field goal percentage – Iowa’s Addison O’Grady (4th – 67.6), Penn State’s Gracie Merkle (6th – 64.3) and UCLA’s Lauren Betts (10th – 61.6). USC’s JuJu Watkins is third in the country in total points (433) and points per game (25.5). Illinois’ Kendall Bostic (11.3) and Wisconsin’s Serah Williams (11.2) stand sixth and seventh, respectively, in rebounds per game. Indiana’s Shay Ciezki ranks fourth behind a 95.3 free throw percentage while Iowa’s Taylor McCabe has a 46.8 three-point field goal percentage to come in eighth nationally.
• Offensive production remains the calling card of the Big Ten Conference. The league has six teams averaging more than 80 points per game, all of which are included among the nation’s top 25 scoring offenses – Ohio State (9th – 85.1), USC (10th – 84.7), Michigan State (12th – 83.1), Maryland (14th – 83.1), UCLA (15th – 82.9) and Michigan (21st – 81.0).
• In the latest Massey ratings, the Big Ten is second in the nation among Division I conferences in overall strength, power rating, offensive power to score and strength of schedule for future games.
• The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in assists (16.4 apg) while standing second in field goal percentage (.450), points (75.4 ppg) and rebounds (39.7 rpg).
• 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 2024-25 season. Currently, 14 Big Ten schools rank among the top 50 in the nation in average attendance, including nine in the top 25, with both figures leading all Division I conferences. Iowa is second nationally in attendance (14,998 fans per game), followed by Indiana (4th – 10,536), Maryland (8th – 8,551), Ohio State (13th – 5,987), Nebraska (16th – 5,146), Oregon (17th – 5,120), UCLA (20th – 5,051), USC (22nd – 4,974) and Illinois (24th – 4,829).
• The Big Ten stands second amongst all Division I conferences with 169 non-conference wins so far this season, followed by the ACC (159) and Big 12 (146).
• The Big Ten has faced numerous ranked non-conference opponents this season and has handed out its fair share of upsets – Oregon def. No. 12 Baylor, 76-74; Illinois def. No. 19 Florida State, 83-74; No. 18 Maryland def. No. 11 Duke, 85-80; Indiana def. No. 24 Stanford, 79-66; No. 5 UCLA def. No. 1 South Carolina, 77-62; Indiana def. No. 18 Baylor, 73-65; No. 21 Iowa def. No. 18 Iowa State, 75-69; No. 7 USC def. No. 4 UConn, 72-70.
• On Dec. 2, for the first time in the history of the Big Ten Conference, nine women’s basketball teams were ranked in the Associated Press (AP) poll. The last time any conference had nine teams ranked in the AP poll was in 1996. UCLA remained in the top spot and was joined by No. 6 USC, No. 7 Maryland, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 17 Iowa, No. 21 Illinois, No. 23 Michigan, No. 24 Michigan State and No. 25 Nebraska.
• On Nov. 25, UCLA received 20 first-place votes to overtake South Carolina for the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press (AP) poll. The Bruins handed the Gamecocks their first loss of the season to earn the first No. 1 ranking in program history.
• DOWN GOES NO. 1! In front of a sellout crowd at Pauley Pavilion, No. 5 UCLA took down the defending national champions in No. 1 South Carolina, 77-62, on Nov. 24. The win marked the first victory for the Bruins over a number one ranked opponent in program history and snapped the Gamecocks’ 43-game winning streak. South Carolina hadn’t lost since falling to Iowa in the Final Four of the 2023 NCAA Tournament and it was the first road defeat for the Gamecocks since December 2021.
• Rutgers legend Cappie Pondexter was selected as one of seven inductees into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame as a member of the 2025 class. Pondexter, who was inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame in 2016, led the Scarlet Knights to back-to-back BIG EAST Championships in 2005 and 2006. She was the first player to earn All-BIG EAST First Team laurels four times in the history of the league and ranks third in Rutgers history with 2,211 career points. Pondexter was the second overall pick in the 2006 WNBA Draft by the Phoenix Mercury. She went on to win two WNBA titles with the Mercury, be named Finals MVP in 2007, earn seven All-Star appearances and win a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
• The new era of Big Ten women’s basketball got off to a hot start as programs won more than 87 percent of their games during the first week of the 2024-25 campaign. The stellar results included five wins over AP Top 25 opponents, including three upsets.
• The 2024-25 television schedule features the most coverage on nationally distributed platforms in Big Ten women’s basketball history. Twelve Big Ten matchups, including eight regular season games, will be televised on a broadcast platform via NBC or FOX, the most in conference history. All 162 conference games will be nationally produced or distributed for the 11th consecutive season.
• The 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament is set for March 5-9 inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse. This will mark the 26th time the tournament has been held in Indianapolis since the event began in 1982. The tournament will be the first to feature a 15-team field. Peacock will televise the opening three games on Wednesday, with second-round, quarterfinal and semifinal games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday slated for the Big Ten Network. CBS will broadcast Sunday’s championship game for the second year in a row.