Big Ten Weekly Release – Nov. 26

Big Ten Weekly Release – Nov. 26

• Big Ten teams are taking part in 10 different tournaments this week, which includes a couple of Top 25 matchups. No. 14/16 Kentucky and No. 19 Illinois will face off in Nashville on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET as part of the Music City Classic. The game will be streamed on BallerTV. For a third time this season, a Big Ten team is set to take on South Carolina. Purdue will battle the No. 4/5 Gamecocks at the Fort Myers Tip-off on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET. Action will be streamed on the Women’s Sports Network.
• 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. 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.
• There’s a new top-ranked team in this week’s Associated Press (AP) poll. After handing South Carolina its first loss of the season, UCLA received 20 first-place votes and jumped four spots to be ranked No. 1 in the country. It is the first time in program history that the Bruins have earned the top ranking.
• Seven teams joined No. 1 UCLA in the AP poll – No. 6 USC, No. 10 Maryland, No. 11 Ohio State, No. 19 Illinois, No. 21 Oregon, No. 22 Iowa and No. 25 Nebraska. Iowa made its first appearance of the season and Illinois achieved its best ranking since being ranked 13th on Jan. 17, 2000. Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Minnesota received votes. The Big Ten holds the top spot with eight ranked teams.
• The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today poll featured seven Big Ten teams this week – No. 2 UCLA, No. 6 USC, No. 9 Ohio State, No. 11 Maryland, No. 19 Illinois, No. 24 Iowa and No. 25 Nebraska. Oregon, Michigan State, Penn State, Indiana and Michigan garnered votes. The Big Ten and SEC tied for the most ranked teams.
• The Big Ten paces all Division I conferences with 91 wins so far this season, followed by the ACC (89), Big 12 (79) and SEC (77). The conference also has eight teams with unblemished records.
• Offensive production remains the calling card of the Big Ten Conference. The league has 10 teams averaging more than 80 points per game and seven included among the nation’s top 25 scoring offenses – Michigan State (4th – 96.3), Ohio State (5th – 93.4), Michigan (8th – 90.3), Penn State (14th – 87.6), Nebraska (15th – 87.0), Maryland (20th – 86.3) and USC (23rd – 84.8).
• Michigan State leads the nation in assists per game (23.2) while Nebraska ranks second in field goal percentage at 53.5 percent.
• The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in scoring (80.0 ppg), field goal percentage (.471) and assists (17.3 apg).
• Heading into the fourth week of the season, the Big Ten has faced 13 ranked opponents and holds an 8-5 record. This includes numerous 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.
• Fifth-year senior Kendall Bostic was voted Big Ten Player of the Week after averaging 28 points and 10 rebounds while shooting 83.9 percent from the field for Illinois. She scored a career-high 31 points versus Oregon State and put up 25 points, going 11-for-13 from the field, with 12 rebounds against Le Moyne.
• Purdue’s Lana McCarthy was selected as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week after recording the second double-double of her career behind 12 points and 10 rebounds against Bellarmine. She became the first Boilermaker rookie since the 2004-05 season to have multiple double-doubles in a season. McCarthy also matched her career mark with 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting versus UT Arlington.
• 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.