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I've always felt that Bluder was a much better coach on the offensive side; Jenson has them playing much better defense without losing their offensive moxie.
B1G 25-26
- Thread starter Vowelguy
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Big Ten released their post-season awards. They have a coaches list and a media list. I pasted inthe coaches list.
2025-26 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Honors
As selected by Big Ten coaches
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Lauren Betts, UCLA
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Lauren Betts, UCLA
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Jazzy Davidson, USC
SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Angela Dugalić, UCLA
COACH OF THE YEAR
Cori Close, UCLA
FIRST TEAM
BERRY WALLACE, ILLINOIS
AVA HEIDEN, IOWA
Oluchi Okananwa, Maryland
OLIVIA OLSON, MICHIGAN
Syla Swords, Michigan
JALONI CAMBRIDGE, OHIO STATE
LAUREN BETTS, UCLA
KIKI RICE, UCLA
JAZZY DAVIDSON, USC
SAYVIA SELLERS, WASHINGTON
SECOND TEAM
SHAY CIEZKI, INDIANA
Hannah Stuelke, Iowa
Kennedy Blair, Michigan State
GRACE VANSLOOTEN, MICHIGAN STATE
Grace Grocholski, Minnesota
Tori McKinney, Minnesota
BRITT PRINCE, NEBRASKA
Katie Fiso, Oregon
Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA
Kara Dunn, USC
THIRD TEAM
Chit-Chat Wright, Iowa
Yarden Garzon, Maryland
Amaya Battle, Minnesota
Grace Sullivan, Northwestern
Kiyomi McMiller, Penn State
HONORABLE MENTION*
Cearah Parchment, Illinois
Mila Holloway, Michigan
Mara Braun, Minnesota
Chance Gray, Ohio State
Gianna Kneepkens, UCLA
Avery Howell, Washington
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM*
Kylie Feuerbach, Iowa
Oluchi Okananwa, Maryland
Brooke Quarles Daniels, Michigan
Amaya Battle, Minnesota
Tori McKinney, Minnesota
Kennedy Cambridge, Ohio State
LAUREN BETTS, UCLA
Kiki Rice, UCLA
Jazzy Davidson, USC
Kennedy Smith, USC
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
DESTINY JACKSON, ILLINOIS
CEARAH PARCHMENT, ILLINOIS
Maya Makalusky, Indiana
Addie Deal, Iowa
Addi Mack, Maryland
Sienna Betts, UCLA
JAZZY DAVIDSON, USC
BRYNN MCGAUGHY, WASHINGTON
2025-26 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Honors
As selected by Big Ten coaches
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Lauren Betts, UCLA
DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Lauren Betts, UCLA
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Jazzy Davidson, USC
SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Angela Dugalić, UCLA
COACH OF THE YEAR
Cori Close, UCLA
FIRST TEAM
BERRY WALLACE, ILLINOIS
AVA HEIDEN, IOWA
Oluchi Okananwa, Maryland
OLIVIA OLSON, MICHIGAN
Syla Swords, Michigan
JALONI CAMBRIDGE, OHIO STATE
LAUREN BETTS, UCLA
KIKI RICE, UCLA
JAZZY DAVIDSON, USC
SAYVIA SELLERS, WASHINGTON
SECOND TEAM
SHAY CIEZKI, INDIANA
Hannah Stuelke, Iowa
Kennedy Blair, Michigan State
GRACE VANSLOOTEN, MICHIGAN STATE
Grace Grocholski, Minnesota
Tori McKinney, Minnesota
BRITT PRINCE, NEBRASKA
Katie Fiso, Oregon
Gabriela Jaquez, UCLA
Kara Dunn, USC
THIRD TEAM
Chit-Chat Wright, Iowa
Yarden Garzon, Maryland
Amaya Battle, Minnesota
Grace Sullivan, Northwestern
Kiyomi McMiller, Penn State
HONORABLE MENTION*
Cearah Parchment, Illinois
Mila Holloway, Michigan
Mara Braun, Minnesota
Chance Gray, Ohio State
Gianna Kneepkens, UCLA
Avery Howell, Washington
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM*
Kylie Feuerbach, Iowa
Oluchi Okananwa, Maryland
Brooke Quarles Daniels, Michigan
Amaya Battle, Minnesota
Tori McKinney, Minnesota
Kennedy Cambridge, Ohio State
LAUREN BETTS, UCLA
Kiki Rice, UCLA
Jazzy Davidson, USC
Kennedy Smith, USC
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
DESTINY JACKSON, ILLINOIS
CEARAH PARCHMENT, ILLINOIS
Maya Makalusky, Indiana
Addie Deal, Iowa
Addi Mack, Maryland
Sienna Betts, UCLA
JAZZY DAVIDSON, USC
BRYNN MCGAUGHY, WASHINGTON
Lauren Betts is your Big Ten Player of the Year. A deserving winner, but not overwhelmingly so. Cambridge would also have been a deserving winner. Defensive-first players are perhaps less spectacular game-to-game, so maybe it is not surprising that Betts did not rack up Big Ten Player-of-the-Week Awards. Still, only 2 BIG POW Awards this season is on the paltry side, compared to the following list from the Big Ten Media Guide:
| Single Season BIG POW AWARDS | Also BIG | |||
| POY? | ||||
| Megan Gustafson, IOWA | 13 | 2018-19 | Yes | |
| Caitlin Clark, IOWA | 11 | 2023-24 | Yes | |
| Megan Gustafson, IOWA | 9 | 2017-18 | Yes | |
| JuJu Watkins, USC | 7 | 2024-25 | Yes | |
| Caitlin Clark, IOWA | 7 | 2021-22 | Yes | |
| Jantel Lavender, OSU | 6 | 2010-11 | Yes | |
| Caitlin Clark, IOWA | 6 | 2022-23 | Yes | |
| Lindsay Whalen, MINN | 5 | 2001-02 | Yes | |
| Kelly Mazzante, PSU | 5 | 2002-03 | Yes | |
| Kelly Mazzante, PSU | 5 | 2003-04 | Yes | |
| Jessica Davenport, OSU | 5 | 2004-05 | Yes | |
| Jessica Davenport, OSU | 5 | 2006-07 | Yes | |
| Jantel Lavender, OSU | 5 | 2008-09 | Yes | |
| Caitlin Clark, IOWA | 5 | 2020-21 | No | |
| Lauren Betts, UCLA | 2 | 2025-26 | Yes |
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100% agree. Swords on the 1st Team is a joke. Who obviously does not belong on the following 1st-Team All-Big Ten list? Swords. At least she was a fringe pick. The first eight players were unanimous by the coaches, but not Swords. So at least 1 coach got it right. Wallace and Sellers were unanimous by the coaches, but Prince and Ciezki took their spots by the media. Look at where Swords ranks in a variety of BIG conference-games only metrics:
| | Scoring | PER | PER*MIN | Box + | Win Shares |
| PLAYER | BIG PPG | Rank | Rank | Rank | Rank | Rank |
| Kiki Rice | 14.7 | 23 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 1 |
| Lauren Betts | 17.4 | 13 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| Jaloni Cambridge | 26.4 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
| Jazzy Davidson | 18.9 | 11 | 23 | 11 | 9 | 16 |
| Ava Heiden | 19.6 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Olivia Olson | 20.9 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 7 | 4 |
| Berry Wallace | 19.4 | 8 | 29 | 13 | 38 | 17 |
| Sayvia Sellers | 19.3 | 9 | 20 | 15 | 13 | 15 |
| Oluchi Okananwa | 19.7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 6 |
| Syla Swords | 14.9 | 21 | 71 | 43 | 46 | 31 |
| Shay Ciezki | 22.4 | 3 | 12 | 7 | 24 | 27 |
| Britt Prince | 16.7 | 14 | 22 | 14 | 23 | 22 |
PER--Player Efficiency Rating - per minute estimate of player value
PER*Minutes - estimate of total player value using PER
WS--Win Shares - estimate of wins player produced
Box Plus Minus - box score-derived metric that estimates a player's total contribution to team performance
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There definitely can be an argument for Jaquez to be listed as First Team over Swords. Their stats, with the except of FG% are pretty similar. Focusing solely on the stats however doesn't seem to be how voters work though. My sense is that some voters took usage and impact into their decision.
Michigan's roster isn't as deep as UCLA's. Jaquez had the benefit of the Betts sisters, Dugalic, and Rice. Swords pretty much had Olson, and Holloway with the balance of the team being hit or miss throughout the season. Swords minutes per game was insane as well in my opinion but it was necessary for Michigan to win the number of games they did this season. To have a record of 15-3 in the BIG10 when you aren't sure who, outside of Swords and Olson would contribute to the boxscore, that will stand out to some. 🤷🏾♀️
I wasn't on the Jaquez horse, I'm just anti-Swords for the 1st team. She had a nothing-special year in conference play.
Swords is 21st in conference scoring (12th in FGA). Among the 60 double-figures scores in BIG play, she is 34th in 3P%, 39th in 2P%, and 48th in FG%. A nothing-special shooting year all around. Beyond shooting, she is 39th in APG, 77th in RPG, 19th in SPG, 146th in BPG, and 34th in least turnovers among the 60 double-figures scorers.
If heavy usage is what made her year great, the stat for Swords should be Per*Minutes, which estimates her total value by multiplying her minutes played by her per-minute player efficiency rating (PER). But in BIG play, Swords ranks 43rd in Per*Minutes. Look at the neighborhood she is in: Gift Uchenna (41st in Per*minutes), Tara Daye (42nd), Rashunda Jones (44th). How is someone in that area possibly a 1st-team all-conference player?
How about Win Shares? Michigan won a lot of games this year, so there are lots of Win Shares to allocate among the Michigan players.
Olson is 4th in the league in Win Shares. Holloway is 25th. Daniels is 29th. Swords is 31st. Box Plus Minus, Swords is 6th on her own team in league play: Olson 7th, Daniels 17th, Dudley 33rd, Delfosse 35th, Holloway 36th, Swords 46th.
But maybe my premise is wrong, focusing on how you play in conference and conference-play stats. Swords' best game of the year, by a considerable margin, was against UConn, on national TV. Twenty-nine points on 8-14 shooting from 3 (didn't have more than 4 3s in any conference game). Almost carried her team to a monumental victory, with the rest of the team struggling from 3 (4-18, Olson 2-8, Holloway 1-6). A performance Swords would not replicate in conference play, but the all-conference dye was apparently cast that day against UConn.
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What's your interpretation of replicate? She had several 20+ games during conference play including games against Michigan State and the crazy overtime comeback against Ohio State.
Syla Swords 2025-26 Stats per Game - NCAAW - ESPN
The 2025-26 NCAAW season stats per game for Syla Swords of the Michigan Wolverines on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.
What's your interpretation of replicate? She had several 20+ games during conference play including games against Michigan State and the crazy overtime comeback against Ohio State.
Syla Swords 2025-26 Stats per Game - NCAAW - ESPN
The 2025-26 NCAAW season stats per game for Syla Swords of the Michigan Wolverines on ESPN. Includes full stats, per opponent, for regular and postseason.www.espn.com
Fair question. Against UConn, she shot 8-14 from 3 (57.1%), which was her high-water mark in both made 3s and 3P% (with 4 or more attempts). In her "several" (only 3) 20-point conference games (3 seems like a low number - Olson had 13), she shot 33% from 3 in each of those games. In the games you mention, she was 4-12 from 3 against OSU, and 3-9 against MSU. Her high-water mark for made 3s in BIG play was 4, half what she made against UConn. In her 4 20-point games for the season (3 in conference and UConn), her best EFG% was against UConn (61.9%).
Her UConn game marks her as a great 3-point shooter. In conference play, she had only 1 game that could similarly be described as high-volume and high-percentage from 3 (4-8 against Rutgers, which perhaps lessens the isolated achievement). More generally, her conference-play stats show the UConn game to be an aberration. In conference play, among the 23 players with 5 3PA per game (the high volume 3-pt shooters), she was 17th in 3P%. In that same group she was 16th in EFG%. IMO, Swords doesn't have a single stat in conference play that marks her as a 1st-team all conference player. But she has that UConn game (and the great late 3 in regulation against Ohio State).
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A few questions:
1). What is the fixation on her 3pt shooting (or that's just the vibe I'm getting)? I've been perplexed by this comment not only from you but others on the board. Swords hasn't nor will she ever be a 3 point specialist. She'll have her moments, but that's never been her game even in highschool.
2). Does she have to be a consistent 20+ scorer to be considered a critical piece for Michigan to succeed? She does a lot more than provide offence and her ability to be disruptive defensively gets overlooked in my opinion.
3). If you take her out of the Michigan line up, how do you think this team would have fared overall? From my vantage point, she provides a buffer for Olson to be able to do what she does well, which is attack the basket and score at will. Michigan would not have had the record they did this season without her as part of the line up.
The UConn game seems to be the crux of most people's reasons to downplay Swords season this year. I genuinely don't get it, but that's likely because I've been watching her play since highschool and for Canada Basketball. Even with the women's national team, she's been chosen over veterans and delivered when the team needed her. In 2024 both at the Americas qualifiers and the Olympics, she stood out over the rest of her team. She has an innate ability to perform well under pressure which I think coaches and the media appreciate. Sometimes the stats don't tell the entire story.
And for context, I'm not a Swords fanatic. Sometimes I think she does get some favouritism from media especially here at home. At the same time, I see a damn good and intelligent basketball player and am willing to give her credit when it's due.
nwhoopfan
hopeless West Coast homer
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Okay, one thing REALLY jumps out at me. There are 10 1st team, 10 2nd team, 5 3rd team...and all Kneepkens got was Honorable Mention. She had to be in the running for POY in the Big 12 last season, wasn't even considered one of the Top 25 players in the Big 10? Wow. I doubt that's what she envisioned when she transferred to UCLA.
Or maybe the voters were out to lunch? 13.2 ppg isn't eye popping but it's decent, her shooting splits are pretty ridiculous--53.0/45.7/94.1. I'm gonna go ahead and guess no other guard in the conference shot the ball that well.
She really didn't get much attention this year. She hit the 2000 career point mark, is a 50% shooter for her career and just under 44% from 3 w/ 317 made 3's. That's a pretty darn good career.
Or maybe the voters were out to lunch? 13.2 ppg isn't eye popping but it's decent, her shooting splits are pretty ridiculous--53.0/45.7/94.1. I'm gonna go ahead and guess no other guard in the conference shot the ball that well.
She really didn't get much attention this year. She hit the 2000 career point mark, is a 50% shooter for her career and just under 44% from 3 w/ 317 made 3's. That's a pretty darn good career.
Before responding to your 3 questions, I should note I am a Swords fan. As I wrote last June (# 19) in this thread, I'm "[a]nxious to see if Swords, Olson & Holloway can drive interest, attendance and TV ratings. Swords is especially entertaining." I still find Swords especially entertaining to watch, and watch Michigan frequently.
But I couldn't conceive given the season that she had that Swords could make 1st-Team All Big. I had my own All Big predictions before today. One of my screening tools is where players rank in league play in Per*Minutes, an estimate of total value. In the previous 4 seasons, 43 players were 1st-Team All Big. Of those 43 players, 38 players were ranked in the top 17 in Per*Minutes (28 had a single digit rank), with only 1 player being ranked lower than #26, Shyanne Sellers last year at #32 in Per*Minutes.
Given Shyanne Sellers, my spreadsheet of possible 1st-Team All BIG players had the top 32 Per*Minutes players and their stats. Stopping at 32 also made perfect sense to me because Yarden Garzon is #33, and I'm not a Garzon fan. Finally, the logic of stopping at 32 is confirmed after the fact by the fact that the 11 players who were selected 2nd-Team All BIG this year were all ranked in the top 32. Swords at #43 in Per*Minutes is the outlier compared to all 1st and 2nd teamers. Perhaps my negativity about her selection is just a defense mechanism for my faulty process. But I don't think so.
Response to questions.
1. Swords is 3rd in the league in 3PA per BIG game. Since she is a very high volume 3-point shooter by BIG standards, it makes sense to focus on her 3-point game. (She also had a middling shooting year from 2).
2. Don't think defense significantly bolsters Sword's case for honors. Michigan is a good defensive team (2nd in the league), and Swords certainly is a significant contributor to that. But of the eight Michigan players who average 10 minutes a game in conference play, Swords is 8th in terms of defensive rating. Twelve players made the All BIG Defensive teams, and saw no discussion about Swords as a candidate for same.
3. Swords is certainly very valuable to Michigan (would love to have her on one of my teams), but it's important to put her value and performance this year (versus her reputation) in context. Setting aside the Wisconsin game that she missed, her aggregate plus/minus for the year in conference play is 4th on her own team behind Olson, Quarles Daniels, and Holloway. And she is 6th on her own team this year in Box Plus/Minus in conference play.
Finally, she was simply better last year when she was 2nd-Team All BIG (she was ranked #19 in Per*Minutes in BIG play and scored more at 16.2 ppg). Bart Torvik's aggregate offensive rating (Points Over Replacement Per Adjusted Game [PRPG!]) ranks her 32nd in BIG play this year (she was 21st last year). The other 11 players who made 1st-Team All BIG this year are all in the top 18 in PRPG! Swords remains the outlier no matter how you slice it. Ultimately, you must be right that stats simply don't tell the Syla Swords story.
Peace. 🙂 I'm movin on.
Kneepkens was selected Honorable Mention by the coaches and 2nd Team All Big Ten by the Media. She’s made a huge difference for UCLA’s efficiency on both ends of the court.
She’s been able to demonstrate her mid-range game this season. Utah’s offensive system emphasized three-pt shots and shots at the hoop and not the mid-range.
Gianna wanted to work on her defense and play on a championship caliber team. While her individual scoring number aren’t as high as they were at Utah Gianna’s WNBA prospects haven’t dropped and may very well have improved.
Recent interview: Kneepkens Interview Feb 26
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WBBTakeover
WHO CAN GUARD TESSA???!!!!
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WBBTakeover
WHO CAN GUARD TESSA???!!!!
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You get no argument from me on that. They're a hard watch.
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Ciezki only took 4 steps on the layup to put Indiana up by 3.
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