BIG TEN Regular Season

[jdote33]

POY is so hard. I still think Mackenzie Holmes deserves serious consideration. Best player on arguably the second best team in the country. Both losses were so single digits loses, this one to Iowa being at the buzzer. In the two losses she shot 20-27 which is near 75 percent.
She really didn't have any duds during conference play. For me, Clark, Boston and Holmes all have strong cases.

 

[Bigboote]

They pointed out an interesting factoid in the broadcast today: Holmes hasn't shot below 50% in a single game this year.

Any other conference, Holmes is PoY, but I would vote for Clark myself.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Lost in all the other excitement today, Minnesota beat Purdue. Between that and Wisconsin winning, the bottom third of the conference rose up and made some noise today.

 

[JellyBean]

Huge games today in the Big Ten. Some wild games. Minnesota pulls off a huge upset over Purdue. Congrats, Coach Whalen and the Gophers!! Nice crowd at the Barn.

Iowa and Indiana had a really great game today. Wild ending. Congrats, Iowa.

Wisconsin and Coach Moseley gets a nice win against Michigan.

A few days of rest and get ready for the Big Ten Tournament.

 

[visitingcock]

Gonna be interesting to see the BTN TV eyeballs on Indiana and Iowa

 

[undersized]

Gonna be interesting to see the BTN TV eyeballs on Indiana and Iowa

The game was on ESPN, silly.

 

[visitingcock]

The game was on ESPN, silly.

Oops. TV Numbers should be very good. I don’t know what the Big Ten regular season record is, but would not be surprised if this tops it.

Is LSU at Scar this year the ESPN Regular Season All Time network record? Would be interesting if this game tops that. I hope it does for the sake of wbb.

 

[TerpWomenFan]

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference

bigten.org

Big 10 award winners.

 

[The deacon]

Big Ten Conference

The official athletics website for Big Ten Conference

bigten.org

Big 10 award winners.

Thanks very much, TerpWomenFan.

Two thoughts:
1) I don't know players on the lower-tier teams well enough so I'm far from an expert, but I'm surprised Shyanne Sellers isn't first team (by the way, what a get for Maryland to land Abby Meyers as a grad transfer... oh, how she would have fit in with the Huskies!).
2) It's interesting Hannah Stuelke is thought of highly enough to be the league's 'sixth player of the year' but couldn't crack the 'all-freshmen' quintet.

 

[JellyBean]

Thanks, @TerpWomenFan

 

[cancontent]

Thanks very much, TerpWomenFan.

Two thoughts:
1) I don't know players on the lower-tier teams well enough so I'm far from an expert, but I'm surprised Shyanne Sellers isn't first team (by the way, what a get for Maryland to land Abby Meyers as a grad transfer... oh, how she would have fit in with the Huskies!).
2) It's interesting Hannah Stuelke is thought of highly enough to be the league's 'sixth player of the year' but couldn't crack the 'all-freshmen' quintet.

https://twitter.com/briannenicolee/status/1630648042918387729?s=20

https://twitter.com/briannenicolee/status/1630633501237100576?s=20

Brinae Alexander's mother definitely has something to say about it.

Below are their stats for the season. I can see a case for either player being chosen.

Alexander:

Stuelke

 

[The deacon]

https://twitter.com/briannenicolee/status/1630648042918387729?s=20

https://twitter.com/briannenicolee/status/1630633501237100576?s=20

Brinae Alexander's mother definitely has something to say about it.

Below are their stats for the season. I can see a case for either player being chosen.

Alexander:
View attachment 84544

Stuelke
View attachment 84543

Thanks, cancontent, for the stats. Yes, interesting stuff... I don't know a couple of the other frosh enough to say whether Stuelke deserves an all-freshmen spot, or the 'sixth person' award. I think we're agreeing?

 

[cancontent]

Thanks, cancontent, for the stats. Yes, interesting stuff... I don't know a couple of the other frosh enough to say whether Stuelke deserves an all-freshmen spot, or the 'sixth person' award. I think we're agreeing?

Yes. We're in agreement. All of the freshman chosen for the All-Freshmen team definitely earned their spot from what I saw this season.

There are areas each player is slightly better than the other. Brinae has had an up and down season. She's finally rounding into form at the right time. Stuelke has proven to be a better back up to Czinano than O'Grady and others for Iowa. It's a toss up in my opinion. I get where Alexander's mother is coming from, but focusing on solely on minutes played doesn't help her argument from my perspective.

 

[sweetspot]

FWIW that's her sister not her mom.

 

[Iowa57]

Stuelke's season stats are a little deceptive because she didn't play a ton in the non-conference. Here's her conference-only line: 15.1 min, 8.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 65.3% fg. Iowa also clearly got better once Stuelke started playing more.

To my eye Stuelke and Alexander's production looks fairly similar. Stuelke doing that in fewer minutes plus the way she helped Iowa improve probably pushed her over the top.

 

[DefenseBB]

I was truly mesmerized watching Stuelke improve each and every game once she got the hang of college. She is very athletic and will be another talented big in the Lisa Bluder list of successes and could well be the best of the bunch. I do not see anything egregious about this award. Yes, Alexander also was a key cog in the Maryland success but she was also the leading scorer at Vanderbilt and transferred to Maryland so I wonder if a "true freshman's contributions" over a grad transfer had some components to this as well as potential MD backlash considering all of her transfers. Just curious.

 

[cancontent]

I was truly mesmerized watching Stuelke improve each and every game once she got the hang of college. She is very athletic and will be another talented big in the Lisa Bluder list of successes and could well be the best of the bunch. I do not see anything egregious about this award. Yes, Alexander also was a key cog in the Maryland success but she was also the leading scorer at Vanderbilt and transferred to Maryland so I wonder if a "true freshman's contributions" over a grad transfer had some components to this as well as potential MD backlash considering all of her transfers. Just curious.

Interesting perspective. @Iowa57's post with the conference play stats was very enlightening as well.

I don't think there's anything egregious about the award either, however Alexander's sister's posts caught my attention because of her opinion about MPG. Drilling down into the data a bit further seems to indicate both were deserving regardless who won, but I'm of the opinion MPG isn't a key indicator. Stuelke wasn't an unanimous selection by the voters, so I'm guessing Alexander got her fair share of votes.

 

[GoChips20]

Stuelke's season stats are a little deceptive because she didn't play a ton in the non-conference. Here's her conference-only line: 15.1 min, 8.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 65.3% fg. Iowa also clearly got better once Stuelke started playing more.

To my eye Stuelke and Alexander's production looks fairly similar. Stuelke doing that in fewer minutes plus the way she helped Iowa improve probably pushed her over the top.

I’m shocked this hasn’t been more of a storyline with their program this year. Great callout. Iowa is probably two or three elite athletes away from being a national title contender.

 

[cancontent]

I’m shocked this hasn’t been more of a storyline with their program this year. Great callout. Iowa is probably two or three elite athletes away from being a national title contender.

In fairness, media seem to go for the easy storyline lately. It's just reality. Clark and Czinano are the main attraction so that's what they focus on.

She definitely had an effect once given the chance to play more. Hopefully more attention will come as they compete in the conference tournament and March Madness.

 

[nwhoopfan]

I thought Penn St. was dead in the water after a long scoring drought, but then they went on a 7-0 run to get within 2. Had a chance to tie or win, but their last possession went absolutely nowhere. Michigan survived.

 

[cancontent]

I thought Penn St. was dead in the water after a long scoring drought, but then they went on a 7-0 run to get within 2. Had a chance to tie or win, but their last possession went absolutely nowhere. Michigan survived.

"barely" survived if you ask me.

 

[DefenseBB]

Kieger has 1 more year to show vast improvement or she will be gone as she’s had 4 years without any real improvement over the prior regime and with a lot more “noise” of disharmony within the program.

 

[HuskyNan]

 

[ISUnorth]

Stuelke's season stats are a little deceptive because she didn't play a ton in the non-conference. Here's her conference-only line: 15.1 min, 8.4 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 65.3% fg. Iowa also clearly got better once Stuelke started playing more.

To my eye Stuelke and Alexander's production looks fairly similar. Stuelke doing that in fewer minutes plus the way she helped Iowa improve probably pushed her over the top.

^This. I saw her early in the season a couple of times and thought "This is the best player out of the state of Iowa last year?" and wasn't very impressed. Being a Minnesotan I don't follow Iowa HS but was expecting a bit more. Later in conference play I was "Oh, yeah, she is going to be pretty good for Iowa the next three years." She does need to shoot a million free-throws this summer though, that percentage is brutal. Other than that I sort of love her game.

 

[undersized]

^This. I saw her early in the season a couple of times and thought "This is the best player out of the state of Iowa last year?" and wasn't very impressed. Being a Minnesotan I don't follow Iowa HS but was expecting a bit more. Later in conference play I was "Oh, yeah, she is going to be pretty good for Iowa the next three years." She does need to shoot a million free-throws this summer though, that percentage is brutal. Other than that I sort of love her game.

Iowa was trying to use her more as a perimeter player early in the season, a big strong wing type. But she just doesn't have the versatility to play that role at the college level yet. In fact, she had some key mistakes late in the fourth quarter of Iowa's loss at Kansas State that sorta exposed her weaknesses out there. Hopefully that part of her game will develop in the coming seasons.
Once the staff started playing Stuelke more in the paint, as an undersized 5 with quickness, her season took off. She's a better rebounder than any Iowa player in recent memory, including Gustafson.