Big Ten WBB

[visitingcock]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion on the board of Big Ten women's basketball.

Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa all seemed pretty good last year, but Maryland's NCAA loss kinda took of some of the conference luster. Clarke shone brightly for a bit

Are these four the favorites to win it this year? Who suffered attrition to transferitis?

 

[oldude]

When it comes to WBB, the Big 10 is really the Big 1. There are a lot of good teams, but MD stands alone at the top.

Last year’s MD loss in the Sweet 16 to TX was the biggest upset of the tournament imo. This year, MD’s “high octane” offense has their entire starting 5 returning.

Most folks think it will come down to Stanford, SC and UConn for the championship this year. The one team that just might crash the party is MD.

 

[Vowelguy]

Iowa and Indiana may be capable of challenging the big 1

 

[oldude]

Iowa and Indiana may be capable of challenging the big 1

Maybe, but I think that in order to really challenge MD, you have to play great defense, slow the game down and beat them in the paint with superior size. That’s how the Longhorns beat them.

Iowa & Indiana want to beat teams in a shootout. Not easy to do vs the Terps.

 

[Biff]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion on the board of Big Ten women's basketball.

A discussion about Big Ten Women's basketball belongs on the General Women's BB board...which is where it now has been moved.

 

[bballnut90]

When it comes to WBB, the Big 10 is really the Big 1. There are a lot of good teams, but MD stands alone at the top.

Last year’s MD loss in the Sweet 16 to TX was the biggest upset of the tournament imo. This year, MD’s “high octane” offense has their entire starting 5 returning.

Most folks think it will come down to Stanford, SC and UConn for the championship this year. The one team that just might crash the party is MD.

I agree with this 100%. Maryland has a recent history of underperforming but the offensive firepower and talent is there with Owusu, Robinson and Robinson plus a bevy of solid shooters (Bibby, Benson, Collins who has a great face up game).

 

[visitingcock]

A discussion about Big Ten Women's basketball belongs on the General Women's BB board...which is where it now has been moved.

Sorry: I thought I was posting on The General.

Brain doesn't work well on Monday.

 

[cacoastfan]

I think that it's Maryland's to lose this year, considering they return everyone, however I could see Iowa, Indiana, or Michigan potentially challenging them on an off night - I am very curious to see how Maryland responds this upcoming season considering their quite shocking loss in the sweet 16. I am also interested to see Iowa and Clark's development because they are capable of being dangerous themselves (if they can keep their opponents from scoring less than 80 points )

 

[cancontent]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion on the board of Big Ten women's basketball.

Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa all seemed pretty good last year, but Maryland's NCAA loss kinda took of some of the conference luster. Clarke shone brightly for a bit

Are these four the favorites to win it this year? Who suffered attrition to transferitis?

How so? I would think it's the opposite, especially considering how these teams did in the tournament. I don't recall many thinking these teams other than Maryland would do more than the second round.

I see it definitely being between these four teams. Maryland obviously has the advantage with their returners and a healthy Reese for the season. Indiana has a lot of their team returning. Losing a key player to transfer (Penn I believe) won't affect them too much as they dealt with it last year. Iowa has gained through the transfer portal with Feuerbach switching loyalties from ISU. Their depth is decent too.

Three 3 questions for Michigan in my opinion; 1) Guard play as Dilk struggled during the season and wasn't with the team during the tournament, 2) Incoming freshmen - Don't know enough about them, and 3) Who are the bigs after Hillmon? Varejo should be back this year after visa issues due to COVID but has she improved/regressed without playing for a year?

 

[visitingcock]

Some weird corona-records here.

Based on conference play, Rutgers might be in with those other 4.

Maryland	17-1	0.944	26-3	0.897	2632-2000	10-0	9-1	7-2	L1
Indiana	16-2	0.889	21-6	0.778	2010-1618	11-2	8-2	2-2	L1
Rutgers	10-3	0.769	14-5	0.737	1427-1097	9-1	5-2	0-2	L2
Michigan	9-4	0.692	16-6	0.727	1657-1427	9-1	5-3	2-2	L1
Northwestern	11-7	0.611	16-9	0.640	1684-1528	7-5	6-2	3-2	L1
Iowa	11-8	0.579	20-10	0.667	2583-2409	10-3	5-5	5-2	L1
Ohio State	9-7	0.563	13-7	0.650	1604-1401	10-1	3-6	0-0	L4
Michigan State	8-7	0.533	15-9	0.625	1804-1650	9-4	4-3	2-2	L2

 

[Gamecockfan77]

There doesn't seem to be much discussion on the board of Big Ten women's basketball.

Maryland, Michigan, Indiana and Iowa all seemed pretty good last year, but Maryland's NCAA loss kinda took of some of the conference luster. Clarke shone brightly for a bit

Are these four the favorites to win it this year? Who suffered attrition to transferitis?

I still don't always remember Md is in the Big 10 honestly.

still doesn't make sense to me fit wise, though I certainly understand the money.

Penn State and Md should be in the ACC imo.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

When it comes to WBB, the Big 10 is really the Big 1. There are a lot of good teams, but MD stands alone at the top.

Last year’s MD loss in the Sweet 16 to TX was the biggest upset of the tournament imo. This year, MD’s “high octane” offense has their entire starting 5 returning.

Most folks think it will come down to Stanford, SC and UConn for the championship this year. The one team that just might crash the party is MD.

I think it is more likely NC State, but Maryland is perhaps right there.

defense tends to show better than offense.

 

[cancontent]

I still don't always remember Md is in the Big 10 honestly.

still doesn't make sense to me fit wise, though I certainly understand the money.

Penn State and Md should be in the ACC imo.

I need some education on Penn State's history with conferences. Were they ever part of the ACC or even considered it? I recall them being part of the Big East (that's what I remember from the Requiem of the Big East documentary).

My guess is that they joined the BIG10 because of football. ACC is struggling in that area, especially with Clemson seeming to have fallen off a cliff recently. Florida State and Miami are shells of what they used to be.

I agree that Maryland should have stayed in the ACC, which brings another question. Beyond the $$$, which teams have benefitted from the move? Other than the WBB team, I don't hear much.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I need some education on Penn State's history with conferences. Were they ever part of the ACC or even considered it? I recall them being part of the Big East (that's what I remember from the Requiem of the Big East documentary).

My guess is that they joined the BIG10 because of football. ACC is struggling in that area, especially with Clemson seeming to have fallen off a cliff recently. Florida State and Miami are shells of what they used to be.

I agree that Maryland should have stayed in the ACC, which brings another question. Beyond the $$$, which teams have benefitted from the move? Other than the WBB team, I don't hear much.

Penn State was an independent when they joined the Big 10.

I've always thought that was a weird fit as are Md and Rutgers.

(course when I was a pre-teen the talk was of gathering a lot of the football independents into a super league and Penn State was a proposed anchor of that initial proposal before they joined the Big 10. Would have had Miami, FSU, Va Tech, South Carolina among others.)

Md football seems worse off and it's not done men's basketball many favors that I can see. I don't know what they've done with all the $$.

I feel like a northern division of the ACC that had Penn State, Pitt, Md, Va Tech, UVa Syracuse, BC would make more sense than anything we have now. Lot of natural rivalries there. And it would let the southern schools have more helmet games.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I need some education on Penn State's history with conferences. Were they ever part of the ACC or even considered it? I recall them being part of the Big East (that's what I remember from the Requiem of the Big East documentary).

My guess is that they joined the BIG10 because of football. ACC is struggling in that area, especially with Clemson seeming to have fallen off a cliff recently. Florida State and Miami are shells of what they used to be.

I agree that Maryland should have stayed in the ACC, which brings another question. Beyond the $$$, which teams have benefitted from the move? Other than the WBB team, I don't hear much.

I think the idea of Penn State joining ACC would have been to give it a marquee program and the rationale would have been much the same as FSU joining.

I think the ACC didn't effort that they blew it. But I understand the Big East turned PSU down which was a grave mistake.

 

[cancontent]

Penn State was an independent when they joined the Big 10.

I've always thought that was a weird fit as are Md and Rutgers.

(course when I was a pre-teen the talk was of gathering a lot of the football independents into a super league and Penn State was a proposed anchor of that initial proposal before they joined the Big 10. Would have had Miami, FSU, Va Tech, South Carolina among others.)

Md football seems worse off and it's not done men's basketball many favors that I can see. I don't know what they've done with all the $$.

I feel like a northern division of the ACC that had Penn State, Pitt, Md, Va Tech, UVa Syracuse, BC would make more sense than anything we have now. Lot of natural rivalries there. And it would let the southern schools have more helmet games.

1) Thanks for confirming what I thought regarding Maryland.

2) That would have been a very interesting division if it could have happened.

 

[cancontent]

I think the idea of Penn State joining ACC would have been to give it a marquee program and the rationale would have been much the same as FSU joining.

I think the ACC didn't effort that they blew it. But I understand the Big East turned PSU down which was a grave mistake.

In hindsight, maybe, maybe not as the Big East may have still crumbled over time. Too hard to say though.

 

[triaddukefan]

I need some education on Penn State's history with conferences. Were they ever part of the ACC or even considered it? I recall them being part of the Big East (that's what I remember from the Requiem of the Big East documentary).

My guess is that they joined the BIG10 because of football. ACC is struggling in that area, especially with Clemson seeming to have fallen off a cliff recently. Florida State and Miami are shells of what they used to be.

I agree that Maryland should have stayed in the ACC, which brings another question. Beyond the $$$, which teams have benefitted from the move? Other than the WBB team, I don't hear much.

Penn State should have been in the ACC, but the ACC didn't act in time and let the Big 10 swoop in. If they had been a member, Maryland would have never left. If I remember correctly, Penn State got into the Big 10 by one vote. The Commissioner of the ACC (at the time) said that his biggest mistake was not offering Penn State a place in the ACC... as he wasn't aware that they were interested in leaving independence and joining a conference.

I have thoughts on Maryland leaving.... but this is a family friendly website.

 

[dws3665]

Who suffered attrition to transferitis?

Rutgers (Johnson, Broughton, & Mack).
They also brought in a bunch of folks. Very hard to predict their prospects, imo, but I don't see them achieving the same level this year without Guirantes and those 3.

 

[undersized]

Maybe, but I think that in order to really challenge MD, you have to play great defense, slow the game down and beat them in the paint with superior size. That’s how the Longhorns beat them.

Iowa & Indiana want to beat teams in a shootout. Not easy to do vs the Terps.

It's just wrong to claim that Indiana wants to beat teams in a shootout. They are all about defense, rebounding, and minimizing turnovers. Last year IU was the best defensive team in the B1G in terms of Opponent FG% and second in terms of Scoring Defense only to Rutgers (who benefitted from a much easier schedule). Because of that I'd say Indiana matches up better with Maryland than any other B1G team. In fact they only lost to Maryland by 4 points in their only meeting last season.

Now in terms of 3-point shooting, they were second to last in the conference in 3ptFG% and last in 3pt makes/game. Not a "shootout" team.

A microcosm of this is their best player Grace Berger -- one of the most underrated players in the NCAA today. She's just so well-rounded on both ends of the court... only piece she is missing to her game is a decent outside shot. Interested to see what this season brings for her and for IU.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Penn St. was in the A-10 at one point. Maybe they were Independent in football but their other programs had a home.

edit--I know some schools have a strong desire to avoid each other; was there something w/ Pitt not wanting to be in the same conference w/ Penn St?

 

[undersized]

Who lost the most to attrition?

I echo @dws3665 who suggested Rutgers. Mack was a grad transfer so it doesn't feel like as much of a loss, but Johnson was a 5-star recruit and the heir-apparent to Guirantes. Her loss was a huge set back for the program. Extremely talented player. Watching the U-19 team this summer, I felt that Johnson looked better than Clark at times. And that takes a lot for me to say as a biased Iowa fan.

But you could also argue that Ohio State lost just as much. OSU flew a bit under the radar nationally last season since they were banned from post-season play. But for a while they looked like debatably the top team in the B1G, defeating Michigan, Maryland, and Indiana all within 7 days. But they ran out of steam and ended the season on a disappointing 4 game losing streak with no chance to redeem themselves in the post-season due to the ban. Shortly after the end of the season, their starting front court duo of Aliyah Patty and Dorka Juhasz (with whom many of you Huskies are quite familiar by now, I'm sure) took to the transfer portal. They will be hard to replace.

OSU (a lot like Maryland) seems to be one of those schools who loses a few high profile transfers every couple seasons but still continues to attract top talent. So I would guess they'll remain in the top echelon in the conference in the long term. Former Maryland standout and Oregon disappointment Taylor Mikesell is transferring to OSU but it remains unclear to me if she will have to sit out a year.

 

[Bigboote]

I still don't always remember Md is in the Big 10 honestly.

still doesn't make sense to me fit wise, though I certainly understand the money.

Penn State and Md should be in the ACC imo.

I was on the UMD campus about 5 years ago. There were B1G signs all over the place. I found it downright eerie. (I think it was October.)

I'm rooting for Indiana in the B1G because of Gorham ME's Mackenzie Holmes.

 

[Alydar]

Maybe, but I think that in order to really challenge MD, you have to play great defense, slow the game down and beat them in the paint with superior size. That’s how the Longhorns beat them.

Iowa & Indiana want to beat teams in a shootout. Not easy to do vs the Terps.

That could also apply to Maryland. Scoring 90/game is impressive but giving up 70 may have something to do with the turtle's quick exit from the NCAA's. Maryland may have outscored UConn by 6pts a game but UConn allowed 20 pts less. Some of that is due to the BE vs the B1G but still ...

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Penn St. was in the A-10 at one point. Maybe they were Independent in football but their other programs had a home.

edit--I know some schools have a strong desire to avoid each other; was there something w/ Pitt not wanting to be in the same conference w/ Penn St?

While I don't remember the details (in fact I wasn't following college sports that closely before the mid-90's) a lot of what was mentioned throughout this thread regarding Penn State are accurate. Rutgers has always had issues with Penn State, in fact they are called "State Penn" and "TTFP" (that team from Pennsylvania) among some RU fans.

Yes, I knew they were in the A10 at one time, Rutgers was in the A10 the first year we attended games in person (in fact, we attended the conference tourney). It was Theresa Grentz's last season at RU. Got our season tix Viv's first.

Penn State and Pitt were rivals for years, although that eventually lapsed. Pittsburgh was in the A10 at one time and then the Big East.