Tell me about the NEW Big Ten

[cancontent]

Women's Basketball - Forever 10 - Kelsey Plum

Forever 10 - Kelsey Plum for University of Washington Huskies Women's Basketball

gohuskies.com

@nwhoopfan not sure if you've seen this. I think Washington did a phenomenal job on the promotion of Plum's jersey retirement here.

 

[nwhoopfan]

Women's Basketball - Forever 10 - Kelsey Plum

Forever 10 - Kelsey Plum for University of Washington Huskies Women's Basketball

gohuskies.com

@nwhoopfan not sure if you've seen this. I think Washington did a phenomenal job on the promotion of Plum's jersey retirement here.

Yeah, good stuff. I got tickets to the Purdue game, my dad and uncle are coming in from out of town to watch with me.

 

[cancontent]

Actually it is very atypical of BIG WBB scheduling. Before this season, the BIG had a long-standing practice of using predicted order of finish to schedule double plays, i.e. the top teams would play more double plays against other top teams, etc. It wasn’t a perfect system, and teams still ended up with the tougher schedule (e.g. Iowa the last 2 years), but schedules were not terribly unbalanced.

This year, with 18 teams and 18 game, there is only 1 double play. So the way to balance the schedule is the home-and-away allocation. The BIG dropped the ball massively here. UCLA and USC should have been split from Maryland and OSU, so teams that played 1 pair at home would play the other pair on the road. These are not only the top 4 predicted teams this year, but also likely the 4 best recruiting/talent acquisition schools in the BIG, going forward.

Instead, 5 teams in the league will play UCLA, USC, OSU & MD all at home or all on the road. This threatens to skew conference standings. MSU, MN & Illinois play these 4 teams all on the road, which is a plus for them, IMO, setting themselves up with a very favorable home schedule.

Wisconsin and Indiana get the BIG 4 at home. Seems like a real negative for Wisconsin, who will now play less winnable games at home. Impact for Indiana is less clear to me.

But wasn't there something wonky either last season or the season prior where Indiana's schedule didn't jive with what they should have had for double plays? I recall a thread where this was discussed because they had a more favourable path to clinching the conference title because they had fewer double plays than the rest of the top 4.

 

[Bjbod]

OMG! Check out these ticket prices for CC's jersey retirement game with JuJu in the house.

https://seatgeek.com/iowa-hawkeyes-womens-basketball-tickets/ncaa-womens-basketball/2025-02-02-12-30-pm/17121483?dd_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

 

[nwhoopfan]

I like how Iowa waits about 5 minutes to retire the jerseys of players when it's a no brainer. As opposed to say 8 years like they do it here in Seattle.

 

[JellyBean]

Wisconsin receiving 15 points in the coaches poll is a surprising development. Places them 31. Wonder when the last time Wisconsin received a poll vote?

It has been a long time since Wisconsin has received any type of positive vibes for the WBB program. 2009 range, I think.

 

[BigTenGuy]

But wasn't there something wonky either last season or the season prior where Indiana's schedule didn't jive with what they should have had for double plays? I recall a thread where this was discussed because they had a more favourable path to clinching the conference title because they had fewer double plays than the rest of the top 4.

The issue the last two years is that the league settled into a clear top 3, but the schedules were based on a predicted top 4, with each predicted top-4 team playing double plays against 2 of the other 3 predicted top 4 teams. So last year the double plays among the predicted top 4 were:

OSU double plays: Iowa, MD (OSU 16-2)
Iowa double plays: OSU, IU (15-3)
IU double plays: Iowa, MD (15-3)
MD double plays: OSU, IU (9-9, lost at home to Iowa, OSU, IU).

But Maryland cratered, so Iowa among the top 3 ended up with the short straw. The home team won every head-to-head game among the top 3, and OSU got to skip going to Bloomington, and OSU won the league by 1 game. (Same thing happened the year before when the top 3 were IU, Iowa and MD, and Iowa played IU and MD twice, but IU only played MD once. Home team won all head to heads.).


Maryland cratering hurt Iowa last year, but the scheduling design wasn’t horribly unbalanced, from the get go. This year, the 5 teams that play UCLA, USC, OSU & Maryland, either all at home, or all on the road, have obviously unbalanced schedules.

 

[Dillon77]

For the Syla Swords fans. Came across this article about her father Shawn and his coaching journey, by Doug Smith of the Toronto Star. Great article and insight on one of Swords' biggest influences. Not behind a paywall from what I can tell.

A Canadian basketball coach is one step away from the NBA — after an assist from a legend

Shawn Swords, who cut his coaching teeth at Laurentian, is associate head coach of the G League’s Long Island Nets.

www.thestar.com

@Stagnant

Sorry for being late to the station on this one.
So, this explains how the Swords daughters ended up playing in Long Island at Long Island Lutheran (LuHi). Never understood how that one transpired.

As for the Savvy Swords/Michigan/UConn talk, I'll throw another school in the mix: Notre Dame has offered the younger Swords and she's (unofficially) visited NDs campus, probably spending time wifh LuhHi's former center, one Kate Koval, during her stay there. Both Swords sisters are all-round wings/forwards and I'm positive Coach Ivey is looking to land one to be somewhat like Sonia (Soni) Citron.

 

[Dillon77]

Some quick hitters on Friday games involving B1G Teams:

- Alabama Hands Michigan State 1st Loss in West Palm, Fla, 82-67.
Alabama has some pretty good backcourt players in Zaay Green, Aaliyah Nye and Sarah Ashlee Barker. Kind of a SEC Utah with a lot of ball movement and shooting. Whole game got down to a 31-11 Alabama thumping in the third. MSU is well coached, but last night only Julia Ayrault and Grace VanSlooten looked top shelf.

- UCLA 70 - Creighton 41. Holy unexpected smush. What was in the locker rooms? The Bruins outscored 26-4 in the first and 20-8 in the third. And UCLA did this without Lauren Betts playing (she's another big with "soreness."). Kiki Rice is back though: 20 pts, 5 rebounds, 4 assists.

I've noticed Janiah Barker has moved into the starting lineup over Timea Gardiner, but Gardiner played more minutes last night. Angela Dugalic was the big though, with a double 13 in pts, rebounds. She's another of the Oregon transfers from that class that included Kylee Watson, Maddie Scherr, Pao Pao, etc.

- Michigan 96 - Akron 55. Expected this outcome, but I'm always interested in how Kim Barnes Arrico tinkers together a roster to stay competitive in Ann Arbor. Frosh Syla Swords had an off night, but Oliva Olsen is a frosh who seems to be a keeper. While her shooting was off (4-11), she had 6 assists. And another one of the Oregon/Oregon St. transfers -- Greta Kampschroeder -- finally had a big night: 23 points on 9-16 overall shooting and 5-9 from three. Been awhile since I've seen numbers like that from the Naperville, Ill., native.

- Smush #2. Ohio St. 84 - Stanford 59. As noted, this was on the Left Coast, too. Six Buckeyes -- all five starters and one sub -- were in double figures and only two Cardinals/Trees were in double figures. Be physical. Run on this year's Stanford.

 

[JellyBean]

- Michigan 96 - Akron 55. Expected this outcome, but I'm always interested in how Kim Barnes Arrico tinkers together a roster to stay competitive in Ann Arbor. Frosh Syla Swords had an off night, but Oliva Olsen is a frosh who seems to be a keeper. While her shooting was off (4-11), she had 6 assists. And another one of the Oregon/Oregon St. transfers -- Greta Kampschroeder -- finally had a big night: 23 points on 9-16 overall shooting and 5-9 from three. Been awhile since I've seen numbers like that from the Naperville, Ill., native.

KBA is always an interesting coach and how she goes about building and developing her players.