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Big Ten Weekly Release – March 5

• The Big Ten Conference has announced the full bracket for the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament, which will take place March 5-9 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
• Single-session tickets are still on sale and available online at Ticketmaster.com for $15-$40, depending on the session. All seating is reserved for the 2025 TIAA Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament. All ticket packages are subject to Ticketmaster and facility fees. Fans are encouraged to visit the official Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament website (bigten.org/WBBT) and follow Big Ten Women’s Basketball on X (@B1GWBBall) throughout the 2024-25 season for more information on events surrounding the tournament.
• All 14 games of this year’s Big Ten Tournament will be broadcast live to a national audience, starting with the opening round being streamed on Peacock. The Big Ten Network (and the FOX Sports app) will broadcast the second round through semifinal games from Thursday to Saturday. The championship game on Sunday, March 9 will tip off at 4:30 p.m. ET on CBS and will be the second time the network has carried the title game.
• In its inaugural season as a member of the Big Ten Conference, USC claimed the 2024-25 Big Ten Championship outright Saturday night with an 80-67 win over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, Calif. The Trojans finished their conference slate with a 17-1 record to lock in the No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament.
• The Big Ten Conference announced its 2024-25 women’s basketball all-conference teams and individual award recipients Tuesday live on the Big Ten Network’s “B1G Today” show. USC sophomore guard JuJu Watkins was voted Big Ten Player of the Year by both the conference coaches and a select panel of the Big Ten media members. Ohio State guard Jaloni Cambridge was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year by the media panel. In the coaches’ vote, Cambridge shared the honor with Michigan guard Olivia Olson as the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Year with both being unanimous selections. UCLA junior center Lauren Betts garnered Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year laurels and was a unanimous pick by the coaches. USC’s Lindsay Gottlieb was chosen as the Big Ten Coach of the Year while UCLA junior forward Janiah Barker was voted the Big Ten’s Sixth Player of the Year.
• UCLA junior Kiki Rice was tabbed as one of five finalists for the 2025 Nancy Lieberman Award by the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, in partnership with the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA). Now in its 26th year, the award recognizes the top point guard in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball. To be considered for this prestigious award, candidates must exhibit the floor leadership.
• USC sophomore JuJu Watkins was named The Athletic’s National Player of the Year and was also tabbed as one of five finalists for the 2025 Ann Meyers Drysdale Award by Naismith and WBCA Tuesday. The award, in its eighth year, honors the top shoot guard in women’s NCAA Division I college basketball. It is named after the Class of 1993 Hall of Famer, the first player, regardless of gender, to be chosen for an All-America Team in four consecutive college seasons. 
• This week’s Associated Press (AP) poll featured five teams from the Big Ten. USC moved up to No. 2 and was joined by No. 4 UCLA, No. 13 Ohio State, No. 15 Maryland and No. 24 Michigan State while Iowa received votes.
• The Women’s Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA)/USA Today poll featured five Big Ten teams this week. USC checked in at No. 2, followed by No. 4 UCLA, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 15 Maryland and No. 24 Michigan State.
• The Big Ten leads all Division I conferences with 11 teams among the top 40 in the latest NET rankings, including five in the top 25 – No. 5 UCLA, No. 6 USC, No. 18 Ohio State, No. 21 Michigan State, No. 25 Maryland, No. 27 Michigan, No. 28 Iowa, No. 31 Illinois, No. 36 Minnesota, No. 39 Indiana and No. 40 Oregon. The NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) is the primary sorting tool used by the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee for determining NCAA Tournament teams.
• As a team, USC leads the country behind 7.1 blocks per game while UCLA averages 20.4 assists (4th), shoots 48.1 percent from the field (7th) and has the top rebounding margin (+13.5). Ohio State has the second-best mark in the nation in turnover margin (+9.59). Illinois (79.2) and Washington (78.9) are sixth and eighth, respectively, in free throw percentage.
• Offensive production remains the calling card of the Big Ten Conference. The league has seven teams averaging more than 75 points per game, six of which are included among the nation’s top 25 scoring offenses – USC (9th – 81.9), Ohio State (12th – 80.7), Maryland (15th – 80.2), Michigan State (16th – 80.1), UCLA (20th – 78.8) and Michigan (25th – 78.1).
• Individually, the Big Ten has two players ranked in the top 10 in the nation in field goal percentage – Penn State’s Gracie Merkle (4th – 67.0) and UCLA’s Lauren Betts (7th – 62.4). USC’s JuJu Watkins is fifth in the country in total points (684) and second in points per game (24.4). Illinois’ Kendall Bostic (11.3) stands eighth in rebounds per game and Betts averages 2.81 blocks per game (5th).
• Big Ten teams have been passing the rock quite well this season as seven programs rank in the top 25 in the country in assists per game, led by UCLA (4th – 20.4), Michigan State (10th – 18.3), Nebraska (17th – 17.8), Penn State (18th – 17.8), Northwestern (19th – 17.6), Iowa (22nd – 17.5) and USC (23rd – 17.5).
• The Big Ten currently leads all Division I conferences in assists (16.0 apg) and field goal percentage (.446) while standing second in points (73.5 ppg).
• The Big Ten has consistently ranked among the top three conferences in women’s basketball attendance for the past three decades and that trend has continued into the 2024-25 season. Currently, 15 Big Ten schools rank among the top 40 in the nation in average attendance, including 10 in the top 25, with both figures leading all Division I conferences. Iowa is second nationally in attendance (14,998 fans per game), followed by Indiana (4th – 10,828), Maryland (8th – 8,476), Ohio State (13th – 6,705), USC (14th – 5,932), UCLA (15th – 5,891), Nebraska (16th – 5,638), Oregon (18th – 5,374), Purdue (22nd – 5,164) and Illinois (25th – 4,967).
• UCLA spent 12 consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the AP Top 25, a new Big Ten women’s basketball record for weeks atop the rankings.
• The Big Ten closed out its non-conference slate with a .841 win percentage, outperforming the SEC (.808), Big 12 (.776) and ACC (.753).
• The Big Ten has faced numerous ranked non-conference opponents this season and has handed out its fair share of 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; No. 21 Iowa def. No. 18 Iowa State, 75-69; No. 7 USC def. No. 4 UConn, 72-70. 
• On Dec. 2, for the first time in the history of the Big Ten Conference, nine women’s basketball teams were ranked in the Associated Press (AP) poll. The last time any conference had nine teams ranked in the AP poll was in 1996. UCLA remained in the top spot and was joined by No. 6 USC, No. 7 Maryland, No. 12 Ohio State, No. 17 Iowa, No. 21 Illinois, No. 23 Michigan, No. 24 Michigan State and No. 25 Nebraska.
• On Nov. 25, UCLA received 20 first-place votes to overtake South Carolina for the No. 1 spot in the Associated Press (AP) poll. The Bruins handed the Gamecocks their first loss of the season to earn the first No. 1 ranking in program history.
• 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, on Nov. 24. 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.
• 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.