INDIANAPOLIS — This was the new supersized Big Ten women’s tournament: Fifteen teams, 13 states and three time zones represented. Old faces from the Midwest, new faces from the West. 13 of the top 43 teams in the latest NET rankings. When it came time to decide on the championship Sunday, two programs 14 miles apart met in an arena 2,000 miles from campus.
This league has the makings of a monster of a conference in women’s basketball. By many projections, 13 of the 15 teams who played here are headed for the NCAA tournament. USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said the Big Ten’s depth impressed her quickly. “The fact that we have teams that are 10, 11, 12 seeds here who might be a better seed in the national tournament is wild, right?” she said.
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So what happened when this far-flung, made-for-TV family finally all got together? Here are some takeaways from five days in Indy.
The road to the top in Big Ten women’s basketball at the moment is the Santa Monica Freeway in Los Angeles.
The league excels in depth, but the alpha teams seem clear enough — the new neighbors from the West Coast. When No. 2 USC and No. 4 UCLA entered Gainbridge Fieldhouse Sunday on a blue carpet with their bands playing from the club level, the teams owned a combined record of 57-4. USC had won the season league title, UCLA finished second and everyone else was at least three games back in the haze. UCLA was 29-0 against every team in the world not named USC, but the Bruins were 0-2 against the Trojans.
It was UCLA’s turn Sunday, rallying from 13 points down in the third quarter to push past USC 72-67 as the Trojans, who had more strenuous earlier round games, appeared to lose a little pop. They missed 28 of 36 shots in the second half, including 15 in a row. There was no holding the Bruins back, even with 24 UCLA turnovers. Tournament MVP Lauren Betts, in the middle, had only three fewer field goals in the second half than the entire USC team. Just as well for the Bruins’ state of mind going into the NCAA tournament. They might be ranked No. 4 in the land but an 0-3 record against their crosstown cousins would have been unsettling.
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“I think it’s interesting, as good as we’ve been, we’re not as confident as you would think,” coach Cori Close said. “I think you want your team hungry and edgy going into the NCAA tournament but also really confident. I think our team earned some confidence tonight, and I think that’s going to go a long way.”
Chatting before their first meeting, Gottlieb mentioned to Close that it’d be great if they could meet four times. Three down, one to go. Since both are possible No. 1 seeds, the last would likely come in the Final Four. Both seem entirely capable of getting there.
“My guess is this is going to make us even better and that (Sunday’s second) half of basketball will be out of us,” Gottlieb said of the loss. “We’re not done.”
One odd thing about Sunday’s game. The Trojans hadn’t won a Pac-12 season title in 31 years, the Bruins not for 25. Blame Stanford.
But it’s in a different league now, and it didn’t take long to make an impression.
JuJu Watkins is really good.
USC’s Watkins went for 31, 20 and 29 points in three tournament games, with lots of rebounds, assists and defensive plays, too. The stakes are getting higher, and the odds for her to be Player of the Year are getting shorter. She has become one of the main faces of the sport post Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
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Gottlieb had one glowing report after another on her sophomore star.
“Think about what she handles on the offensive end. We get her the ball as much as we can. There’s multiple bodies draped on her. She takes a lot of contact. She’s a physical player. Then we say, oh, by the way, impact the game defensively, too. She takes no breaks. She takes no breaks. The things that she does, I never take any of it for granted.”
And . . .
“Obviously, her excellence is on display, and it’s got its handprints over everything we’ve done and will continue to do.”
And . . .
“I think she’s the Player of the Year nationally for a number of different reasons.”
This has always been a good conference. Come Selection Sunday, the bracket will scream it’s even better.
Thirteen teams? That would mean nearly one of every five participants in the NCAA tournament carries the Big Ten label. Part of it comes down to math. “We added four NCAA tournament teams, which is a pretty big addition, two top-five teams, obviously really upped the level of the league,” Michigan State coach Robyn Fralick said. “We went from a really good league to an absolutely unbelievable league.”
Ditto, said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “I know all the time with the media, we hear about the SEC and the ACC and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But we have some incredible, incredible teams in our league and incredible players in our league and incredible coaches.”
“The middle of our pack this season was insane.”
The Big Ten has been great for the newcomers, except when it isn’t.
The vast geography has created the need to adapt. USC and Oregon played their first games here at 9 a.m., Trojans and Ducks time. “People in Eugene were drinking coffee this morning when we tipped it off,” Oregon coach Kelly Graves said. “That’s not why we lost the game; Indiana beat us, but that’s tough.”
The travel is relentless, the weather a cold slap in the face. Literally.
Gottlieb listed all the things the first season had taught her about the Big Ten. Plentiful talent, great crowds. “The love of women’s basketball out here has been very prevalent for us,” she said.
Yeah, but . . .
“I would say our players definitely learned there’s cold, and there’s Midwest cold. It hits them different every time we got off of the plane. We had some real deep freezes getting out here, and I think it makes them appreciate living in L.A. just a little bit more.”
Graves has seen a lot in nearly three decades as a head coach at three schools and tried to put this first trek in perspective.
“The positives first: As a coach who’s been in the game for a long time, I actually enjoyed going to some places that I’ve never been before. Not everybody in the Pac-12 draws like they do in the Big Ten, so to be on the road and play in front of a lot of people actually is exciting and fun.”
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Yeah, but . . .
“The travel is real. We never made it an issue. We traveled more than anybody. Four trips across the country is real, and it gets to you. And with the temperatures that we see, like when we played in Minneapolis and Lincoln, I don’t think it got above zero. It’s not like you can go outside and do anything. You just live in the hotel. I think that wears on you. I can say it now because the season the Big Ten part of the season is over, but there was far more good than bad, really.”
Iowa is still playing basketball without anyone wearing No. 22.
This was during the Hawkeyes’ win over Michigan State: One spectator in the courtside seats was on her feet, arms spread, pleading with the officials as they ran past.
Wait a second. Wasn’t that Caitlin Clark?
Yep. She was in the house, rooting for her alma mater. Seeing her sitting in civilian clothes across the court from the Iowa bench was a vivid reminder of the stern challenge and uncertain landscape these Hawkeyes faced.
“It was big shoes when they all started. Their shadows were looming,” said coach Jan Jensen. Many things were new in the year 1 AC (after Caitlin), including the coach. The Hawkeyes started fine but then hit a large pothole, losing five Big Ten games in a row.
“I remember looking at their eyes, we were at a Seattle University. We just lost by one point at Oregon,” Jensen said. “Boy, it was tough sledding for everybody to get up and get on the plane and fly up to Washington. But we had a really good meeting, and I just kept saying, hey, we’re closer than we’re farther.”
Iowa, at times, could have used Clark’s late-game magic. The past five losses included two in overtime and three in regulation by one, one and two points. But here the Hawkeyes are 22-10, after a stirring run through the Big Ten tournament, beating Wisconsin for the 31st consecutive time, upsetting Michigan State, and nearly doing the same thing to Ohio State before losing 60-59.
“At the beginning of the season, we were trying to figure out our identity and had a lot of moving pieces,” said Lucy Olsen, who transferred from Villanova to become Iowa’s leading scorer. “But now we found it. It just took some time.”
Olsen did not blink in deciding to come to Iowa to help a program move on from a superstar.
“You can’t make too much of that. I just tried to figure out what I could do best to help us win, focus on the present, not so much the past,” she said. “It wasn’t like a shadow or a negative thing, but it’s more of this is really cool; I get to step into this position and try to make something happen and keep this legacy going.”’
One thing hasn’t changed at Iowa. The place is always full, Clark or no Clark. Non-stop sellouts of that familiar number 14,998, from the opener against Northern Iowa to Senior Day with Wisconsin. The average attendance was behind only South Carolina in women’s basketball, higher than all but 12 men’s programs, and nearly 6,000 more than the Iowa men.
“I don’t think any of us really expected that,” Olsen said. “We were hoping that everyone stayed for this team.”
Great depth, great attendance, great stars, two great teams at the top. But there’s still the one question, right?
The Big Ten features gender equity in March frustration. The men haven’t produced a national champion in 25 years, and the women haven’t done it in 26. As strong as this league claims to be—and is—a trophy would be a powerful argument—possibly a necessary one.
“If we want to be a league that is about elite and championships and setting the standard of excellence, that’s going to be the rising tide that lifts all boats, right?” Close said. “One of the things I’m really proud of in being a part of this league is that we are lifting each other up. We are making each other better.”
“We want to do something special as a conference, and I think that when that happens _- I don’t think it’s a matter of if, it’s a matter of when that happens — I think that there will be a collective celebration because we want to hold ourselves to championship standards.”
There might be 13 chances to do something about that in a couple of weeks.
