2024–25 Big Ten Conference women's basketball season

The 2024–25 Big Ten women's basketball season will begin with practices in October 2024, followed by the start of the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November 2024. The regular season will end in March 2025.

2024–25 Big Ten Conference women's basketball season
League	NCAA Division I
Sport	Basketball
Number of teams	18
TV partner(s)	Big Ten Network, Fox, FS1, Peacock
2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season
Season champions	USC
Tournament
Champions	UCLA
Runners-up	USC
Finals MVP	Lauren Betts

2024–25 Big Ten women's basketball standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		PCT			W		L		PCT
No. 5 USC	17	–	1		.944			31	–	4		.886
No. 3 UCLA †	16	–	2		.889			34	–	3		.919
No. 19 Ohio State	13	–	5		.722			26	–	7		.788
No. 12 Maryland	13	–	5		.722			25	–	8		.758
No. 25 Michigan	11	–	7		.611			23	–	11		.676
Michigan State	11	–	7		.611			22	–	10		.688
Illinois	11	–	7		.611			22	–	10		.688
Oregon	10	–	8		.556			20	–	12		.625
Indiana	10	–	8		.556			20	–	13		.606
Nebraska	10	–	8		.556			21	–	12		.636
Iowa	10	–	8		.556			23	–	11		.676
Washington	9	–	9		.500			19	–	14		.576
Minnesota	8	–	10		.444			25	–	11		.694
Wisconsin	4	–	14		.222			13	–	17		.433
Rutgers	3	–	15		.167			13	–	20		.394
Purdue	3	–	15		.167			10	–	19		.345
Northwestern	2	–	16		.111			9	–	18		.333
Penn State	1	–	17		.056			10	–	19		.345
† 2025 Big Ten tournament winner As of April 7, 2025 Rankings from AP poll

The season will be the conference's first with 18 teams as four schools, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington, joined the conference in August 2024.^[1][2][3] The conference announced that all teams will play 18 regular season conference games with each school playing one school both home and away, while facing 16 teams once.^[4] However, only 15 of the 18 teams will qualify for the Big Ten tournament.^[5]

Head coaches

Coaching changes

Iowa

On May 13, 2024, Lisa Bluder retired as head coach at Iowa after 24 years.^[6] Longtime Iowa associate head coach Jan Jensen was named Bluder's successor later that day.^[7]

Coaches

Team	Head coach	Previous job	Years at school	Overall record	Big Ten record	Big Ten titles	Big Ten Tournament titles	NCAA Tournaments	NCAA Final Fours	NCAA Championships
Illinois	Shauna Green	Dayton	3	41–25	19–17	0	0	1	0	0
Indiana	Teri Moren	Indiana State	11	226–99	114–60	1	0	6	0	0
Iowa	Jan Jensen	Iowa (Assoc.)	1	0–0	0–0	2	5	18	2	0
Maryland	Brenda Frese	Minnesota	23	582–161	146–29*	6	5	20	3	1
Michigan	Kim Barnes Arico	St. John's (Asst.)	13	261–133	118–84	0	0	7	0	0
Michigan State	Robyn Fralick	Bowling Green	2	22–9	12–6	0	0	1	0	0
Minnesota	Dawn Plitzuweit	West Virginia	2	20–16	5–13	0	0	0	0	0
Nebraska	Amy Williams	South Dakota	9	137–111	69–72	0	0	3	0	0
Northwestern	Joe McKeown	George Washington	17	261–246	108–166	0	0	2	0	0
Ohio State	Kevin McGuff	Washington	12	198–102	103–57	4	1	7	0	0
Oregon	Kelly Graves	Gonzaga	11	223–100	0–0	0	0	5	0	0
Penn State	Carolyn Kieger	Marquette	4	63–86	25–66	0	0	0	0	0
Purdue	Katie Gearlds	Marian	4	51–45	21–32	0	0	1	0	0
Rutgers	Coquese Washington	Notre Dame (Assoc.)	3	20–44	7–29	0	0	0	0	0
UCLA	Cori Close	Florida State (Assoc.)	14	287–140	0–0	0	0	8	1	0
USC	Lindsay Gottlieb	Cleveland Cavaliers (Asst.)	4	62–32	0–0	0	0	2	0	0
Washington	Tina Langley	Rice	4	42–46	0–0	0	0	0	0	0
Wisconsin	Marisa Moseley	Boston University	4	34–56	17–36	0	0	0	0	0

Notes:

• All records, appearances, titles, etc. are from time with current school only.
• Year at school includes 2024–25season.
• Overall and Big Ten records are from time at current school and are through the beginning of the season.
• Frese's ACC conference record excluded since Maryland began Big Ten Conference play in 2014–15.

Preseason

Preseason Big Ten poll

Prior to the conference's annual media day, conference standings were projected by a panel of writers.^[8]

Rank	Team
1	USC
2	UCLA
3	Ohio State
4	Maryland
5	Indiana

Preseason All-Big Ten

A select media panel named a preseason All-Big Ten team and player of the year.^[8]

Honor	Recipient
Preseason Player of the Year	JuJu Watkins, USC
Preseason All-Big Ten Team	Makira Cook, Illinois
	Hannah Stuelke, Iowa
	Lucy Olsen, Iowa
	Shyanne Sellers, Maryland
	Alexis Markowski, Nebraska
	Cotie McMahon, Ohio State
	Lauren Betts, UCLA
	Kiki Rice, UCLA
	JuJu Watkins, USC
	Kiki Iriafen, USC
	Serah Williams, Wisconsin

• Additional player due to tie in voting

Regular season

Rankings

Main article: 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball rankings

Awards and honors

Players of the Week

Throughout the conference regular season, Big Ten Conference offices named two players (Player and Freshman) of the week each Monday.

Week	Player of the week	Freshman of the week
November 11, 2024[9]	Destiny Adams, Rutgers	Syla Swords, Michigan
November 18, 2024[10]	Lauren Betts, UCLA	Mila Holloway, Michigan
November 25, 2024[11]	Kendall Bostic, Illinois	Lana McCarthy, Purdue
December 2, 2024[12]	Ajae Petty, Ohio State	Syla Swords, Michigan
December 9, 2024[13]	JuJu Watkins, USC	Olivia Olson, Michigan
December 16, 2024[14]	Serah Williams, Wisconsin	Kiyomi McMiller, Rutgers
December 23, 2024[15]	JuJu Watkins, USC	Kiyomi McMiller, Rutgers
January 6, 2025[16]	Kaylene Smikle, Maryland JuJu Watkins, USC	Tori McKinney, Minnesota
January 13, 2025[17]	JuJu Watkins, USC	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State
January 20, 2025[18]	Shyanne Sellers, Maryland	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State Britt Prince, Nebraska
January 27, 2025[19]	Lauren Betts, UCLA	Avery Howell, USC
February 3, 2025[20]	Lucy Olsen, Iowa Genesis Bryant, Illinois	Olivia Olson, Michigan
February 10, 2025[21]	Kaylene Smikle, Maryland	Syla Swords, Michigan
February 17, 2025[22]	JuJu Watkins, USC	Ava Watson, Ohio State
February 24, 2025[23]	JuJu Watkins, USC Lauren Betts, UCLA	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State
March 3, 2025[24]	JuJu Watkins, USC	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State

All-Big Ten awards and teams

On March 4, 2025, the Big Ten announced its conference awards.^[25][26]

Honor	Coaches	Media
Player of the Year	JuJu Watkins, USC	JuJu Watkins, USC
Coach of the Year	Lindsay Gottlieb, USC	Lindsay Gottlieb, USC
Freshman of the Year	Olivia Olson, Michigan	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State
Defensive Player of the Year	Lauren Betts, UCLA	Lauren Betts, UCLA
Sixth Player of the Year	Janiah Barker, UCLA	Janiah Barker, UCLA
All-Big Ten First Team*	Lauren Betts, UCLA	Lauren Betts, UCLA
	Kendall Bostic, Illinois	Kendall Bostic, Illinois
	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State	Kiki Iriafen, USC
	Kiki Iriafen, USC	Alexis Markowski, Nebraska
	Cotie McMahon, Ohio State	Cotie McMahon, Ohio State
	Lucy Olsen, Iowa	Lucy Olsen, Iowa
	Kiki Rice, UCLA	Kiki Rice, UCLA
	Shyanne Sellers, Maryland	Shyanne Sellers, Maryland
	JuJu Watkins, USC	Kaylene Smikle, Maryland
	Serah Williams, Wisconsin	JuJu Watkins, USC
	Not Selected[a]	Serah Williams, Wisconsin
All-Big Ten Second Team	Destiny Adams, Rutgers	Destiny Adams, Rutgers
	Julia Ayrault, Michigan State	Julia Ayrault, Michigan State
	Genesis Bryant, Illinois	Genesis Bryant, Illinois
	Yarden Garzon, Indiana	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State
	Elle Ladine, Washington	Yarden Garzon, Indiana
	Alexis Markowski, Nebraska	Elle Ladine, Washington
	Olivia Olson, Michigan	Olivia Olson, Michigan
	Kaylene Smikle, Maryland	Hannah Stuelke, Iowa
	Syla Swords, Michigan	Syla Swords, Michigan
	Grace VanSlooten, Michigan State	Grace VanSlooten, Michigan State
All-Freshman Team	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State	Jaloni Cambridge, Ohio State
	Olivia Olson, Michigan	Olivia Olson, Michigan
	Britt Prince, Nebraska	Britt Prince, Nebraska
	Kennedy Smith, USC	Kennedy Smith, USC
	Syla Swords, Michigan	Syla Swords, Michigan
All-Defensive Team	Lauren Betts, UCLA	Lauren Betts, UCLA
	Rayah Marshall, USC	Rayah Marshall, USC
	Taylor Thierry, Ohio State	Taylor Thierry, Ohio State
	JuJu Watkins, USC	JuJu Watkins, USC
	Serah Williams, Wisconsin	Serah Williams, Wisconsin

Notes

1. The media's All-Big Ten First Team had 11 members due to a tie in voting.

Postseason

NCAA tournament

Main article: 2025 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament

Seed	Region	School	First Four	First round	Second round	Sweet Sixteen	Elite Eight	Final Four	Championship
1	S4	USC		W 71–25 vs. (16) Greensboro	W 96–59 vs. (9) Mississippi State	W 67–61 vs. (5) Kansas State	L 64–78 vs. (2) UConn	DNP
1	S1	UCLA		W 84–46 vs. (16) Southern	W 84–67 vs. (8) Richmond	W 76–62 vs. (5) Ole Miss	W 72–65 vs. (3) LSU	L 51–85 vs. (2) UConn	DNP
4	B3	Ohio State		W 71–51 vs. (13) Montana State	L 67–82 vs. (5) Tennessee	DNP
4	B2	Maryland		W 82–69 vs. (13) Norfolk State	W 111–108 vs. (5) Alabama	L 67–71 vs. (1) South Carolina	DNP
6	B3	Michigan		W 80–74 vs. (11) Iowa State	L 55–76 vs. (3) Notre Dame	DNP
6	S4	Iowa		W 92–57 vs. (11) Murray State	L 62–96 vs. (3) Oklahoma	DNP
7	S1	Michigan State		W 64–50 vs. (10) Harvard	L 49–83 vs. (2) NC State	DNP
8	B3	Illinois		W 66–57 vs. (9) Creighton	L 48–65 vs. (1) Texas	DNP
9	B2	Indiana		W 76–68 vs. (8) Utah	L 53–64 vs. (1) South Carolina	DNP
10	B2	Oregon		W 77–73 vs. (7) Vanderbilt	L 53–59 vs. (2) Duke	DNP
10	B3	Nebraska		L 58–63 vs. (7) Louisville	DNP
11	B2	Washington	L 60–63 vs. (6) Columbia	DNP
		W–L (%):	0–1 (.000)	10–1 (.909)	3–7 (.300)	2–1 (.667)	1–1 (.500)	0–1 (.000)	– (–)
Total: 16–12 (.571)