Hello, Sparty
Michigan State and Iowa continue to impress as conference games approach
Ryan Day should be fired.
Now that I have gotten that out of my system, time for hoops!
Note: Like many of you may also be feeling on this fine Monday, it was hard for me to immediately start firing on all cylinders after an extended week of Doing Very Little. With that said, apologies if this Hoopla feels a little less in depth than usual.
Last Week’s Hoopla:
Thanksgiving week meant a large list of non-conference tournaments that raised the competition for many Big Ten teams. And yet, seven of the 18 teams in the conference remain undefeated, with four others having just one loss.
Some of these undefeated teams continued finding wins without getting significantly tested (Maryland, UCLA, USC), while I’m still waiting for a few others to get a more difficult opponent to get the right litmus test (Minnesota, Penn State). Undefeated is undefeated all the same, and the Nittany Lions held on in overtime for one of those wins this week which is worth recognizing.
All that said, it’s these other two undefeated Big Ten programs that really impressed me this week, and both are proving that they deserved to be a higher tier than I thought heading into the season.
Michigan State spent its first weeks of the season absolutely throttling opponents. The closest margin of victory was 37 points across the Spartans’ first six contests. That was all impressive, but I needed to see Michigan State earn a tough one to prove to me where the group stands.
The Acrisure Classic showed me exactly that. The Spartans faced two previously undefeated teams — Cal and Vanderbilt — and took both of them down in come-from-behind fashion.
Michigan State’s win probability reached as low as 6.3% and 11.4% against the Golden Bears and Commodores, respectively, and both of those low percentages were late in the third quarters. And yet, Sparty found monster fourth quarters both time to come back and earn their two most significant wins so far.
Cal really stifled Michigan State inside the arc, where the Spartans shot 17 of 50 (34.0%) on the day. The Golden Bears led 58-42 late in that third quarter, but a variety of Spartans got involved in a 27-6 run that put Michigan State up three in the final four minutes, a lead it would not give up the rest of the way.
Nyla Hampton’s 10 points on a perfect 4-of-4 shooting were massive on a day where both Julia Ayrault (7 of 20) and Grace VanSlooten (3 of 12) struggled to get it going Ayrault did finish with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 4 blocks in spite of that to lead the way.
That was a great win on its own, but the Spartans followed it up with an extremely similar victory against a potentially even stronger opponent in Vanderbilt. The Commodores had a 49-41 lead with a little over a minute left in the third quarter, but Michigan State went on a 15-2 run, eight of which were by VanSlooten, to get a five-point lead early into the fourth.
The game was far from over from there, but Ayrault made some big buckets late to ice the game and earn Sparty the tournament trophy. Unlike against Cal, Vanderbilt shut down Michigan State’s three-point shooting (4 of 12) and forced 24 Spartan turnovers. The difference was the Ayrault-VanSlooten duo. VanSlooten’s 25 points, 10 rebounds and 5 steals, along with tournament MVP Ayrault’s 24 points, 12 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks were simply too much for Vandy to overcome.
All of a sudden, that 8-0 record includes some great non-con wins along with those outrageous blowouts. Consider me sold on Robyn Fralick’s Spartans once again.
No Olsen, No Problem
Iowa is still here in a big way.
The Hawkeyes have had a relatively difficult non-conference schedule with four neutral site games, a home matchup with Washington State and a road matchup with a pesky Drake team. And yet, Iowa is 8-0, and has done so in very impressive fashion.
This week, the Hawkeyes took down Rhode Island and BYU in the Cancun Classic, winning the first 69-62 and the second 68-48. Those are low-scoring battles, especially for Iowa standards, but the team was able to grind out two victories that proved a lot to me in the process.
Both of these victories came without Lucy Olsen, Iowa’s transfer point guard who had been playing excellently through the first six contests. Jan Jensen went to freshman Taylor Stremlow in the starting lineup, and while Stremlow didn’t get overly involved, it was promising to see the Hawkeyes able to adapt and overcome a big loss to find more victories against teams very capable of pulling the upset.
I need to continue signing the praises of Addison O’Grady, who is playing easily the best basketball of her collegiate career. I was curious of O’Grady would get passed in the rotation by some new faces, and instead she’s blossomed into a massive scorer inside next to Hannah Stuelke. O’Grady led the team with 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting against the Rams, then followed that with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting against the Cougars.
O’Grady and Stuelke are leading this new-look Iowa offense, which has unsurprisingly lost some of its three-point dominance but has kept its high-efficiency two-point attack in spite of it. Iowa is hitting 57.7% from inside the arc, eighth-best nationally. That, along with an elite rebounding rate (56.3%, 30th) and improved defense (34.8 FG% allowed, 22nd) is what’s keeping Iowa elite, and I have really liked the adaptations that have been made by Jensen and co. to keep the ball rolling the right way.
Player Spotlight
Syla Swords, Michigan — 38 points, 14 rebounds, 9/18 3PT in 2 games this week
Olivia Olson, Michigan — 34 points, 17 rebounds, 11/23 FG, in 2 games this week
Michigan beat Belmont and Virginia Tech this week off the back of Olson and Swords, who are once again TRUE FRESHMEN. The Wolverines still only have that one loss to South Carolina, and Swords (2nd) and Olson (9th) both currently rank in the Top 10 in win shares among all Big Ten players. Scary, scary scenes for the rest of the conference.
Sayvia Sellers, Washington — 24 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals, 9/18 FG vs. LSU
The Huskies were oh so close to taking down LSU, but ultimately fell 68-67. Sellers was tremendous in the game and has continued to be extremely efficient as a scorer to start her sophomore season. She’s currently sixth in the Big Ten with 1.4 win shares.
Gracie Merkle, Penn State — 31 points, 11 rebounds, 11/17 FG vs. Drexel
The Nittany Lions had to survive a scare from the Dragons to stay undefeated, and Merkle was the player they turned to. She was fantastic in this one and looks to be a foundational piece of Penn State’s build moving forward.
What To Watch
CONFERENCE GAMES START THIS WEEK.
This weekend is going to give us our first taste of Big Ten action before the real thing starts in Late December. There’s also a few banger non-conference games left to sort out.
Penn State vs. St. John’s, 12/2, 7 p.m. EST, BTN
A great test for the Lions to keep their undefeated record alive heading into Indiana. This is also such a fun clash of styles: St. John’s currently has the third slowest pace in the country, while Penn State has the 14th-fastest.
Northwestern vs. DePaul, 12/4, 8 p.m., B1G+
An in-state battle I would really like to see Northwestern win. The Wildcats have won 3 of their last 4 and are getting solid contributions from Taylor Williams (13.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG). DePaul is 3-5, but has played steep competition, which makes me think this one will be close.
No. 17 Iowa vs. Tennessee, 12/7, 7 p.m., FOX
Oh yeah this is on BANGER alert. Tennessee has dominated all five teams it has played, but we will learn a lot about the Vols when they play Florida State on Wednesday. Regardless, this will be a huge huge game for the Hawkeyes, who will hopefully have Lucy Olsen available by then.
Conference Games
Indiana at Penn State, 12/7, 1 p.m., B1G+
No. 7 Maryland at Purdue, 12/7, 2 p.m., B1G+
No. 6 USC at Oregon, 12/7, 4 p.m., BTN
Northwestern at No. 23 Michigan, 12/8, 2 p.m., B1G+
Minnesota at No. 25 Nebraska, 12/8, 2 p.m., BTN
Rutgers at Wisconsin, 12/8, 3 p.m., B1G+
No. 21 Illinois at No. 12 Ohio State, 12/8, 4 p.m., BTN
No. 1 UCLA at Washington, 12/8, 5 p.m., B1G+
I bolded the ones here that I find the most intriguing, but every single one of these games is going to give us great intel on where these teams actually sit in the Big Ten picture. Only Iowa and Michigan State — ironically the teams I discussed most here — will miss out on this action. Watch as many of these as you can IMO!
Photo Credit: Michigan State Women’s Basketball (@MSU_WBasketball), Twitter/X
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