Road Statements
Maryland and UCLA stay undefeated in style, Washington's win streak and the situation in Piscataway
Look at that, our first Hoopla of 2025! Most Big Ten teams are four games into their conference schedules, and we still have three groups that have a zero in the loss column across the entire season.
While Ohio State avoided a significant test for another week, both UCLA and Maryland were forced to go on the road in difficult environments to remain perfect, and both showed they were up for the task.
Last Week’s Hoopla:
The Bruins opened the new year at home with a comfortable 16-point win over a ranked Michigan team. Syla Swords scored 30, but UCLA did what it does best: Destroy teams with a little bit of everyone. Kiki Rice with 16 points and 10 assists, Lauren Betts with 13 points 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks, Londynn Jones (13), Gabriela Jaquez (12) and Angela Dugalić (12) with 37 combined points as the team shot 55.6% from the field and had 29 assists. It’s just beautiful basketball.
That wasn’t always the case during UCLA’s next game against Indiana. Assembly Hall is a difficult place to play, and the Bruins mostly were not able to find the same success. Kiki Rice had seven assists, but shot 3-of-13. Only three UCLA players were in double figures.
But one of those players was Betts, who put on a showcase as to why she deserves national recognition. Betts finished with 25 points on 12-of-16 shooting and had three assists and a pair of blocks to go with it. Her performance rated as the highest by any Big Ten player this week in Sean Henderson’s (@wesean4) Game Score metric I referenced in last week’s Hoopla. She dominated the interior, and was a big part of smothering the Hoosiers attack in UCLA’s 73-62 win.
Indiana fought well and stayed close early, but a five-point second quarter stifled that momentum, and the Hoosiers weren’t able to ever fully close that gap despite staying close most of the rest of the game.
The Bruins are the nation’s No. 1 team and have gotten the proper notice for the undefeated start. On the other hand, Maryland’s 13-0 opening has not been as impressive, at least according to the computer metrics. The Terps have also consistently remained in a similar spot just inside the Top 10 in the AP Poll and are, in my view, not getting proper respect for the wins they have.
My view was only solidified yesterday as the Terrapins controlled large portions of a huge win on the road against Iowa. The NET wasn’t overly pleased with a single-digit win, but this was a mostly comfortable victory that never saw the Terps fall below 80% win expectancy in the second half (via Bart Torvik).
One of Maryland’s key strengths in this 14-0 start has been its rebounding prowess, but Iowa actually won the boards battle 44-41. Instead, the Terps won this game off the back of impressive three-point shooting, hitting 12 of 25 from deep. The dozen makes were the most Maryland has made in any game this season.
Kaylene Smikle is a real special talent. The Rutgers transfer led all scorers with 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting, hit 4-of-5 from deep and also had five rebounds and SIX steals. FIFTEEN of Iowa’s 21 turnovers in the game were Maryland steals, but no one was more impactful on the floor than Smikle.
Maryland has things to work on — the Terps were 11 of 42 from inside the arc against the Hawkeyes, 26.2%! — but it’s a deep roster past the greatness Smikle has been providing. Shyanne Sellers had an inefficient shooting day, but made up for it on the free throw line and finished with 17 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Bri McDaniel was excellent in this game, adding 13 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals off the bench. Saylor Poffenbarger had 3 steals and 2 blocks in what was otherwise an off showing, but Maryland has the weapons to afford some off games from time to time.
The Iowa game is the first of an abundance of tests coming Maryland’s way the next few weeks. Minnesota, Ohio State, Texas, UCLA and USC are coming to see what this Terps unit is truly capable of.
Gophers, Huskies Continue Rising
The Big Ten’s top four — the three undefeateds plus USC — are all on 10-plus-game win streaks. The next two longest current streaks? That’s right, it’s Minnesota and Washington, whose five- and four-game runs deserve loads of credit.
The Gophers lost Mara Braun from Jan. 28-March 26 last season. They went 2-9 without her in that span, with the lone wins being against Rutgers and Northwestern. When Braun went down for a similar injury five games into this season, I feared Minnesota would again struggle to hit their full potential.
Here we are, 16 games into the regular season, and Minnesota is 15-1. Most recently, the Gophers have beaten Penn State by 36, Wisconsin on the road and an Illinois team that has been ranked much of the start of this season. That’s more than not bad, I’d even go out on a limb to call it good!
The key to this run has been a dedication to sucking the soul out of their foes. Opponents have averaged 53 PPG in Minnesota’s current win streak. Outside of giving up 84 in the loss to Nebraska, the Gophers have held every other team to 61 points or less.
Dawn Plitzuweit has this team playing slow, methodical basketball, and my god it’s working. Minnesota’s pace ranks 306th, and its opponents field goal percentage (34.8%) ranks 11th. Most importantly, the Gophers are phenomenal at avoiding mistakes, with a 11.5% turnover rate that ranks first in the country. Amaya Battle has led the charge in the improvement here, going from 3.8 to 1.6 turnovers per game while still dishing out 4.2 assists per contest. Her growth, and the maturity Minnesota’s roster has shown overall, has proven to me they are a legitimate team to worry about.
The NET Rankings do not mean everything, but for what they are worth, they are saying one big, large thing right now: Take Washington seriously. The Huskies have jumped 30 spots in three weeks from 83 to 53. That’s second in the Big Ten to Purdue’s 42-spot leap up to No. 125, but Washington has done this primarily through wins instead of closer-than-expected losses.
Like Minnesota, the Huskies play at a slow pace, but they have sped it up a bit since moving into the Big Ten. That said, the Washington defense has had a lot of success avoiding fouls (17.1% foul rate, 18th in NCAA) and scaring teams off the three-point line (26.6 opponent 3PT%, 23.8% 3PT rate, 44th and 18th in the NCAA). The Huskies are also not good at getting to the line (356th in FT rate), but have ran a very efficient offense that works through a variety of lenses.
Sayvia Sellers and Elle Ladine have both been terrific this season, co-leading the team with 15.2 PPG apiece. Sellers’ 3.4 APG and 44.6 3PT% are both key areas of growth that are taking her game to the next level as a sophomore. I’m also taking note of Dalayah Daniels, who had a slightly quiet start to the year but has begun to really make an impact in this recent win streak.
Daniels’ top-scoring games this season are against Northwestern (20 points), Illinois (16) and UCLA (14), also known as the only three Big Ten opponents the Huskies have faced. Ladine just scored 40 in that Northwestern win. Three of Washington’s losses are extremely understandable ones against LSU (by 1), Utah (by 10) and UCLA (by 11). This is a team that has put themselves in position to be in the NCAA Tournament picture, something I did not necessarily anticipate from the Huskies from their first year in the conference.
The Kiyomi McMiller Situation
Kiyomi McMiller is a true freshman guard at Rutgers who has done some incredible things to start her collegiate career. She’s a five-star prospect with legitimately unbelievable dribble moves and natural scoring ability that can make her a star.
On Sunday, McMiller was absent in USC’s demolition of the Scarlet Knights. She was absent due to a coach’s decision, that much is clear. Reports say that it involved some sort of an altercation with a teammate in the locker room, but neither McMiller nor head coach Coquese Washington have spoken on specifics of what happened.
That does not mean we haven’t heard from McMiller, oh it definitely does not mean that. McMiller released a statement on Instagram prior to the game, apologizing to the fans for not playing based on a decision “made by my Head Coach Coquese Washington.” Following the loss, McMiller has reposted numerous things on her Instagram story, including posts highlighting how the loss was the worst in program history, how the team needs her and one now-deleted repost that had her name tagged with “Transfer Portal Immediately.”
An advisor for McMiller, Leonard Ellerbe, called the suspension “shocking” in a NJ.com article you can read here. Outside of the Instagram stories, he appears to be the spokesperson for McMiller to the public for now, but this all quickly left the contain of the Rutgers locker room when McMiller posted about her absence. Who knows if the portal threat was genuine, but the situation appears rocky at best between Washington and McMiller as it currently stands.
McMiller is averaging 19.9 PPG, 5.4 RPG and 3.2 APG this season, shooting 43.5% from the field and 37.8% from deep on high volume. I say all of that to emphasize that she is absolutely a special talent that can make a significant impact to many programs based on what I have seen on the court. That said, a public post and subsequent jabs on your team and head coach after the suspension is not what I would call an excellent look. I don’t know what occurred to cause the suspension, but there were better ways to go about this no matter who was at fault or what occurred to lead to the suspension.
Rutgers’ next game is Wednesday against Minnesota, and I will be very curious to see if McMiller plays, and what she looks like on the court if she does. As mentioned, the Gophers are putting just about every team they face into the trash compactor, so it is a tough test for a team that is now battling a three-game losing streak, a fresh 50-point loss and internal conflicts that have gone very public.
*WHAT TO WATCH*
Real quick, Wednesday (1/8) has Ohio State-Michigan and USC-Maryland. Unrelated, but it also has Cavs-Thunder, so get all the screens out for Wednesday evening, the hoops are going to deliver.
Photo Credit: Scott Eklund/Red Box Pictures, Washington Athletics
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