A New No. 1
UCLA's huge win over South Carolina, USC's loss to Notre Dame, and Injuries Are The Worst
This was a specifically big week for the Big Ten. The two new teams on the block with the highest expectations were given its hardest tests, more undefeated records were given new hurdles and oh so many players continue to impress to start the season.
But *the* story of the week starts and ends with UCLA.
Last Week’s Hoopla:
This weekend featured major tests for both USC and UCLA, with the Trojans battling Notre Dame and the Bruins facing South Carolina. Both results were significant, but we’re going to start with the victory, because my goodness what a victory it was.
Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks have not lost a game outside of the NCAA Tournament since Dec. 30, 2021. They have not lost a game by double digits, in any capacity, since Indiana won by 14 on Nov. 28, 2019.
So yes, I would consider UCLA’s 77-62 win over South Carolina yesterday to be a bit significant.
I chose this picture because this was as much a team victory as any you will ever see. UCLA went primarily with an eight-player rotation, and those players scored as such: 15 points, 13 points, 11 points, 11 points, 11 points, 8 points, 5 points, 3 points. This didn’t have the feeling of a potential fluke with one player leading the charge, but instead a call to the nation that the Bruins are a problem that will not be easily dealt with.
That said, there were key players who stepped up in a big way against the defending champs. Lauren Betts continue to looks every part the superstar that was anticipated from her, finishing with 11 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 blocks. Elina Aarnisalo has come from overseas and looked immediately ready to be a key contributor, tallying 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Londynn Jones, after struggling to start the season, hit all five of her threes off the bench for a team-high 15 points.
There were plenty of things to like from individual players, but I was most impressed by how much UCLA came out and dominated South Carolina from the jump. Both teams started cold from the field, but the Bruins scored first and never lost the lead from there. After Angela Dugalič made it 12-2 in that opening frame, the closest the Gamecocks ever got again was nine points down. Bart Torvik never had the Bruins’ win percentage lower than 90 in the second half.
A win like this puts UCLA at the top of the conference, and the nation, for now, especially combined with the other major result we will talk about. The AP voters also agreed and put the Bruins at 1 this afternoon. This team is full of firepower, Betts has been spectacular and there is plenty of depth to back up her excellence. It’s a really well-constructed unit that has the best win in college basketball through three weeks.
On the other end, USC hit its hardest growing pains to date as the star-studded roster continues to figure things out.
Notre Dame was nearly as in control as UCLA was, never trailing on the way to a 74-61 road victory. USC kept it closer for longer, bringing it to a three-point margin three separate times in the second and third quarters, but Notre Dame always had the next basket and consistently kept control away from the Trojans on their own floor.
Something is clear early in the season for USC: This team has a three-point problem. Outside of the 124-39 rout against CSUN, USC has done this from deep across its four other games:
Ole Miss - 1/11 (9.1%)
Cal Poly - 6/28 (21.4%)
Santa Clara - 6/28 (21.4%)
Notre Dame - 1/13 (7.7%)
Four-game total: 14/80 (17.5%)
I knew this would not be USC’s strong suit, but I didn’t anticipate it would start this bad. Even adding in the 17/36 day the team had against CSUN only moves the Trojans three-point percentage up to 265th nationally.
Outside of the obviously not great efficiency, I’m troubled with how little USC is using the three in big games, aka so far against Ole Miss and Notre Dame. It is hard to beat great teams, especially teams that defensively strong, without any help from the perimeter, and that’s more or less what USC is choosing to do by shooting a combined 24 attempts against those teams. As a comparison, Ole Miss and Notre Dame combined to make 13/41 (31.7%) from deep in their matchups against USC.
Past that, I want to see the offense take at least some of the burden off of JuJu Watkins. We all know how talented of a player she is, but this team has outrageous talent behind her as well. It’s been a slow start to Talia von Oelhoffen, but she should be able to let Watkins play more off ball and also get Kiki Iriafen into better positions. Off the bench, it could be worth looking more at Malia Samuels, who has shown the best shooting touch and solid playmaking ability in limited action.
All of that is on offense, but credit to Notre Dame’s superstar guard duo of Olivia Miles and Hannah Hidalgo for taking this game over as well. A combined 44 points, 14 rebounds, 15 assists and 8 steals for those two is a disgusting stat line, and they proved how good they can be together against even the best of competition.
I’m also not panicking on the Trojans at all, this was always going to be the time where they were vulnerable as all the assets are still trying to mesh. Oregon on Dec. 7 is beginning to look like a real fun one, and after that USC gets UConn on Dec. 20. Those two will be great continued benchmarks to see where the unit is as far as its national title aspirations are concerned.
Injuries
The not fun section.
This was a bad week for injuries in the Big Ten. Dream B1G did a great job covering a lot of the ones I am going to talk about here, but some of these are potential short-term concerns with Ohio State’s Cotie McMahon missing time for a leg injury and Sydney Parrish missing Indiana’s final game of a tournament to an apparent knee injury. Both are clearly significant pieces to their respective teams, but both are also huge emotional forces for those teams that are hard to replicate.
Kennedy Smith has been excellent as a true freshman for USC, but she missed that Notre Dame defeat following some sort of procedure that currently leaves her out indefinitely. The Trojans may have a lot of talent, but Smith is one of the team’s brightest future stars, so losing her for a chunk of this season would be a tough blow both for now and for upcoming campaigns.
All of these suck, but these last two hurt the hardest. First, it was announced that Mara Braun broke the same bone in her foot as last season, when she missed the bulk of the final third of the season. She will likely be out for at least a few months, which is a devastating blow for both her and Minnesota, who are again playing great ball at 7-0. I can only hope she again makes a full recovery, because she really is an All-Big Ten player that can lead the Gophers to the NCAA Tournament.
Finally, Natalie Potts. I mentioned the tremendous start to her sophomore campaign last week, and now she’s out for the season with a torn ACL. Nebraska is not the same team without her, and the Cornhuskers lost to rival Creighton later in the week without her. I think Nebraska can still be a great team through Alexis Markowski, but Potts was opening things up and developing her game at a fast rate, and I was really excited to see her continue to blossom. I’m excited to see that in 2025-26 instead.
Iowa Continues Impressing
The Big Ten still has nine undefeated teams after three weeks of games, which makes it hard to talk about all of them despite each of their great starts. These Hooplas are long, but they can’t be that long, so apologies if your team is undefeated and not getting enough coverage yet.
Wanted to circle back to Iowa, who continues putting together strong results to get to 6-0. Bart Torvik has a “Wins Above Bubble” stat to measure the amount of wins any team is better/worse than a team that should be right on the line for the NCAA Tournament, and Iowa currently is third in the NCAA behind only South Carolina and UCLA. (Of note: Oregon, Maryland and Illinois are all in the Top 12 for this stat as well).
That’s all to say that hey, Iowa is winning some not-that-easy games and that should be recognized. On the road against Drake, neutral site vs. Kansas and home against Washington State is a three-game stretch of games the Hawkeyes should be favored in, but for Iowa to win all three by margins of 13, 13 and 29 shows that this team has not lost as much of a step as many expected without Caitlin Clark, including me.
Lucy Olsen (17.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 5.3 APG) has been a huge reason for this, absolutely, but the X-factor thus far is Addison O’Grady. I felt O’Grady was on the verge of being replaced by someone like freshman Ava Heiden, but instead O’Grady has started all six games and has been a force in them.
O’Grady is averaging 15.0 PPG, 4.8 RPG and 1.3 BPG while shooting 66.7% from the field. Every one of those stats is a career high. It’s been a massive jump, and it’s filled a huge offensive void for the Hawkeyes.
Iowa still has big tests coming before conference play (Tennessee, Iowa State), but it’s hard to not already be encouraged by the early results post-Clark, as well as post-Lisa Bluder. Jan Jensen should get credit for getting this team to 6-0, it has not been a gimme slate.
Player Spotlight
A few names I wanted to make sure to highlight amidst the chaos of the week.
Gracie Merkle, Penn State — 28 points, 11 rebounds, 11/14 FG vs. Marshall
Moriah Murray, Penn State — 24 points, 7 rebounds, 7/14 3PT vs. Georgia
The Murray-Merkle duo exchanged big games against their strongest competition yet to keep Penn State undefeated. Murray had a bad shooting day against Marshall and Merkle had seven turnovers against Georgia, so it was nice to see the Nittany Lions overcome some of that anyway thanks to the other co-star.
Kendall Bostic, Illinois — 18.0 PPG, 10.2 RPG, 70.7 FG%
Bostic has been Illinois’ best player during the team’s 5-0 start, and that was cemented by a 31-point performance on 15-of-18 shooting against Oregon State.
Shay Ciezki, Indiana — 34 points, 9/16 FG vs. Baylor
Indiana is an enigma overall, but Ciezki was masterful for the Hoosiers in their upset win over the Bears. Inconsistency is the consistency with the Hoosiers, but Ciezki growing into a more dynamic scorer should help level the team out moving forward.
Syla Swords, Michigan — 1.3 WS, 18.7 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 3.7 APG, 2.5 SPG
Hey so a true freshman leads the Big Ten in win shares right now. Turns out playing well against South Carolina might have been a sign! Swords looks every bit the superstar she was supposed to be, which is really exciting for Michigan’s potential both this season and beyond. Olivia Olson (15.8 PPG, 50.6 FG%) is playing pretty darn well too.
What To Watch
Tournaments
There are so many tournaments this week for the Big Ten, many of which are on networks that I don’t pay for. It’s unfortunate, but there will still be a lot learned from the results of these.
The teams I’m watching closest this week are: Michigan State, Oregon, Illinois and Purdue. The first three are undefeated teams getting some real tests in these tournaments. Purdue I want to see some fight out of, especially against Middle Tennessee State who is a fantastic mid-major program.
Photo Credit: UCLA Women’s Basketball (@UCLAWBB), Twitter/X
If you are interested in more Big Ten women’s basketball content like this, you can subscribe with the button at the top or bottom of the post, or share it with the button below. Thanks!