Not to ruin everyone’s mood immediately, but today has not been a great one for me. Lulu, my family dog since high school, was put down today. She is one of the weirdest dogs I’ve ever known, absolutely hated eye contact of any sort, but also was always there for you and wouldn’t hurt a soul.
I knew her time was running out, but getting told that it was happening today still crushed me all the same. Cherish your pets, please, and pour one out for Lulu today, an elite dog.
I thought about delaying the newsletter because, well, I’m certainly not having a great time, but I also think that times like these are why I made Hoopla in the first place. This is a newsletter I made as an escape of sorts, as a way to talk about things I love every week, and these Monday posts have especially delivered on that exactly how I had hoped.
So, let me escape from my sadness and tell you about Big Ten women’s basketball, who, generally, was just awful last week. Oops.
The ACC Put the Big Ten into the Dirt
The Big Ten-ACC challenge gave us a chance to see just how good this conference is in a battle against a conference that seemingly was, at the least, even on paper to it.
Of the 14 matchups between the conferences, the Big Ten won four:
Purdue vs. Georgia Tech (53-52)
Nebraska vs. Wake Forest (86-60, you know we will be talking about that)
Maryland vs. Miami (82-74)
Northwestern vs. Clemson (72-61)
Some of the losses were forgivable. Specifically, Indiana fighting NC State wire to wire for a 66-58 defeat that was much closer than that final score indicates. Michigan State also kept it close against a good Notre Dame squad, as did Illinois against Florida State.
A lot of these other results, though, put it into question if the Big Ten is not quite what I thought it was, at least not right now.
For starters, Michigan 48, Louisville 70. I thought the Cardinals would win, I did not think that the Wolverines would look like children in comparison. No Amy Dilk and a likely not fully healthy Leigha Brown didn’t help things, but Naz Hillmon scoring 12 points, turning it over five times and shooting only nine attempts in 36 minutes is very much not what you want. It is Michigan’s first loss of the year, but it should serve as a wake-up call.
How about Ohio State giving up 97 points to a Syracuse team that came in 3-4 with a loss to another Big Ten foe, Minnesota, already on the résumé? By the way, the Orange hadn’t scored more than 87 all year prior to this game, and that was in a 41-point bludgeoning of Monmouth.
Offensively, Jacy Sheldon (23 points), Taylor Mikesell (21) and Rebeka Mikulasikova (16) all contributed well on pretty efficient nights, but allowing Syracuse to 51.6 percent from the field and 64.3 percent in the second half is inexcusable. Should I mention that Syracuse only played six players all game? The Orange were hitting nearly 2 out of 3 in the second half of a game with six players. Yikes.
Last big stinker of a game was Iowa 64, Duke 79. Duke is a good team (ranked No. 19) that is undefeated this year, but the Hawkeyes shooting 3 of 19 from deep and committing 18 turnovers is not a good mix for their first real test.
Yes, there is a valid excuse here: Iowa had not played since Nov. 17 due to COVID-19, so it was a bad game to try and shake the rust off in. Still, there is one name you may have heard of that will need to make some big improvements this season.
Here are Caitlin Clark’s shooting numbers last year and what they are so far this year:
It is not time to sound the alarms quite yet, and again, the weird circumstances to Iowa’s start of the season could play a role. Clark has also become an even better all-around player so far with 8.7 rebounds and 7.8 assists per game while turning it over less.
Still, that 24.6 percent number is glaring. Clark shot 27 times against Duke, and made only 9 of them. She shot 13 three-pointers and made 1. Even in a big 88-61 win against Michigan State on Sunday, it was Clark’s ability to help her team (10 rebounds, 12 assists) that played a major role, not her shooting (24 points, 9 of 25 FG, 2 of 10 3PT).
Clark is such a remarkable talent that it is still more than likely that she will just break out of this slump eventually. Still, it has not exactly been the start that I, and many others, were expecting.
Stop Underrating Veronica Burton
Who are the best players in the Big Ten? At the start of the year, I would have gone Clark and Hillmon at the top, but at three would have been either Maryland’s Ashley Owusu or Northwestern’s Veronica Burton.
Yet Burton was not a unanimous selection to the preseason teams like those other three were. Those three, plus another Terrapin, Diamond Miller, were also named to ESPN’s top 25 players in the country heading into the season, not Burton.
Now, she might be having the best start to the season of any of them.
Her offensive output, on a pure numbers basis, might be a little lower — 19.2 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 5.6 APG — but it has also been efficient, with Burton shooting 44.4 percent from the field and 40.5 percent from deep.
But Burton has always been a top player in the Big Ten for more than her offense. The two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year is, folks, doing that thing again. She is matching last year’s pace with 3.8 steals per game, but has more than tripled her blocks, which are now at 1.3 per game.
Northwestern took down the Tigers almost strictly because of Burton, who had 32 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals with just a single turnover while shooting 8 of 13 from the field and 14 of 15 from the free-throw line. It’s one of the best stat lines of the season.
Burton’s 1.1 defensive win shares ranks 25th in the NCAA. More impressively, her offensive win shares, which are at 3.0, are second. Those 4.1 win shares also rank second. She is, without a doubt, one of the best players in college basketball.
The Wildcats are now 6-3 and should be 9-3 by the time they face Oregon. A win there before going back to Big Ten play, and this team might be a frightening one to play with the performances Burton has been putting out.
What to Watch
There is a nice mix of in-conference and non-conference games this week that are worth your time.
Minnesota vs. Nebraska, Monday (12/6), 8 p.m. – BTN
You didn’t think I forgot about Nebraska, did you? The Cornhuskers are now the only undefeated in the Big Ten at 8-0, and finally did it against a more reasonable opponent. Nebraska beat previously undefeated Wake Forest by 26 damn points, and now get to open up the conference slate against a Minnesota team that’s hard to gauge.
It’s been a group effort by Amy Williams’ team to get Nebraska here, with no player averaging more than 27 minutes per game, and nine players averaging at least 5 points per contest. That being said, Oregon transfer Jaz Shelley has been completely unhinged so far.
In 22 games at Oregon last year, she averaged 4.5 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 1.9 APG and shot 35.4 percent overall and 30.4 percent from three. Through eight games, here are Shelley’s stats:
15.0 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 4.8 APG, 56.1 FG%, 60.0 3PT%
Excuse me, what now? You might be thinking that she is playing significantly more minutes right WRONG. She is playing about nine more minutes per game and is doing that. You might be thinking “Wow, 60 percent from three, what is that on like five attempts all year” NO. She is averaging 5.6 attempts from deep per game. Obscene start to the year and one hell of a get for the Cornhuskers.
Oh yeah, Minnesota is playing in this game too. Anyway, watch this one tonight.
No. 12 Iowa @ No. 15 Iowa State, Wednesday (12/8), 7 p.m. – ESPNU
The Hawkeyes have already avenged the Duke loss with a throttling of Michigan State, but keeping up that momentum will be tough on the road against in-state rivals Iowa State.
The Cyclones are 8-1 with a 34-point win over another Big Ten team, Penn State, already in the books. Both of these teams score like crazy, so this one should be an absolute blast to watch. I can already feel Caitlin Clark dropping 40 and shutting me up.
Penn State vs. Rutgers, Thursday (12/9), 7 p.m. – B1G+
I think this is a good game to watch because we should learn something about where both Rutgers and Penn State may stand in conference play.
Both teams have struggled out the gate (Penn State 4-4, Rutgers 3-6), with the Scarlet Knights issues making a whole lot of sense considering the abundance of new faces on the roster, plus the fact that they are without legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer for the season. But Rutgers is what it always has been: a team that will try to kill you defensively.
The Nittany Lions have lost three straight and will likely make it four before this game with a road game against Indiana in between. Makenna Marisa has been terrific in a lot of ways, but she needs help if Penn State is going to get out of the bottom of the conference standings.
No. 8 Maryland @ No. 1 South Carolina, Sunday (12/12), 3 p.m. – ESPN
I don’t think I need to say much about this one.
Maryland struggled against two elite teams, has beaten a different one, and now has a chance at some redemption. The problem is that South Carolina has, to this point, looked invincible regardless of what you throw at it.
The Terrapins key to the upset here is playing fast: UConn was up on the Gamecocks when it was out in transition and South Carolina’s nasty defense couldn’t get set up. Maryland has the players to do that, but South Carolina also won that game by double digits, so take that as you will.
This is a matchup worth watching, and even a close loss here is valuable considering just how impressive SC has been to this point.
No. 20 Ohio State vs. No. 10 Indiana, Sunday (12/12), 7 p.m. – BTN
Oh yeah, this is the good stuff.
Indiana must travel to Columbus to take on Ohio State, and I am expecting a heater, folks. The Buckeyes will need it to be high-scoring if they want to win, but the Hoosiers’ defense has been terrific against any and all competition to this point.
I think Indiana could survive this one without every shot falling, but it needs to do better than it did against NC State, where the Hoosiers shot 33.8 percent. More specifically, everyone on Indiana not named Mackenzie Holmes (24 points, 9/14 FG), shot 25.5 percent.
They got close, but the Hoosiers cannot beat good teams doing that. I’m expecting improvement there thanks to Ohio State’s questionable defense. These teams split the matchups last year, and this has all the makings of the first truly great inner-conference game of the season.
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