(ARTICLE) 2022 Big Ten WBB Breakdown: The Title Race

[RossWB]

Before this year’s basketball season began, it seemed like there were six teams that could compete for the Big Ten title this year. Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio State were the favorites due to returning significant contributors from last year and/or adding significant pieces from the transfer portal.

Nebraska also returned most of its best players, but would need to take another step forward. Michigan returned most of last year’s Elite 8 team, but was also losing the best player in program history in Naz Hillmon. And Maryland had lost more than any team in the transfer portal, but replaced those losses with intriguing players. The question for the Terps was whether all those transfers could fit well on the same team.

Those preseason expectations have largely held true. Nebraska probably isn’t a title contender at this point, but no one would be shocked if any of the other five teams ended up winning at least a share of the conference title.

We’ve also had one shock entrant into Big Ten title discussions: Illinois. The Illini were 7-20 overall and 1-13 in conference last year. Despite that, new coach Shauna Green has the Illini at 13-2 overall and 3-1 in conference. Green should certainly be in the discussion for Coach of the Year nationally.

Below is a breakdown of each of the Big 7 teams in the Big Ten and their remaining games against other Big 7 teams. I don’t have analysis below for Purdue, Penn State, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Rutgers, or Wisconsin. Each of those teams could pull a big upset (Michigan State did so over Indiana a few days ago) but each is one or two steps below the Big 7 as of now.

MORE HERE:

Go Iowa Awesome - Big Ten WBB Breakdown: The Title Race

Breaking down the Big Ten championship race four games into conference play.

iowa.rivals.com

 

[shikreto]

Nice article! I hope people who typically only read the same WBB threads when they get a notification notice it lol. I almost missed it bc I’m in that boat as well.

Anyway, I’ll be shocked if OSU doesn’t win both the regular season and tourney title. I’ve been saying this since last season ended and also had them in my pre-season top 5. Everyone on Reddit/Twitter (and I think one or two on this board) said I was overestimating them. “They don’t have much of a post presence” lol. But I stand by it.

I’d also be shocked if we finish higher than 3rd. In the regular season. Everyone has our number. We may squeak by Michigan and Indiana and perhaps even MD (but I wouldn’t bet on that). We will certainly lose to OSU at least once. Nebraska will want to beat us as much as IU even so I’m not sure how we’ll do against them either. We tend not to win games that come down to will or effort (hence us losing so many close games, IMHO).

I could also see us dropping a game v Penn State, MSU or NW bc, well, that seems like something we arent unlikely to do.