{"id":81524,"date":"2025-01-23T10:28:21","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T16:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/big-ten-womens-basketball-bubble-watch\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T10:28:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T16:28:21","slug":"big-ten-womens-basketball-bubble-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/big-ten-womens-basketball-bubble-watch\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten women\u2019s basketball bubble watch"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten<\/strong>\u00a0has been unpredictable this season, with several teams failing to meet preseason expectations and a few dark horses earning a top-25 ranking. On3 takes a look at the conference\u2019s tournament outlook, including four teams that remain on the bubble.<\/p>\n

Locks: UCLA, USC, Maryland, Ohio State, Nebraska<\/strong><\/h2>\n

UCLA<\/a><\/strong> and USC<\/a><\/strong> are among the best teams in the country. Maryland<\/a><\/strong> is, too, albeit the Terps have faced some injury trouble lately. Ohio State\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> upset loss to Penn State<\/a><\/strong> shouldn\u2019t do too much damage to its otherwise unblemished record, and Nebraska<\/a><\/strong> has built a solid resume for itself. These five teams are near-locks for the NCAA Tournament<\/strong> \u2013 although the order for seeding is still wide open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should be in: Michigan, Illinois, Oregon, Michigan State<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Michigan<\/a><\/strong>, Illinois<\/a><\/strong>, Oregon<\/a><\/strong> and Michigan State<\/a><\/strong> have been in and out of the top 25 as the season has progressed. While none have stood out as dominant competition, they\u2019ve each made their case to be among those in tournament play. I think they\u2019ll each continue to slide in and out of contention, but ultimately deserve a spot in the postseason.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Work to do: Minnesota, Washington, Indiana, Iowa<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Minnesota<\/a><\/strong> has accumulated an impressive 17-3 record but doesn\u2019t have a large resume to show for it. With the Gophers\u2019 best win coming against another bubble team in Illinois<\/a><\/strong>, they\u2019ll have to earn a couple of signature wins in their upcoming stretch. Key games remaining for the Gophers include Iowa<\/a><\/strong>, Indiana<\/a><\/strong>, Oregon and Washington<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Washington doesn\u2019t have the flashiest wins either, but what the Huskies do have is a handful of close results against tournament locks. They suffered a one-point loss to LSU<\/a><\/strong> on a neutral court, a 10-point loss to Utah<\/a><\/strong> and an 11-point falter against UCLA<\/a><\/strong>. They took down Illinois on the road, but they still have some work to do. They\u2019ve fallen to Michigan State, Michigan and Iowa, which certainly hurt their outlook. Key games remaining for the Huskies include Indiana, Oregon, Minnesota and Nebraska.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Indiana has shown flashes of tournament potential but suffers from a lot of inconsistency. The Hoosiers\u2019 neutral site win over Baylor<\/a><\/strong> is beginning to gain traction, but otherwise, their best victory is over fellow bubble team, Iowa. There are plenty of opportunities for the Hoosiers to up their resume, though, with key games against Oregon, Washington, Nebraska, Minnesota, Michigan and Michigan State all on the schedule.<\/p>\n

Iowa suffered five consecutive losses after a strong start to its season but bounced back with a dominant win over Washington. The Hawkeyes\u2019 postseason outlook plummeted over that losing stretch, but there\u2019s still time. They\u2019ll have key opportunities against Minnesota, Nebraska and Michigan to help build their stock back up.<\/p>\n

The post Big Ten women\u2019s basketball bubble watch<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Ten\u00a0has been unpredictable this season, with several teams failing to meet preseason expectations…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81524\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}