Crazy year for Big Ten women's basketball
What's up is down and vice versa in a crazy season of Big Ten women's basketball.
It still seems wrong to see Penn State all alone at the bottom of the standings at 0-6 in league play and 3-14 overall.
Just last year, Lady Lions won a third straight Big Ten title, sharing it with Michigan State, which also happens to be in a free-fall from the top. MSU stands 1-5 in the Big Ten and 9-8 overall.
Then there's perennial power Purdue, which tied for fourth last year in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers currently rank third-to-last at 2-4 in the Big Ten and 9-8 overall.
The fall for the "usuals" has opened opportunities for programs such as Northwestern, which is off to one of its best starts in two decades. The Wildcats are 13-3 overall and 3-2 in league play heading into today's clash against visiting Michigan at Welsh-Ryan Arena (5 p.m.).
Northwestern, one of three Big Ten teams undefeated at home (7-0), has beaten two Top 25 teams in DePaul and Michigan State, which was ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press poll when Northwestern pulled off a stunning 61-57 victory in East Lansing last month. The win earned NU a spot in the Top 25 for the first time since 1996.
The Wildcats also defeated Michigan State in Evanston last week for the series sweep. Northwestern is winning games at home by an average of 21.4 points per game.
"This shows exactly what we've been working on all off-season and all season," said NU guard Maggie Lyon, who starred at New Trier and is averaging 13.3 points per game. "We're a really good unit together. … It doesn't matter who's having a good game and who's not. We all come together and pick each other up."
What's interesting is that Northwestern's really good games often come from its youngest players. The Wildcats start three sophomores, including point guard Ashley Deary, who was named the Big Ten co-player of the week on Monday. She had 18 points and 10 assists in that second win over MSU. Deary leads NU in assists at 5.3 per game and tops the Big Ten with a 4.0 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Sophomore forward Nia Coffey, a first-team all-Big Ten selection last year, leads NU in scoring at 15.4 points per game, and sophomore guard Christen Inman is averaging 10.5 points per game.
"We're still young and we still do things that we have to get better at," Northwestern coach Joe McKeown said. "But we aspire to be a great team, and I think it's good to have teaching points, too."
Clearly, Deary was never taught about the old pecking order of the Big Ten. Bright-eyed and ready to challenge the status quo, she was matter-of-fact after their most recent win over the Spartans.
"We really wanted to win this game," Deary said. "We wanted to prove we are the better team."
Tip-ins:
DePaul's Doug Bruno just keeps ticking. On Wednesday the school extended his contract through the 2019-20 season. Bruno has coached at DePaul, his alma mater, for 29 years and has won 572 games. DePaul, which leads the nation in scoring at 90 points per game, named its home court after the 64-year-old Bruno in 2010. … Some good news for former Whitney Young star Janee Thompson. The Kentucky point guard suffered a gruesome injury last week against South Carolina. Thompson, who dislocated her left ankle and broke the fibula on that leg, had surgery on Monday and will miss the rest of the season but is expected to make a full recovery. As a senior in 2012, Thompson led Whitney Young to an undefeated Class 4A IHSA state championship and a No. 2 national ranking.
pbabcock@dailyherald.com
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