If the Big Ten women’s basketball preseason polls are any indication, the conference’s newcomers from Los Angeles will have a major impact in their first year in the league.
USC and UCLA finished first and second, respectively, in the Big Ten’s preseason polls (both the coaches and media) and each school placed two players on the All-Big Ten team. The honors were announced on Thursday.
Ohio State, Maryland, and Indiana rounded out the top five in the polls, which solicited projections for all 18 teams but only publicized the top five.
Neither Michigan nor Michigan State had any players selected to the preseason squad.
USC and UCLA are new to the Big Ten this season, having joined from the Pac-12 along with Oregon and Washington.
USC sophomore guard JuJu Watkins was the pick for preseason Player of the Year by both the league’s coaches and a select media panel, which included this writer. Watkins averaged 27.1 points per game last season, second only to Caitlin Clark, and her 920 points were an all-time single-season record for a freshman. She was a first-team All-American.
Her current teammate Kiki Iriafen, a transfer from Stanford, also made the 10-player All-Big Ten team, as did UCLA’s Lauren Betts and Kiki Rice. The media’s other selections were Iowa’s Hannah Stuelke and Lucy Olsen (a Villanova transfer who was third in the country in scoring last season), Maryland’s Shyanne Sellers, Nebraska’s Alexis Markowski, Ohio State’s Cotie McMahon, and Wisconsin’s Serah Williams. Those same players were chosen by the coaches, along with Illinois’ Makira Cook due a tie in voting.
Michigan State went 12-6 in the Big Ten last season to finish fourth. Michigan went 9-9 and finished in a three-way tie for sixth. Both teams earned a 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost close games in the first round.
