| 2024–25 Big Ten Conference women's basketball season | |
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| League: | NCAA Division I |
| Sport: | Basketball |
| Pixels: | 150 |
| No Of Teams: | 18 |
| Tv: | Big Ten Network, Fox, FS1, Peacock |
| Season: | 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season |
| Finals: | Tournament |
| Finals Link: | 2025 Big Ten women's basketball tournament |
| Finals Mvp Link: | Big Ten Conference Women's Basketball Tournament#Results by year |
| Seasonslistnames: | Basketball |
| Prevseason Year: | 2023–24 |
| Nextseason Year: | 2025–26 |
The 2024–25 Big Ten women's basketball season will begin with practices in October 2024, followed by the start of the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season in November 2024. The regular season will end in March of 2025.
The season will be the conference's first with 18 teams as four schools, Oregon, UCLA, USC, and Washington, joined the conference in August 2024.[1] [2] [3] The conference announced that all teams will play 18 regular season conference games with each school playing one school both home and away, while facing 16 teams once.[4] However, only 15 of the 18 teams will qualify for the Big Ten tournament.[5]
On May 13, 2024, Lisa Bluder retired as head coach at Iowa after 24 years.[6] Longtime Iowa associate head coach Jan Jensen was named Bluder's successor later that day.[7]
| Team | Head coach | Previous job | Years at school | Overall record | Big Ten record | Big Ten titles | Big Ten Tournament titles | NCAA Tournaments | NCAA Final Fours | NCAA Championships | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| style= | Illinois | Dayton | 3 | 41–25 | 19–17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| style= | Indiana | Teri Moren | Indiana State | 11 | 226–99 | 114–60 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Iowa | Jan Jensen | Iowa (Assoc.) | 1 | 0–0 | 0–0 | 2 | 5 | 18 | 2 | 0 | |
| style= | Maryland | Brenda Frese | Minnesota | 23 | 582–161 | 146–29* | 6 | 5 | 20 | 3 | 1 | |
| style= | Michigan | Kim Barnes Arico | St. John's (Asst.) | 13 | 261–133 | 118–84 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Michigan State | Robyn Fralick | Bowling Green | 2 | 22–9 | 12–6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Minnesota | Dawn Plitzuweit | West Virginia | 2 | 20–16 | 5–13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Nebraska | Amy Williams | South Dakota | 9 | 137–111 | 69–72 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Northwestern | Joe McKeown | George Washington | 17 | 261–246 | 108–166 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Ohio State | Kevin McGuff | Washington | 12 | 198–102 | 103–57 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Oregon | Kelly Graves | Gonzaga | 11 | 223–100 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Penn State | Carolyn Kieger | Marquette | 4 | 63–86 | 25–66 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Purdue | Katie Gearlds | Marian | 4 | 51–45 | 21–32 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Rutgers | Coquese Washington | Notre Dame (Assoc.) | 3 | 20–44 | 7–29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | UCLA | Cori Close | Florida State (Assoc.) | 14 | 287–140 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | USC | Lindsay Gottlieb | Cleveland Cavaliers (Asst.) | 4 | 62–32 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Washington | Tina Langley | Rice | 4 | 42–46 | 0–0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| style= | Wisconsin | Marisa Moseley | Boston University | 4 | 34–56 | 17–36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Prior to the conference's annual media day, conference standings were projected by a panel of writers.[8]
| Rank | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USC | |
| 2 | UCLA | |
| 3 | Ohio State | |
| 4 | Maryland | |
| 5 | Indiana |
A select media panel named a preseason All-Big Ten team and player of the year.[8]
| Honor | Recipient |
|---|---|
| Preseason Player of the Year | JuJu Watkins, USC |
| Preseason All-Big Ten Team | Makira Cook, Illinois |
| Hannah Stuelke, Iowa | |
| Lucy Olsen, Iowa | |
| Shyanne Sellers, Maryland | |
| Alexis Markowski, Nebraska | |
| Cotie McMahon, Ohio State | |
| Lauren Betts, UCLA | |
| Kiki Rice, UCLA | |
| JuJu Watkins, USC | |
| Kiki Iriafen, USC | |
| Serah Williams, Wisconsin |
See main article: 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball rankings.
Throughout the conference regular season, Big Ten Conference offices named two players (Player and Freshman) of the week each Monday.
| Week | Player of the week | Freshman of the week |
|---|---|---|
| November 11, 2024[9] | Destiny Adams, Rutgers | Syla Swords, Michigan |
| November 18, 2024[10] | Lauren Betts, UCLA | Mila Holloway, Michigan |
| November 25, 2024[11] | Kendall Bostic, Illinois | Lana McCarthy, Purdue |
| December 2, 2024[12] | Ajae Petty, Ohio State | Syla Swords, Michigan |