What does the field look like for the MSU Women’s Basketball Team?
The regular season is over for the Michigan State Women’s Basketball Team. In her second year as head coach of the Spartans, Robyn Fralick led her team to a 21-8 overall record, and an 11-7 mark in Big Ten play. While that record put MSU in a three-way tie for fifth place, they end up as the sixth seed in this tournament due to tiebreakers. As a result, the Lady Spartans receive a single bye and will begin play Friday in round 2.
This year’s Big Ten Tournament is being played at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The top four teams and the recipients of the double-byes are, in order, USC, UCLA, Ohio State, and Maryland. This is also the first BTT that will not feature all the conference members, as the honchos decided (idiotically in my opinion) to not invite the three bottom teams in the standings. That means that Penn State, Northwestern, and Purdue will have no chance to go on a run. Just above those three already-eliminated teams are six squads that will play in the first round on Wednesday. Those matchups will be:
#10 Nebraska vs. #15 Rutgers
#11 Iowa vs. #14 Wisconsin
#12 Washington vs. #13 Minnesota
On Thursday, five more teams enter the field with:
#8 Oregon vs. #9 Indiana
#7 Illinois vs. winner of Nebraska/Rutgers
#5 um vs. winner of Washington/Minnesota
#6 MSU vs. winner of Iowa/Wisconsin
Michigan State’s game on Thursday will be the final game of the day, and should start some time around 9 PM. As the Spartans will be facing either Iowa or Wisconsin, here is a quick look at those two teams.
IOWA
The most important thing to know about Iowa is that Caitlin Clark is no longer on the team. In fact, of the six primary players on last year’s runners-up team, only two remain – Hannah Stuelke and Sydney Affolter. Those two remain in the same spots on the Hawkeyes’ scoring leaders list, 2nd and 4th respectively. They are also the team’s leading rebounders. Leading this year’s team in scoring is Lucy Olsen, a transfer from Villanova who is averaging 18.0 PPG this year. As a team, Iowa is scoring 74.6 PPG while surrendering 65.8. Iowa finished the regular season 20-9 overall and 10-8 in conference.
WISCONSIN
The Badgers were a sub-.500 team this year and only finished one game above one of the uninvited teams in Big Ten play, wrapping their regular season at 13-16 and 4-14. Predictably, this team gave up more points, 71.3, than they scored, 65.9. Only two of their players averaged in double figures, 6’4” forward Serah Williams (19.1 PPG, 10.0 RPG), and 6’1” center Carter McCray (10.7, 7.3). Despite their negative scoring margin, Wisconsin actually had a positive margin in rebounds, assists, and blocks. It was their tendency to turn the ball over while not getting steals themselves that really hurt them this season.
In comparison to those two possible opponents, Michigan State scores more and gives up less than both of them. The Spartans played them each once during the season and won both games. If MSU picks up the win on Thursday, they would move on to the quarterfinals on Friday. In that game, they would slot in to play #3 Ohio State, and that again would be the last game of the day.
MSU played at OSU in the penultimate game of the regular season, falling 89-78 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score looked. Going into the fourth quarter, MSU was trailing 79-59 before they sliced off some of that deficit at the end. Statistically, the two teams were very even this year. Ohio State averaged 80.7 PPG while giving up 63.3 PPG. MSU’s averages were 80.1 and 63.6. The Buckeyes do feature a pair of high-level scorers. Cotie McMahon, a 6’ forward gets 16.9 PPG while 5’7” guard Jaloni Cambridge nets 16.0 PPG. What Ohio State does not do particularly well is rebounding. Their top miss-gatherer is Ajae Petty, a Kentucky transfer who corrals 7.2 RPG, but as a team they are closer to the bottom of the Big Ten rankings.
If MSU is going to get past that game, they are going to have to be much tougher than they were in that first game. While MSU is a better rebounding team statistically, in their matchup last week, the Buckeyes dominated the glass, 35-28. They also had a massive advantage in points in the paint, 40-28, and blocks, 6-1. The Spartans are going to need to be willing to fight harder in the paint if they want to get the upset and move on to the semifinals. We will look at that opponent if we get there.
We will have two MSU basketball games on at once on Thursday, with the men visiting Iowa at 8 PM ET and the women getting their postseason started about an hour later. Make sure you have your favorite green shirt ironed and ready to go.