2020-21 illinois wbb
It's been 12 days since the last edition of these posts (my apologies, I'm adjusting to covering two sports with condensed schedules as best I can), and Michigan has played two games, both blowouts against teams winless in Big Ten play. The in-state rivalry matchup with Michigan State slated for Monday was postponed because of COVID issues for the Spartans.
Michigan hasn't emerged unscathed from the pandemic, either; Leigha Brown has missed the last three games because of COVID protocol just as much of the bench returned from their own absences.
Some notable Big Ten results since the last post (home team listed second):
- Iowa 67, Northwestern 77
- Purdue 46, Maryland 83
- Illinois 50, Michigan 70
- Nebraska 68, MSU 64
- OSU 84, Iowa 82 (OT)
- Michigan 69, Wisconsin 40
- Indiana 66, Purdue 45
- OSU 55, Nebraska 63
- Maryland 79, Wisconsin 70
- Purdue 81, Iowa 87
- Minnesota 76, Nebraska 71
The Standings
Per-100-possession efficiency numbers, which I've now limited to Big Ten games, are pulled from Her Hoop Stats. I've added NET rankings, as well, and removed the uselessly reactive RPI projections. Sometimes less information is better. RPI itself might be the next casualty; if I had more time before I should be posting this I'd probably replace it with records vs. Q1 and Q2 NET teams, which seems more useful given the imbalanced schedules. Next week.
| Record | Ranks | Efficiency (B1G Only) |
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Ovr. | B1G | AP | Coach | RPI | NET | OE | DE | EM | ||
| UMD | 11-1 | 7-0 | 7th | 7th | 6th | 11th | 118.5 | 101.2 | +17.3 | ||
| U-M | 10-0 | 5-0 | 11th | 11th | 17th | 10th | 108.6 | 76.1 | +32.5 | ||
| IND | 8-3 | 6-1 | 21st | 16th | 37th | 8th | 108.0 | 79.2 | +28.8 | ||
| OSU | 7-1 | 3-1 | 17th | 16th | 39th | 13th | 93.4 | 84.3 | +9.1 | ||
| NWern | 7-2 | 5-2 | 21st | 22nd | 33rd | 23rd | 101.2 | 86.2 | +15.0 | ||
| IOWA | 9-3 | 5-3 | 28th | 42nd | 34th | 114.4 | 103.1 | +11.3 | |||
| MSU | 8-2 | 3-2 | 40th | 37th | 100.3 | 97.2 | +3.1 | ||||
| NEB | 7-5 | 5-4 | 35th | 47th | 68th | 90.3 | 95.4 | -5.2 | |||
| PUR | 5-6 | 2-5 | 92nd | 110th | 92.6 | 106.6 | -13.9 | ||||
| RUT | 5-3 | 1-3 | 151st | 21st | 100.0 | 103.1 | -3.1 | ||||
| MIN | 3-7 | 2-6 | 132nd | 155th | 93.1 | 109.2 | -16.1 | ||||
| PSU | 4-6 | 1-5 | 116th | 91st | 88.8 | 102.8 | -14.0 | ||||
| ILL | 2-6 | 0-5 | 200th | 169th | 79.6 | 109.3 | -29.7 | ||||
| WIS | 3-8 | 0-8 | 196th | 158th | 85.2 | 110.4 | -25.2 | ||||
Much like on the men's side, four teams had seemingly separated themselves at the top until recent results obscured the picture. Ohio State, which looked like a solid top-four team, needed overtime to escape a very Iowa team (great offense, iffy defense, solid overall) before a surprise loss at Nebraska. Northwestern, meanwhile, found its way back into the rankings by beating those same Hawkeyes by ten before smashing Penn State on the road.
As for Michigan:
1⃣1⃣
— Michigan Women’s Basketball (@umichwbball) January 18, 2021
Highest AP ranking ever in school history. #goblue pic.twitter.com/KOhPEoYvTR
They're doing pretty well.
[Hit THE JUMP for M's record-setting defensive stretch, Wisconsin's extreme approach to Hillmon, and more.]
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