– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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INDIANAPOLIS — Channeling the iconic daytime show Sesame Street, the Big Ten Tournament Letter of the Day is “B,” as in bubble. Whose bubble might burst after today, and whose bubbles will still be intact heading into quarterfinal Friday.
Our first day covering the 2025 Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament is a consequential one in terms of the big picture that is the NCAA Tournament, with Selection Monday just 10 days away. At least half of the eight teams playing in today’s second round can clearly be described as bubble teams, with some more of the right side of that cut line than others.
Two of the teams that appear safe are thr squads squaring off in the 8/9 matchup to start Thursday’s action, as No. 9 Indiana takes on No. 8 Oregon. According to the latest projections on ESPN’s Bracketology, both the Hoosiers and Ducks reside amongst the last four byes, just above the teams who would be part of the First Four and would have to win a game to be in the Field of 64. Both teams own non-conference wins again Baylor, the runner-up in the Big 12, a big boost to their chances of inclusion. Another boost would be a win against the other, and in the previous meeting between the schools this season, the Ducks came back from a 10-point third-quarter deficit to defeat the Hoosiers on January 24.
The biggest game of the day as far as NCAA Tournament consideration goes will be the second game, where No. 12 Washington takes on No. 5 Michigan. The Huskies knocked off fellow bubble team Minnesota in the first round last night to keep U-Dub’s chances for an at-large bid alive. With a NCAA NET ranking of 43 — sandwiched in between Ivy League regular-season champion Columbia and Summit League winner South Dakota State, two teams who may earn at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament if they don’t win their respective conference tournament — Washington can’t afford to have its pre-tournament campaign end today and agonize over the next week to see if its name is called for the tournament. The fifth-seeded Wolverines should be safely into the field, and are playing to improve their seeding after they picked up victories at Michigan State and Illinois last month.
The first game of the nightcap features another team on the NCAA Tournament fence, No. 10 Nebraska, taking on the seventh-seeded Illinois Fighting Illini. The Cornhuskers, also amongst the teams listed in ESPN Bracketology’s last four byes, avoided what would have been a damaging loss by taking care of Rutgers in the first round, but did go into Indianapolis losers of five of their last eight games. Their saving grace, however, was a 20-point win at Maryland on February 13 that snapped a three-game losing streak.
In the nightcap, No. 11 seed Iowa plays its first Big Ten Tournament game sans Caitlin Clark since 2020 when it squares off against No. 6 Michigan State. It’s been an up-and-down season for the Hawkeyes, who finished in a four-way tie for eighth place at 10-8 in the league but drew the shortest straw of the four after the tiebreakers were administered. The Spartans started the season winning their first 11 games of the season, then finished with an 11-7 record in conference play.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday’s second round, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Aaron J. Thornton. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are XX pictures in total.
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