Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament draw announced for Rutgers

The no. 24 Rutgers women’s basketball team finished the regular season in impressive fashion on Friday in defeating no. 22/20 Ohio State 71-63 at the RAC. It marked the program’s ninth straight victory since undergoing a five week pause earlier this season due to COVID-19. The Scarlet Knights head into the postseason with a 14-3 record overall and finished 10-3 in Big Ten play. They earned the 3 seed in next week’s Big Ten Tournament and the conference announced the official bracket on Saturday evening.

UPDATE: Rutgers will play Iowa on Thursday night.

Rutgers will earn the double bye and is set to play the winner of no. 6 seed Iowa vs. no. 11 seed Purdue on Thursday, March 11 at approximately 9 p.m. ET. During the regular season, RU lost at Iowa 90-84 on December 31 and the rematch at the RAC was postponed during the program’s pause due to COVID-19. The game was never made up. The Hawkeyes finished the regular season with a record of 15-8 overall and 11-8 in Big Ten play, including three of its last four games. As for Purdue, the first meeting was postponed with Rutgers, but the Boilermakers lost at home to RU 75-57 on February 14. They finished the regular season at 7-15 overall and 4-14 in conference play.

If the Scarlet Knights advance to the semifinals, they’ll face either the no. 2 seed Indiana (18-4; 16-2) or the winner of no. 7 seed Michigan State vs. no. 10 seed Penn State. Rutgers was slated to play on the road against the Hoosiers on February 4 but it was postponed and never made up. The Spartans finished 13-7 overall and 8-7 in league play, losing to Rutgers 63-53 at home on February 24. The Nittany Lions finished 9-14 overall and 6-13 in conference play. They lost twice last week to RU by the scores of 60-55 and 74-56.

The top seed in the tournament is Maryland (21-2; 17-1), who Rutgers lost to 91-87 on December 14 in the lone scheduled meeting between the two programs. They could potentially meet again in the Big Ten Championship game on Saturday, March 13.

Here is the full Big Ten Tournament bracket with play beginning on Tuesday, March 9 between no. 12 seed Illinois and no. 13 seed Wisconsin.

Big Ten Conference