2024 Big Ten WBB Tournament: Finals Recap
Seriously...you can run from Caitlin Clark, you can hide from her, but she comes for you all the same.
MINNEAPOLIS – What a game. What a tournament. The Big Ten rules and it’s awesome that Iowa and Nebraska put on a show for the whole nation to watch on Sunday. I will have some more thoughts on this game later in the week, because it deserves more discussion than a little blurb.
FINAL SCORE
No. 2 Iowa 94 - No. 5 Nebraska 89 (OT)
TOP PLAYERS
Nebraska Cornhuskers
Jaz Shelley: 16 points (5-of-12 FG, 3-of-10 3P), six rebounds (two offensive), 13 assists, two steals, two blocks, -9
Alexis Markowski: 23 points (9-of-21 FG), 13 rebounds (six offensive), five assists, two steals, -1
Natalie Potts: 21 points (8-of-17 FG, 1-of-4 3P), nine rebounds (three offensive), one block, two steals, -4 (fouled out)
Iowa Hawkeyes
Caitlin Clark: 34 points (12-of-29 FG, 5-of-17 3P), seven rebounds (two offensive), 12 assists, three steals, +9
Kate Martin: 13 points (4-of-6 FG, 4-of-5 3P), seven rebounds (two offensive), four assists, two blocks, +7
Hannah Stuelke: 25 points (11-of-18 FG), nine rebounds (two offensive), two assists, two blocks, one steal, +4
BIG TEN TOURNAMENT AWARDS
Most Outstanding Player
Media: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
My Vote (which, as a credentialed media member, DID actually count for these): Caitlin Clark, Iowa (What? While I am a hater…I also respect The Game and Clark was the best player on the best team)
All-Tournament Team (media and my vote were identical)
Caitlin Clark, Iowa
Sydney Affolter, Iowa
Laila Phelia, Michigan
Alexis Markowski, Nebraska
Jaz Shelley, Nebraska
I would listen to arguments about Hannah Stuelke being on the team over Affolter, but I think Affolter was more productive throughout the entire tournament whereas Stuelke only stood out in the final.
FUN FACTS
Sunday’s title game was the second Big Ten Final to go into overtime — in 2012, Purdue edged Nebraska in 2OTs. Poor Nebraska, man.
The game featured 16 lead changes, eight by each side. Nebraska led for 33:56 and Iowa led for 8:45.
Iowa has won three straight Big Ten Tournament titles.
Coincidentally, Caitlin Clark has won three straight BTT Most Outstanding Player awards.
Iowa becomes the first school to win three consecutive Big Ten Tournament titles.
The Hawkeyes have won six overall (1997, 2001, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), including five under head coach Lisa Bluder.
This was Nebraska’s third finals appearance and first in a decade.
The 89 points scored by the Huskers were the most ever by a losing team in the championship game.
Nebraska’s Jaz Shelley set a single tournament record with 16 3-point field goals, breaking a mark held by Kelly Mazzante of Penn State for 22 years.
Nebraska set a Big Ten Championship record with 14 made three-pointers.
Alexis Markowski tied a Nebraska record with her 40th career double-double.
Iowa trailed at the half (-11) for just the third time this season.
The Hawkeyes averaged an insane 94.6 points over three games at the tournament.
Caitlin Clark finished with a game-high 34 points and is the tournament’s all-time leading scorer with 317 points in 13 games. She tied the Big Ten Championship game record with five made three-pointers.
POSTGAME QUOTES NEBRASKA
Head coach Amy Williams’ opening statement: “This is heart wrenching and just a super disappointing loss in overtime here. Our kids came here expecting to win, and nobody else really probably believed that we would even be in the championship game, much less have a chance to win it, but we believed.
Our locker room believed. Our whole team believed. I'm so proud of the contributions we got from our entire roster this entire tournament. I am proud of the classy group of champions that compete the way they do that we have here at Nebraska.”Alexis Markowski on what makes their group special: “Not only did we take them to overtime, we played a whole 'nother game. This was our fourth game. This is their third.
We're just fighters. They'll go on a run, and we just come back. I don't know, we just are playing really well together. People are stepping up, making huge plays for each other. I wouldn't want to be part of any other program.”Jaz Shelley on how she’ll remember this tournament: “I think it's super special. I've never been a part of anything like this, and it goes to show the people that we have on this team, the incredible, incredible people. Like Lex said, I wouldn't want to do this with anyone else.”
Williams on what this tournament says about her team: “I think that watching this team rally together and the way they've just really kind of taken on the mantra of playing for each other, they've just found ways to pick each other up and have each other's back and contribute in ways that we need them to contribute.
If that's Maddie Krull coming in and having two assists and no turnovers, if that's Jess Petrie coming in and spelling some kids with foul trouble, if it's Callin Hake coming in and giving us a spark and scoring punch or taking charges. Everybody has found a way to contribute and pick up their team. I'm just so proud of my staff and my team for everything they've poured into this week and putting ourselves into position to compete for a championship.”
Williams on her teams’ composure and toughness: “I'm just so proud of the way that they have responded. I thought they did. They shut out the noise, the outside noise, and just were able to lock in. Every single time it felt like we had an answer and we're answering runs, and I think that just shows their commitment to wanting to have a positive response and do the next best thing on every step.”
Williams on what she’ll tell her team moving forward: “I think right now I'm just going to let them feel the moment and really kind of soak this up. It's okay for them to have some time to really be disappointed because they put their heart and souls on the line up here. Nobody else did, but we expected to win.
So when you fall short of that, that's okay. With four games to go in the regular season, we had a little picture that put us in the double bye bracket. We cut it into a four-piece puzzle, and we had four games left. We said, let's put all four pieces of that puzzle together.”
POSTGAME QUOTES IOWA
Caitlin Clark on how she’ll remeber this game: “I think it was really gritty and resilient out of our group. That was the biggest thing. Obviously the first half we were just very out of sorts in all sorts of ways, whether it was on defense, whether it was offensively.
We just found a way to win, and that speaks to the team that we have, the maturity we have on this group. We were down six or seven, I don't remember exactly what it was, with two minutes to play, and we never gave up.
That's what I'm probably the most proud of is we found a different way to win. Once we got into overtime, we kind of knew you just go and take it now.
So, yeah, proud of this group.”Clark on making a late run to tie the game and send it to OT: “Our fans, they were incredible. They kind of willed us to this victory. They never gave up on us. We never gave up on each other. Things weren't always pretty. Things weren't always great. Especially in the first half, I didn't shoot the ball well.
You've just got to wipe it, let it go, come back and respond. I think the biggest thing was we just started running our offense in the second half. It was a lot better. It was a lot cleaner. We got good looks. We made a few more shots.
You have to give credit to Nebraska. They played really well and made some tough shots. Anything we tried, it seemed like they always found an answer for.”Clark on what playing in the Big Ten has meant to her: “If this is my last time playing in a Big Ten game between two Big Ten teams, then what better way to end it all? You have the overtime, we fight back, bad shooting, good shooting, defensive stops. I mean, it just really had it all on the biggest stage.
Can't be happier for our group. This was the only way we could end it. So just really grateful.”Clark on how this game prepares them for more “March tension:” “Also, if we want to reach our goals in March, we are going to find way to win that aren't always pretty. You got to be resilient and gritty. Everybody's given us their best shot all year. Our team is very prepared for it. We have been through it, we're ready for it. Just proud of our group. We weathered every storm we had. We kept fighting.”
Clark on whether she’ll be able to get the game ball back (like last year) after throwing it into the stands: “Probably not. [Iowa Athletic Director] Beth Goetz came up to me and said ‘you, make it hard to find the basketball when you just chuck it into the stands.’”
Clark called the first half “probably my worst half” in her Iowa career.
Clark on her growing maturity: “A hundred times better. Coach Bluder would say, especially this game and Penn State game, to be honest, I don't think we win those if you have freshman and sophomore Caitlin. I was never able to let it go and move on to the next. That was really something I always struggled with and something I knew I had to get better at for this team to be where we wanted to be. That's where we grew the most this year.
As a senior, you go through it. You know how it goes. There's good days, there's bad days, there's great shooting days, there's not as good. When you're in a championship environment, you have to let it go and move on to the next.
At halftime I reset my mind, let it go. I knew some shots weren't going to go in. That's just how it works. Obviously I'm proud of myself. I've put a lot of work into being able to do that and letting things go and relying on my teammates and not pressing as much.
Honestly, that might be one of the things I'm most proud of over my entire career.”Head coach Lisa Bluder’s opening statement: “I do want to say Nebraska just played an outstanding game. It took everything we had to win this game obviously. You all saw it.
Then I have to acknowledge our fans. They are amazing. They show up in Carver. They show up here. They show up in Dallas. They show up everywhere. We are just so thankful for them. I know I keep saying it, but I can't express it enough. They give us energy. They give us confidence.
When we win, we want to share it with them. We really do.
I thought we fought hard tonight, and we had to. It's not very often we have fought from behind. That was our biggest deficit at halftime. We just tried to reset at halftime I thought they came out, and that third quarter was really good, really good.
Then we lost the lead, and they fought back again. I'm incredibly proud of our group.”Bluder on Iowa’s guard play: “The leadership out here tonight was really good, the second half exceptionally good. Caitlin hits that big three. We call timeout. We're down five. We call a timeout. Now everything is possible with defensive stops. Gabbie Marshall comes to play defense. She worked so hard out there. She needs to ice bath out there for two days straight. She worked really, really hard.
Kate [Martin] couldn't believe it when she was so wide open on that three. She looked down to make sure she was behind the three and then pops that one for us. She had two really crucial threes for us.
Syd, I'm so proud of [Sydney Affolter] too, stepping in the starting position and getting in the all tournament team. She's just been waiting. She's been waiting for her chance. Again, I believed she was the Sixth Player of the Year in our conference, and she showed it tonight.”Bluder on Clark’s maturation: “I agree. I think she has matured so much mentally. That goes into emotions too. We talk all about time control, what you can control. You can't control officials. You can't control that sort of thing. She was able to bounce back.
Honestly, she didn't have a very good first half. You can maybe keep Caitlin down for a half. You're not keeping her down the whole game. There's no way.”Bluder on Hannah Stuelke growing into the moment: “Hannah Stuelke is so talented. Really the only thing holding her back was her own confidence and mental. We just keep pouring into her because she is such a beautiful athlete. I'm just so proud of her. I just want her to continue to own it, allow herself to be great. That's what she has to do. And she will be great.”
Bluder on what the growth of this team has meant to her after losing a bunch of talent from last year’s team: “Everybody knew how much we lost last year, and everybody kept talking about how much we lost. We kept saying look how much we have. We have a lot.
Hannah was ready to burst on the scene. You have the best player in America. Kate and Gabbie, God bless them, they come back for another year because they feel something special. Syd Affolter just kept getting better and better as the year went on. Kylie, a year after her surgery now.So, yeah, I think we just focused on what we have instead of what we didn't have. We felt like we had a good team. Certainly our foreign trip helped us, having those ten extra practices, going overseas and playing. All that really helped.
I think we do deserve a No. 1 seed. If we don't get it, oh, well. It's okay. It's okay. That's life. We can't control that. But I think it would just mean a lot to our program and how far we've come to have that recognition.
But if we don't get it, we're going to play the same basketball we would if we were 1, 2, 3, 4. It doesn't matter.”
UPCOMING WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Selection Show is on Sunday, March 17 at 7:00 p.m. CT, live on ESPN
Wednesday and Thursday, March 20-21 will be when the First Four games are played
Friday, March 22 is when the first round starts
Sweet 16 and Elite 8 are March 29 - April 1
Final Four (Cleveland, Ohio) games are on Friday, April 5
National Championship Game is on Sunday, April 7