Junior Journalism is a program for girls and boys 5th through 8th grade. The Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament Local Organizing Committee selected 14 students to participate. Each student was paired with on Big Ten University. Students were required to write an article featuring the assigned University's women's basketball team, which included conducting research, interviews and any necessary work to complete the article below.
University of Illinois
Noah Klotz - 6th Grade
The University of Illinois Fighting Illini Women’s Basketball team is built like many others in the Big Ten Conference, with about half of the team being upperclassmen and the other half underclassmen. Of the six underclassmen, this article is focused on Adalia McKenzie. The 5’10” freshman is a key part of this Illinois Women’s basketball team both on and off the court. Read More
Indiana University
Elias Merzoug - 7th Grade
Grace Berger is a 6 feet guard who is from kentucky. She is a lethal shooter who can score anywhere on the court. She is not only a great player on the court but also a great person off the court too. She is currently a senior at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. Grace currently averages 16 points per game, 4.9 assists per game and 6.8 rebounds per game. Read More
University of Iowa
Kaitlyn Pettet - 8th Grade
The #12 Iowa Women's Basketball team has been dominant under their coach Lisa Bluder for 22 years, and they did not disappoint this year. Coach Bluder is the all-time winningest coach in program history (455-239 record at Iowa, 792-363 overall record) and has led the Iowa Women’s Basketball program to 19 postseason (15 NCAA and 4 WNIT) appearances. She is currently the NCAA Division I Women’s basketball’s 14th winningest coach and will continue to climb up the list. Read More
University of Maryland
Owen Bryant - 6th Grade
I recently had my first conversation with a few of the biggest parts of Maryland's women's basketball team including Coach Frese and Diamond Miller. Starting off with Coach Frese, I asked her a few questions. She convinced me that she felt at home and is enjoying her spot at Maryland. She also told me how lucky she was to be able to be around so many great people including not only the players but also the staff and everyone who helps out there. Read More
University of Michigan
Maddie Reyes - 8th Grade
The Michigan women's basketball team has been a force to be reckoned with this season. Heading into the Big 10 championship, they sit in the top three of their conference with a 22-5 overall record. For some of the players, especially the four seniors, this has been a long time coming. I spoke with senior Naz Hillmon about this team and what it means to her. Anyone who knows women's college basketball knows the name Naz Hillmon: a 6’2” forward who is an opponent's worst nightmare. Her future is bright, but she wants to leave a legacy in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Read More
Michigan State University
Cali Stigler - 8th Grade
Michigan State University (MSU) is a Big Ten school. There are 14 schools in the Big Ten. Michigan State University is located in East Lansing, Michigan. Their colors are green and white, and they are known as the Spartans. Basketball began at MSU in 1972. On average, the girl's game tickets range from $3 to $14 for a seat. Suzy Merchant has been a coach there since 2007. Coach Merchant is why so many players want to play for Michigan State. I had the opportunity to interview two of Coach Merchant’s stand-out players, Tamara Farquhar and DeeDee Hagemann, following the MSU game versus Indiana University on February 12, 2022. Read More
University of Minnesota
Lila O'Bryan- 5th Grade
University of Nebraska
Robyn Pate - 8th Grade
Alexis Markowski and Isabelle Bourne are two amazing players for the Nebraska Huskers. On Feb. 22, I got to interview both of them about their careers and the current season. These two women were so spectacular, it’d be impossible to just choose one. Read More
Northwestern University
Katelyn Kim - 6th Grade
Jillian Brown played high school basketball for East Grand Rapids as a Pioneer. During her time there, she earned more than 1,000 career points and many awards. Some of those include State Champs Net Player of the Year and Prep Girls Hoops Player of the Year. Jillian's influence on the team was very important; the overall record the Pioneers had during Jillian Brown's seasons was 63-6. Jillian was a finalist in Michigan Ms. Basketball while she was a senior at East Grand Rapids. As a graduating senior, Jillian received many offers to play basketball at various colleges. However, Jillian decided to choose Northwestern over Michigan, Penn State and Rutgers, all schools with great basketball programs. Read More
Ohio State University
Madison Bowser - 6th Grade
The Ohio State women’s basketball team is among the best in the country, ranked twenty second overall as of now. But do they have a fighting chance to potentially outmatch their rival teams and win it all? Well, to start with, last season the Buckeyes were unable to play in the postseason, and in an article from The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio State guard Jacy Sheldon says, “the team is beyond excited for the upcoming season,” which the previously “upcoming season” has now begun. The Ohio State women’s basketball team’s excitement has, and will continue to be, clearly reflected in their performance throughout the 2021-2022 season. Read More
Penn State University
Ava Stone - 6th Grade
Basketball at Penn State is bigger than just records and rosters for Makenna Marisa, a women's basketball player. Makenna is a junior at Penn State University, an Early Childhood Education major, and has played basketball all three of her years at Penn State. Makenna Marissa is 5’11”. Her position for the Nittany Lions is guard. Although there may have been some difficult times, Makenna has always been the player to watch for the Nittany Lions. Read More
Purdue University
Sam Housten - 6th Grade
Following the 63-62 loss to Wiconsin in the final regular season game, coach Katie Geralds described the 2021-2022 Purdue women’s basketball team as, “a group of fighters.” Geralds, in her first year coaching the team, called them “A group of young women who don’t want to give up playing basketball.” While they may have a fighting spirit in common, their paths to Purdue were quite different. Read More
Rutgers University
LJ Leising - 8th Grade
"(We need) to make sure our younger players understand the Rutgers way. We want to make sure we develop with our team the toughness you need to have in order to be successful," said Tim Eatman, the acting head coach of women's basketball at Rutgers. But, what is the Rutgers way and how does it affect the women on and off the court? Read More
University of Wisconsin
Sophie Roberts - 7th Grade
Maty Wilke is a freshman at the University of Wisconsin and plays basketball for the women’s team. Maty is in recovery from her ACL injury and has to go to PT everyday to work on strengthening the leg that had the injury. Maty works with AJ Whitehead (Associate Director of Olympic Strength and Conditioning) and Erin McQuillan (Athletic Trainer) on bringing the strength back in her leg. Maty does many squats and reps to build strength. With Maty or any player that has an ACL injury you want to work with the good leg as much as possible because science shows that strengthening in one leg transfers to the other. Working with that good leg is really important with an ACL injury. It allows players to recover quickly and have a easier recovery after surgery. Read More