3 takeaways from Indiana women’s basketball’s Big Ten schedule

Indiana women’s basketball’s Big Ten schedule for the 2026-27 season was released yesterday via the conference’s media channels and promptly posted to the program’s social media channels:

Indiana is coming off of a down year, having not received an NCAA Tournament bid for the first time since 2018. Teri Moren and the rest of the staff reloaded through the transfer portal, retained key talent and welcomed one of the highest-rated freshman recruiting classes in the country (Though they’ll be without center Zoe Jackson due to injury).

There’s plenty to consider with this schedule. Let’s get into it.

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Indiana had to make the trip to Southern California last season and returned 0-2 with losses to the eventual national champions in UCLA and from a down-year USC team that was missing superstar JuJu Watkins all of last season due to an ACL tear from the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

The Bruins will be looking to defend their Big Ten and national crowns this season and make the trip to Bloomington as they did two seasons ago. Losing Lauren Betts looms large (literally) but UCLA’s transfer portal reload will no doubt serve them well. The Trojans are set to return Watkins, last season’s leading scorer Jazzy Davidson and 2026’s No. 1 prospect Saniyah Hall alongside a pair of 5-star freshman forwards.

These are gonna be huge games, especially if Indiana starts the season off well. There’s a good chance Assembly Hall will be rocking and the Hoosiers have to take advantage of that as they have in the past.

With no SoCal trip lined up, Indiana is instead slated to take a tour up north with a February trip to Seattle and Eugene. The conference’s basketball programs are set to take one or the other trip out west each year now, that’s just how it is.

Indiana handled Washington the last time the Hoosiers made the trip to the Emerald City and they’ll have the chance to say hi to program great Mackenzie Holmes, who’s still with the Seattle Storm. This is a different Huskies team though, coming off of its best season in years with plenty of that talent set to return. They’ll pose a real challenge this go around.

Oregon finds itself in somewhat of a similar spot as the Hoosiers, having fallen in recent years while looking to return to the ranks of the sport’s elite. The Ducks, unlike the Hoosiers, made it to NCAA Tournament play last season before bowing out. Time will tell if they stand pat at that fringe tournament level or continue climbing.

Indiana is set for a mixed bag of a three-game road slate relatively early in conference play.

Up first is Penn State which, sure. Indiana blew out Penn State to close out the past season as the Lions slipped to 4-14 in Big Ten play.

After that, it gets trickier. Indiana has a pretty substantial break before its next game but said game is against Iowa in Iowa City. Jan Jensen has another talented group on her hands and Carver-Hawkeye Arena is the most raucous environment in the conference. It’ll be tough to escape that one with a win.

After that comes Michigan State, a program on the rapid rise under Robyn Fralick. The Spartans handed the Hoosiers a 20-point home loss at Assembly Hall last season and made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a close loss to a strong Oklahoma program.

Indiana will be in pretty good shape with a 2-1 record in these games, but it’ll be tough to put even that together.

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3 takeaways from Indiana women’s basketball’s