Northwestern Ready for Big Ten Tournament

3/1/2017 9:39:00 AM | Women's Basketball

NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION
DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	LOCATION	BROADCAST	RADIO	LIVE STATS
Thursday, March 2	#8 Iowa (B1G Tournament)	11 a.m.	Indianapolis, Ind. (Bankers Life Fieldhouse)	BTN BTN2Go	WNUR	Gametracker
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Game Notes | Big Ten Tournament Central | Big Ten Tournament Bracket

EVANSTON, Ill. – Northwestern opens the 2017 Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament on Thursday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana. The No. 9 seed Wildcats are set to face No. 8 seed Iowa at noon in the second round of the tournament.

The winner will face top-seeded Ohio State in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Chicago's Big Ten Team has advanced to the semifinals in the past two years, in 2015 as the No. 4 seed and last season as the No. 12 seed.

Every Big Ten Tournament game will be televised live on Big Ten Network up until the finals, which will be broadcast by ESPN2.

HISTORY AT THE BIG TEN TOURNAMENT
Northwestern has advanced to the semifinals in each of the last two seasons. Before 2015, the Wildcats had never made it past the quarterfinal round. The 2015 tournament at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Ill. saw Northwestern as the No. 4 seed. The 'Cats beat No. 5 Rutgers in the quarterfinals after receiving a double-bye and were narrowly edged by No. 1 Maryland in the next round. The 2016 version in Indianapolis had Chicago's Big Ten Team as the No. 12 seed. Northwestern beat No. 13 Wisconsin in overtime on the first day, beat No. 5 Minnesota by 10 in the next round, took down No. 4 Indiana, 79-73, in the quarterfinals before again falling to Maryland in the semifinals. Overall, Northwestern is 8-22 all-time in the Big Ten Tournament.

AWARDS SEASON
Seniors Ashley Deary and Nia Coffey have been selected to various watch lists for national awards. Deary is a top-10 finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Award, given annually to the nation's best point guard. She was also named CoSIDA Academic All-District. Coffey was selected to the John R. Wooden Award Late Season Top 20 List, as announced on ESPNU on Feb. 8. She is also among the finalists for the Naismith Award. Both are given to the national player of the year, as voted on by the various award committees. Coffey is also a finalist for the USBWA award, the Wade Trophy and the Drysdale Award, all given to the nation's top player.

On Monday, Coffey was tabbed as a First-Team All-Big Ten selection by both the media and the coaches and was a unanimous pick by the media. Deary was named to the Big Ten's Second Team and for the second straight year was voted the conference's Defensive Player of the Year. She is just the third player in Big Ten history to earn that award multiple times.

A REMARKABLE CLASS
Northwestern seniors Nia Coffey, Ashley Deary, Lauren Douglas, Christen Inman and Allie Tuttle have presided over a complete transformation of the women's basketball program. The senior class has accounted for 77 wins together, the most since the 1993 class had 82 over its four years. The group led Northwestern to the NCAA tournament in 2014, the first appearance for the program since 1997. Coffey, Deary, Douglas and Inman are all in the 1,000 point club.