Michigan women's basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico lamented Sunday that a game that was postponed and not made up cost the Wolverines a chance at sharing the program's first Big Ten title.
Michigan and Maryland ended up at 13-4 in the league, with both having a game against the conference's last-place team, Illinois, not rescheduled.
Ohio State and Iowa both finished 14-4, a .778 winning percentage to Michigan's and Maryland's .765. Thus, the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes shared the league regular-season championship, with Ohio State as the No. 1 seed in this week's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis, and Iowa No. 2, as the Buckeyes won the head-to-head matchup for the tiebreaker. Michigan will be the No. 3 seed and Maryland No. 4.
Michigan had a chance to claim the Big Ten title outright on Sunday, but ran into a sold-out arena at Iowa and a hot-shooting Hawkeyes team that made 16 3-pointers in a 104-80 victory. Iowa's Caitlin Clark led the way with 38 points and 11 assists, making 8 of 11 from 3-point range.
Michigan went 5-1 against Ohio State, Iowa and Maryland this season. Had the Wolverines played the Illinois game and won, they would have been the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament.
"Even though we beat Maryland twice, beat Ohio State twice and beat Iowa once, we're not a co-share of the Big Ten [title]," Barnes Arico said. "Yeah, that's pretty crushing."
The Terps' matchup with the Illini was postponed on Dec. 30 because of COVID-19 protocol within the Illinois program. The Wolverines' game at Illinois was postponed on Feb. 3 because inclement weather prevented Michigan from traveling. Odds were in favor of Michigan and Maryland defeating the Illini, who went 1-13 in Big Ten play this year and have just seven conference wins total over the past five seasons.
Had Michigan and Maryland gone 14-4, it would have been a four-way share for the Big Ten title.
The Big Ten tried to reschedule both games against Illinois but was unable to, and they were counted as no-contests. In all, seven of the league's 14 teams got in all 18 of their conference games. Four got in 17, two 16 and one 14. Ohio State, Iowa and Maryland have all won both the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles before, but Michigan has not won either.
The Wolverines still have a chance to win the tournament championship, but missing on the share of the regular-season title hurt.
"The reality is, we didn't get to play the [Illinois] game, so we did everything we needed to do during the course of the year, and we're not co-Big Ten champs," Barnes Arico said. "That's pretty crummy."