2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball team

2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball
2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball
NCAA tournament, second round
Conference	Big Ten Conference
Record	16–9 (11–7 Big Ten)
Head coach	Joe McKeown (13th season);
Assistant coaches	Kate Popovec; Preston Reid; Tangela Smith;
Home arena	Welsh–Ryan Arena
	Seasons ← 2019–20 2021–22 →

2020–21 Big Ten women's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 7 Maryland †	17	–	1	.944	26	–	2	.929
No. 12 Indiana	16	–	2	.889	20	–	5	.800
No. 21 Rutgers	10	–	3	.769	14	–	5	.737
No. 16 Michigan	9	–	4	.692	16	–	6	.727
Northwestern	11	–	7	.611	16	–	9	.640
Iowa	11	–	8	.579	20	–	9	.690
No. 22 Ohio State	9	–	7	.563	13	–	7	.650
Michigan State	8	–	7	.533	15	–	9	.625
Nebraska	9	–	10	.474	13	–	13	.500
Minnesota	7	–	11	.389	8	–	13	.381
Penn State	6	–	13	.316	9	–	15	.375
Purdue	4	–	14	.222	7	–	16	.304
Illinois	2	–	16	.111	5	–	18	.217
Wisconsin	2	–	18	.100	5	–	19	.208

† 2021 Big Ten tournament winner As of March 27, 2021 Rankings from AP poll

The 2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball team represented Northwestern University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Wildcats were led by 13th-year head coach Joe McKeown. They played their home games at Welsh–Ryan Arena as members of the Big Ten Conference.

They finished the season 16–9, 11–7 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place. They received a bye into the Second Round of the Big Ten women's tournament where they defeated Illinois and Michigan before losing to eventual champions Maryland in the Semifinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. As the seven seed in the Alamo Regional they defeated ten seed UCF in the First Round before losing to two seed Louisville in the Second Round to end their season.

Previous season

The Wildcats finished 26–4, 16–2 in Big Ten play to finish tied for first place. As the second seed in the Big Ten women's tournament they received a double-bye into the Quarterfinals where they lost to Michigan. They did not get a chance for further post season play, as the NCAA women's basketball tournament and WNIT were cancelled before they began due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[1]

Roster

2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	0	Jess Sancataldo	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Jr	Turamurra	Sydney, Australia
G	1	Kaylah Rainey	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)	So	Belleville East	Belleville, IL
G	2	Lauryn Satterwhite	5 ft 7 in (1.7 m)	RS Jr	Valley Vista	Avondale, AZ
G	3	Sydney Wood	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	Jr	St. John's College	Olney, MD
G	10	Lindsey Pulliam	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Sr	Our Lady of Good Counsel	Silver Spring, MD
G	11	Brooke Pikiell	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	Sr	Rutgers Prep	Far Hills, NJ
G	12	Veronica Burton	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	Jr	Newton South	Newton, MA
F	15	Courtney Shaw	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	Jr	Perry Hall	Perry Hall, MD
F	20	Paige Mott	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	Fr	Abington Friends	Philadelphia, PA
G	23	Jasmine McWilliams	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	Fr	North Central	Indianapolis, IN
G	24	Jordan Hamilton	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	Sr	Liberty	Frisco, TX
G	33	Laya Hartman	5 ft 11 in (1.8 m)	So	Okemos	Okemos, MI
F	42	Anna Morris	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	Fr	Immaculate Heart	Mahwah, NJ

Head coach

Joe McKeown (Mercer)

Assistant coach(es)

Kate Popovec (Northwestern)
Preston Reid (Ball State)
Tangela Smith (Iowa)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Roster
Last update: June 17, 2021

Schedule and results

Source:^[2]

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site (attendance) city, state
Regular season
December 6, 2020* TBA	No. 17	Bradley	Canceled		Welsh–Ryan Arena Evanston, IL
December 10, 2020* 6:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 17	Eastern Illinois	W 93–57	1–0	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
December 14, 2020 8:00 p.m., BTN	No. 16	Minnesota	W 80–51	2–0 (1–0)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
December 17, 2020 6:00 p.m., BTN	No. 16	at Purdue	W 70–54	3–0 (2–0)	Mackey Arena (164) West Lafayette, IN
December 22, 2020* 1:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 15	Eastern Kentucky	W 79–50	4–0	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
December 31, 2020 1:00 p.m., BTN	No. 15	at Nebraska	L 63–65	4–1 (2–1)	Pinnacle Bank Arena (0) Lincoln, NE
January 3, 2021 4:00 p.m., ESPN2	No. 15	No. 16 Michigan	L 63–84	4–2 (2–2)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
January 6, 2021 3:00 p.m., BTN	No. 22	at Wisconsin	W 80–55	5–2 (3–2)	Kohl Center (0) Madison, WI
January 9, 2021 6:00 p.m., BTN	No. 22	Iowa	W 77–67	6–2 (4–2)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
January 14, 2021 TBA, BTN+	No. 22	at Rutgers	Postponed		Louis Brown Athletic Center Piscataway, NJ
January 17, 2021 1:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 22	at Penn State	W 67–50	7–2 (5–2)	Bryce Jordan Center (219) University Park, PA
January 21, 2021 6:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 21	Illinois	W 73–54	8–2 (6–2)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
January 24, 2021 11:00 a.m., ESPN2	No. 21	No. 16 Indiana	L 61–74	8–3 (6–3)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (1) Evanston, IL
January 28, 2021 5:00 p.m., BTN	No. 23	at Iowa	W 87–80	9–3 (7–3)	Carver–Hawkeye Arena (264) Iowa City, IA
February 1, 2021 7:00 p.m., BTN	No. 22	No. 11 Ohio State	W 69–57	10–3 (8–3)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
February 7, 2021 2:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 22	at Michigan State	W 63–60	11–3 (9–3)	Breslin Center (0) East Lansing, MI
February 11, 2021 3:00 p.m., BTN	No. 21	Rutgers	L 54–70	11–4 (9–4)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
February 14, 2021 Noon, BTN	No. 21	at No. 13 Ohio State	Postopned		Value City Arena Columbus, OH
February 17, 2021 6:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 24	Nebraska	L 64–71	11–5 (9–5)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
February 20, 2021 2:00 p.m., BTN+	No. 24	Wisconsin	W 67–54	12–5 (10–5)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (0) Evanston, IL
February 24, 2021 6:00 p.m., BTN+		at Illinois	W 67–61	13–5 (11–5)	State Farm Center (0) Champaign, IL
February 28, 2021 3:00 p.m., ESPN2		No. 8 Maryland	L 50–62	13–6 (11–6)	Welsh–Ryan Arena (20) Evanston, IL
March 6, 2021 2:00 p.m., BTN+		at No. 12 Michigan	L 58–63	13–7 (11–7)	Crisler Center (60) Ann Arbor, MI
Big Ten Women's Tournament
March 10, 2021 12:20 p.m., BTN	(5)	vs. (12) Illinois Second Round	W 67–42	14–7	Bankers Life Fieldhouse (716) Indianapolis, IN
March 11, 2021 12:20 p.m., FS2	(5)	vs. (4) No. 13 Michigan Quarterfinals	W 65–49	15–7	Bankers Life Fieldhouse (779) Indianapolis, IN
March 12, 2021 1:00 p.m., FS2	(5)	vs. (1) No. 7 Maryland Semifinals	L 52–85	15–8	Bankers Life Fieldhouse (0) Indianapolis, IN
NCAA tournament
March 22, 2021 3:00 p.m., ESPNU	(7 (A))	vs. (10 (A)) UCF First Round	W 62–51	16–8	Bill Greehey Arena (0) San Antonio, TX
March 24, 2021 4:00 p.m., ESPN2	(7 (A))	vs. (2 (A)) No. 8 Louisville Second Round	L 53–62	16–9	Alamodome (0) San Antonio, TX
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP Poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses. A=Alamo. All times are in Central Time.

Rankings

Regular Season Polls
Poll	Pre- Season	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10	Week 11	Week 12	Week 13	Week 14	Week 15	Week 16	Final
AP	17	15	17	16	15	15	22	22	21	23	22	21	24	RV	RV		RV
Coaches	16	17	18	16	16	23	23	22	23т	20	20	22	25	25	RV	RV	RV

**Legend**
		Increase in ranking
		Decrease in ranking
		Not ranked previous week
(RV)		Received Votes
(NR)		Not Ranked and Did not receive votes
т		Tied with team above or below also with this symbol

The Coaches Poll did not release a Week 2 poll and the AP Poll did not release a poll after the NCAA Tournament.

References

^ "NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships due to coronavirus concerns". NCAA.com. March 12, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
^ "2020-21 Women's Basketball Schedule". nusports.com. Northwestern University. Retrieved June 17, 2021.

[1] "NCAA cancels remaining winter and spring championships due to coronavirus concerns". NCAA.com. March 12, 2020. Retrieved March 12, 2020.

[2] "2020-21 Women's Basketball Schedule". nusports.com. Northwestern University. Retrieved June 17, 2021.

[1]

[2]

v t e Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball
Venues	Welsh–Ryan Arena (1975–present) Beardsley Gym (2017–18)
Culture & lore	History "Go U Northwestern" Willie the Wildcat
People	Head coaches
Seasons	1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25

Previous season

Roster

Schedule and results

Rankings

See also

References