Michigan has played better opponents. They’ve played more hated opponents. When it comes to what’s at stake, however, Sunday’s tilt at Iowa (noon Eastern, FOX) is the biggest game of the season thus far.

The Wolverines (13-2) are one game ahead of the Hawkeyes (12-3) in the conference standings after Iowa easily handled Purdue on the road last night. This is the first and only matchup between the two teams this season. The first tiebreaker for Big Ten tournament seeding is head-to-head record.

This isn’t quite a play-in game for the two-seed, as both teams have two games remaining after Sunday’s matchup. Michigan could lock down the two-seed with a win since they’d have a two-game lead and the tiebreaker. If Iowa wins, they’d still need to finish level or better with U-M over the final two games.

The Hawkeyes would have a very good opportunity to do just that. Michigan’s last two games are tough: at NET #18 Ohio State and home against #14 Maryland. Iowa has a much easier closing stretch: home against #33 Illinois and at #87 Wisconsin. In all likelihood, the Wolverines would need to win out and see Iowa get upset to secure the two-seed.

It’d be a lot easier to just wrap this up over the weekend.

Both teams have key injuries that may or may not impact the proceedings. Iowa’s 6’2” forward Hannah Stuelke, who averages 13.8 points and a team-best 8.8 rebounds per game, missed the Purdue game with an “upper-body” injury, and she’s “hopeful” to play on Sunday but considered day-to-day. The Hawkeyes already lost senior starting guard Taylor McCabe, a spot-up shooting specialist, for the season at the end of January; they’ve gone 4-3 in her absence.

Freshman Journey Houston made her debut in the starting lineup last night, tallying an efficient 16 points and five rebounds. At 5’11”, Houston lacks Stuelke’s size and defensive presence, but she’s a very good rebounder on both ends. She’s also not as effective of a passer out of the post.

On the Michigan side, Te’Yala Delfosse exited last weekend’s win over Michigan State with an arm injury of some sort that went entirely unnoticed by the FS1 broadcast. Thankfully, a Bluesky user who was at the game spotted her going to the locker room and later jogging back out, but she never re-entered the game.

I haven’t seen any updates on Delfosse since, so hopefully it was a minor ding and she’s good to go. While U-M fared well in her absence against MSU, Iowa’s a more interior-oriented team; they could definitely use her size and rebounding prowess off the bench.

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Iowa likes to play inside-out when they’re at full strength. Stuelke gets the lion’s share of her points at the rim, as does 6’4” center Ava Heiden, who leads the team with 17.0 points per game. Heiden shoots an excellent 75.9% at the rim and a decent 42.9% from midrange. She’s going to be a tough matchup for Ashley Sofilkanich and Kendall Dudley. Stuelke isn’t quite as efficient from the field but she’s very good at drawing fouls.

This very much isn’t a Caitlin Clark Iowa team. They attempt 32.7% of their field goals from three-point range, only the 12th-highest mark in the Big Ten. They’ve got a couple very good outside shooters in Chazadi “Chit-Chat” Wright and Taylor Stremlow. Without McCabe, however, those two are the only players in the rotation making more than 30% of their threes.

Wings Kylie Feuerbach and Addison Deal are both shooting only 30% from beyond the arc. Feuerbach doesn’t drive to the basket much and both are turnover-prone. Backup center Layla Hays, a 6’5” freshman, is a solid offensive rebounder who’s otherwise struggled to replace Heiden’s production when she’s on the floor.

Michigan has an opportunity to open up a significant advantage in shot attempts, much like they did last weekend against MSU. McCabe almost never committed turnovers, which cannot be said for Stremlow. Iowa favors getting back on defense over crashing the offensive boards. While the Hawkeyes are an excellent defensive rebounding team, Brooke Quarles Daniels provides a unique challenge in that regard.

The Hawkeyes don’t force many turnovers and are mediocre at defending both interior and outside shots. They make those up on the glass and by avoiding fouls; the latter is just fine by Michigan given the team-wide free throw struggles. Iowa’s been nearly as bad shooting free throws themselves.

I like Michigan’s chances of winning this game on the margins if they aren’t already doing it with their shooting. If Stuelke can’t play or is limited by her injury, I really like U-M’s chances. Without McCabe and Stuelke, Iowa only goes about seven players deep, which leaves them prone to being worn out by U-M’s press and high tempo.

For Iowa to win, they’ll need to dominate the interior and avoid turnovers. They very much have a path to victory with Heiden, Stuelke (maybe), and Houston attacking the paint, especially if Delfosse is absent or limited. I think Michigan can overcome Iowa’s post offense with timely double-teams and pressure.

Wednesday night featured one of the better Big Ten matchups this year, with Ohio State and Minnesota facing off in a matchup of ranked teams headed for top-five seeds in the NCAA Tournament battling for the critical double-bye in the conference tournament. The Gophers continued their heater, coming out on top in a fun back-and-forth game.

You almost certainly didn’t see it. The Big Ten chose to put two of the worst men’s basketball teams in a high-major conference on BTN and shuffled OSU-Minnesota off to BTN+, their subscription streaming service. This is becoming a deeply unfortunate pattern.

Big Ten fans are already shelling out money for Peacock if they want to see both men’s and women’s hoops. Somehow, the entire Peacock streaming service — which also features the Olympics and a wide selection of TV and movies — costs significantly less than BTN+, which runs you $12.99 per month.

Maybe that cost is worth it if you’re a big fan of sports that rarely, if ever, make it onto real television. The sheer lack of effort put into BTN+ broadcasts, however, makes it an incredibly frustrating experience.

No matter how strong your internet connection, games often run into buffering and video quality issues. Video and announcing crews are pulled from local sources, often students; the camera-work is often shaky (sometimes quite literally) and the announcing anywhere from uneven to obnoxious. The score box is often wrong.

The app and website itself also suck. They’re difficult to navigate and the drop-down menus don’t work for me on Firefox, so I have to use the search function to access the most valuable part of the site for my work, the video archive.

Thankfully, Michigan doesn’t have any more BTN+ basketball games this season. Keeping track of the rest of the league has been painful enough. The conference needs to invest a lot more in their streaming service, drop the price point, and fix their priorities about which games deserve to be on BTN proper.

Kim Barnes Arico will have to replace an assistant coach next season after the WNBA’s Seattle Storm hired Natalie Achonwa, who also serves as the program’s general manager, to their coaching staff for 2026-27. Achonwa will stick around for the rest of the season.

It’s a loss for both recruiting and player development, especially since Achonwa has been on the staff for Team Canada. It’s only her second year in the program, however, so she’s not responsible for Mila Holloway and Syla Swords being in Ann Arbor. Producing an assistant who rose that quickly to the WNBA level should allow Michigan to hire a quality replacement.

If you haven’t already, allow this local news segment to introduce you to 6’5” center Fope Ayo, a top-50 prospect who’ll arrive at Michigan next season:

Ayo may need some time to develop, as she didn’t start playing basketball until the COVID pandemic hit, but she’ll bring an interior presence we haven’t yet seen under KBA. Her background as a dancer gives me high hopes for her post footwork.

Michigan remains locked in as a two-seed in every NCAA Tournament projection out there. They’re #6 in the NET rankings. The tough closing schedule is a double-edged sword; a rough finish to the regular season could drop them down a seed but they’re not going to get hit with a bad loss that could do that on its own. The overall strength of the Big Ten really helps, too.

MGoBlog’s Alex Drain has a big-picture overview of the squad if you haven’t been following along until now.

Image courtesy of Iowa’s WBB Instagram page.