Michigan to Travel to Big Ten Tourney as No. 6 Seed

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The University of Michigan women's basketball team (18-12) heads to Minneapolis, Minn., as the No. 6 seed for the upcoming Big Ten Tournament at the Target Center. U-M received a first-round bye and will face either No. 14-seed Rutgers (8-23) or No. 11-seed Minnesota (15-14) on Thursday (March 7) at approximately 8 p.m. CST. The game will be televised by the Big Ten Network.

Notes

• Michigan finished tied for sixth in the Big Ten with Maryland and Penn State at 9-9. U-M went 2-0 against the group, winning the tiebreaker for the No. 6 seed. Michigan has won at least nine games in Big Ten play in each of the last nine seasons.

• Michigan picked up a win over Penn State in last year's Big Ten Tournament, a 63-61 victory over the Lady Lions in the second round. It marked Michigan's first win at the event since 2020 after receiving a double bye into the quarterfinals in both 2021 and 2022. U-M made back-to-back appearances in the semifinals in 2019 and 2020.

• Michigan will face either Minnesota (15-14) or Rutgers (8-23) in the second round of the Big Ten Tournament on Thursday (March 7). U-M swept a pair of contests from Rutgers this season, getting a 56-50 win in Piscataway, N.J., (Jan. 21) and an 86-58 win over the Scarlet Knights in Ann Arbor (Feb. 10). Minnesota took the lone meeting between the teams this year, recording an 82-66 win at Crisler Center on Jan. 9.

• U-M is 1-0 all-time against Minnesota in the Big Ten Tournament, getting a 74-55 win over the Gophers in the 1999 tournament. Michigan has never faced Rutgers in the Big Ten Tournament.

• Freshman Taylor Woodson is returning to her home state of Minnesota for the first time in her collegiate career. Woodson hails from Minnetonka, starring at Hopkins High School. She won a pair of state championships with the Royals during her prep career.

• Laila Phelia was named to the All-Big Ten first team for the first time in her career after garnering a second-team nod last season. Lauren Hansen earned honorable mention from both the coaches and media. Phelia and Hansen are Michigan's two double-figure scorers entering postseason play. » Release

• Cameron Williams scored 18 points in Michigan's regular-season finale, marking her seventh double-figure scoring game during Big Ten action. She scored a career-best 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting against Rutgers (Feb. 10) after scoring 14 off the bench against Nebraska (Feb. 6). She has reached double figures in six of Michigan's last 10 games. On the season, Williams is averaging 7.4 points per game on 55.7 percent shooting and 4.8 rebounds in 17 minutes per game. She became the 48th Wolverine to appear in 100 career games with her start against Rutgers. She topped the 500-point mark for her career with four points at Northwestern (Feb. 24) and is up to 528 over her four seasons.

• Michigan enters the Big Ten Tournament with the No. 1-ranked scoring defense in the Big Ten, allowing just 63.2 points per game after holding Purdue to just 60 points last time out (March 3).

• The winner of this game will advance to the quarterfinals to face No. 3-seed and No. 12-ranked Indiana at approximately 8 p.m. CST on Friday (March 8).