Minnesota is off to its best start in 17 games and earned its first ranking since 2019, coming into The Associated Press women’s basketball poll at No. 24.

Minnesota head coach Keegan Cook announced the addition of Nellie Coleman (Spicer) as the team's general manager and assistant coach.

Top-ranked UCLA's game against Penn State on Wednesday is being moved to Long Beach State's campus because of concerns about the ongoing deadly wildfires.

"If we don't go up there with the mindset that it's going to be 40 minutes of fight...we're going to walk out of there with a loss," Dusty May said.

Michigan has feasted on former Pac-12 schools to fatten its Big Ten record. The 20th-ranked Wolverines begin playing more traditional conference opponents on Thursday when they visit Minneapolis to face Minnesota.

Though the sky over Westwood was powder blue and the brown pall of wildfire smoke from the Palisades Fire consigned to the western edge of the sky, the campus of UCLA was quiet on Sunday afternoon.

Michigan is the best shooting team in the country and heads to Minneapolis coming off Sunday’s 91-75 win over Washington. May doesn’t want the Wolverines simply using the final score as a measure of their progress. He said Michigan “took a step back in some areas” in that game compared to the two games in Los Angeles, citing defensive intensity.

Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit turned her college music choice for inspiration last season when the Golden Gophers made a run to the finals of the postseason WNIT.

Illinois head coach Shauna Green and Illinois forward Kendall Bostic (44) after Green presented therewith game balls for hitting 1000 Points in a NCAA basketball game at the State Farm Center in Champaign on Thursday,