Purdue women's basketball's 2024-25 B1G opponents announced
A new era of Big Ten athletics brings a new-look conference slate for Purdue women's basketball. The Boilermakers now have their Big Ten opponents and where they will be playing locked in for next season.
Purdue is coming off a 15-19 campaign, its worst mark under soon-to-be fourth-year head coach Katie Gearlds, but did secure two wins in the WNIT. Gearlds and company will have a gauntlet in the expanded conference in 2024-25.
Under the new scheduling format Purdue will play each Big Ten team once and one team twice, which unsurprisingly, is in-state rival Indiana.
Among the home only matchups that will visit Mackey Arena next season are USC, UCLA, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern and Maryland. Purdue will hit the road for its only matchups against Iowa, Ohio State, Oregon, Washington, Michigan State, Rutgers, Penn State and Illinois.
The Big Ten is set to be loaded and possibly the top conference in the country next season, having five teams that finished in the AP Top 25, all of which are expected to be players for the Big Ten regular season title in 2024-25. Ohio State, Iowa and Indiana will all lose star players to the WNBA, but will be in the upper echelon of the conference.
The Boilermakers also have matches set with all four of the new Big Ten programs, USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington.
Purdue has only faced off with USC once, where the Boilermakers fell 58-46 in the 2017 Rainbow Wahine Challenge in Hawaii. JuJu Watkins and the Trojans are expected to be one of the top teams in all of college basketball next season, marking a tall task for the Boilermakers, even in the confines of Mackey Arena.
UCLA will be a familiar opponent for Purdue next season, after having just played in the 2023 season opener, when Katie Gearlds and company fell 92-49 in Pauley Pavilion. Purdue is now 2-2 all-time against its new conference opponent. UCLA will return the favor and come to West Lafayette next season. Similar to the crosstown Trojans, the Bruins will be highly ranked to start next season.
Similar to the previous two West Coast programs, Purdue and Washington haven't matched up often. The Boilermakers have split the two previous meetings with the Huskies, which occurred in 2006 and 2007. During Purdue's lone win over Washington, now head coach Katie Gearlds dropped a game-high 31 points on 11-18 shooting in Mackey Arena. Washington went 16-15 last season, with a 6-12 mark in conference play and have had just two winning seasons since 2016-17.
Purdue and Oregon have never played in their respective histories. The Ducks had made five straight NCAA Tournaments before missing the last two, including having its worst season in over a decade last season. Oregon has bolstered its roster via the transfer portal however, in what could be a bounce back campaign in Eugene.