Big Ten women's basketball tournament 2021: Bracket, schedule, TV listings

Iowa enters the Big Ten women's basketball tournament next week at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis as the No. 6 seed. The Hawkeyes (15-8, 11-8) will face No. 11-seed Purdue (7-15, 4-14) in their opening game Wednesday night.

The winner meets No. 3-seed Rutgers (13-3, 9-3) in the quarterfinals.

Iowa beat Purdue 87-81 on Jan. 18 and Rutgers 90-84 on Dec. 31, both at home. Its scheduled road trip to Rutgers was canceled due to COVID-19 issues with the Scarlet Knights.

The Hawkeyes have won the Big Ten tournament three times, most recently in 2019. They lost their opener in the quarterfinals to Ohio State last year.

Regular-season champion and defending tournament champion Maryland (21-2, 17-1) is the top seed, Indiana (18-4, 16-2) is No. 2 and No. 4-seed Michigan (14-4, 9-4) drew the other double-bye.

No. 22-ranked Ohio State (13-7, 9-7) is ineligible for the postseason, so the tournament is only 13 teams this year.

Here's the complete schedule, seeds (along with AP rankings), pairings and TV listings. All times central.

First round — Tuesday, March 9

(13) Wisconsin vs. (12) Illinois, 4 p.m., BTN

Second round — Wednesday, March 10

(9) Minnesota vs. (8) Nebraska, 10 a.m., BTN

First round winner vs. (5) Northwestern, approx. 12:30 p.m., BTN

(10) Penn State vs. (7) Michigan State, 5:30 p.m., FS2

(11) Purdue vs. (6) Iowa, approx. 8 p.m., FS2

Quarterfinals — Thursday, March 11

9/8 winner vs. (1) No. 8 Maryland, 10 a.m., FS2

13/12/5 winner vs. (4) No. 12 Michigan, approx. 12:30 p.m., FS2

10/7 winner vs. (2) No. 10 Indiana, 5:30 p.m., FS2

11/6 winner vs. (3) No. 24 Rutgers, approx. 8 p.m., FS2

Semifinals — Friday, March 12

1 p.m., FS2

Approx. 3:30 p.m., FS2

Final — Saturday, March 13

1 p.m., ESPNU