The 2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats women's basketball team represented Northwestern University during the 2020–21 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Wildcats were led by 13th-year head coach Joe McKeown. They played their home games at Welsh–Ryan Arena as members of the Big Ten Conference.
They finished the season 16–9, 11–7 in Big Ten play to finish in fifth place. They received a bye into the second round of the Big Ten women's tournament, where they defeated Illinois and Michigan before losing to eventual champions Maryland in the semifinals. They received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. As the seven seed in the Alamo Regional they defeated ten seed in the first round before losing to two seed Louisville in the second round to end their season.
Previous season
The Wildcats finished 26–4, 16–2 in Big Ten play to finish tied for first place. As the second seed in the Big Ten women's tournament they received a double-bye into the quarterfinals, where they lost to Michigan. They did not get a chance for further post-season play, as the NCAA women's basketball tournament and WNIT were cancelled before they began, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Roster
Schedule and results
Source:
!colspan=6 style=| Regular season
!colspan=6 style= |Big Ten Women's Tournament
!colspan=6 style= |NCAA tournament
Rankings
+ Regular season pollsPoll Pre-season Week2 Week3 Week4 Week5 Week6 Week7 Week8 Week9 Week10 Week11 Week12 Week13 Week14 Week15 Week16 Final AP 17 15 17 16 15 15 22 22 21 23 22 21 24 RV RV RV Coaches 16 17 18 16 16 23 23 22 23т 20 20 22 25 25 RV RV RV + Legend Increase in ranking Decrease in ranking Not ranked previous week (RV) Received votes (NR) Not ranked and did not receive votes т Tied with team above or below also with this symbol
The Coaches Poll did not release a Week 2 poll, and the AP Poll did not release a poll after the NCAA Tournament.
See also 2020–21 Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball team
References