After months and months of brutal offseason, college basketball is finally here. The men and women tip off the season this weekend, and there’s no better way to hit the hardwood than with a refresher of the best players.

Like their male counterparts, the women of the Big Ten Conference are really, really good — not just when compared relative to each other but also stacked up against the best players in the nation. Those players will hope to lead their teams to better campaigns in 2017-18; last year, only four Big Ten teams — Maryland, Ohio State, Purdue, and Michigan State — earned a place in March Madness.

Below are the best 11 returning players in the conference, selected by the coaches as preseason all-conference.

Tyra Buss, Sr.

Indiana | G | 5-foot-8

Last Year: 18.6 PPG | 3.1 RPG | 4.9 APG

The Big Ten is blessed with a few guards who play half a foot above their height, and Buss is one of the best.

She’s slippery as a salamander — swerving, spinning, and scampering past dumbfounded defenders. Her most impressive move may be a hesitation, in which she simultaneously pulls back her dribble, surveys the court, then picks a spot and attacks it with fury. Speaking of which...

Buss may be slippery, but she’s also ferocious. Even at 5-8, she’s never in her three years at Indiana averaged fewer than three rebounds per game. Her scoring prowess is impressive, but so is her vision and ability to get her teammates involved.

Amanda Cahill, Sr.

Indiana | F | 6-2

Last Year: 15.0 PPG | 9.2 RPG | 2.9 APG

Cahill, the anchor of the Hoosiers’ frontcourt and Buss’ partner in crime, hopes to help Indiana to a better finish than last year’s quarterfinal loss in the NIT. The Hoosiers finished near the top of the conference standings in fourth — 20-10 overall, 10-6 in conference play — but failed to impress the selection committee enough for a ticket to the Big Dance.

The senior forward is more than a post threat, though. Attempting more than four 3-pointers per game, Cahill sank 38.8 percent of long-range bombs, a better mark than Buss. Her rebounding numbers have increased in three consecutive years, and her assist numbers have increased over that same time span.

Indiana’s best two players are arguably the most well rounded in the conference, and they’ll hope that translates to better team play out of Bloomington.

Megan Gustafson, Jr.

Iowa | F | 6-3

Last Year: 18.0 PPG | 10.0 RPG | 0.7 APG

After a string of successive NCAA Tournament appearances, the Hawkeyes have endured back-to-back NIT berths. Iowa does lose a significant piece from last year’s NIT quarterfinalist in Ally Disterhoft, but Gustafson was far and away the team's best player and remains the centerpiece for this rebuilding program.

A double-double machine, Gustafson finished in the top five in the country in field-goal percentage, seeing 64.7 percent of her attempts find the bottom of the net. Remember: she was a sophomore. Gustafson has two seasons left in Iowa City to keep stuffing the stat sheet, and if her growth from her freshman to sophomore year is any indication of her ceiling, then the frontcourts of the Big Ten may need to watch out.

In her first year, Gustafson averaged 9.9 points and 6.6 rebounds; one year later she almost doubled those figures, with 18.0 points and 10.0 boards. The challenge this year for the junior will be how to cope with a defense that doesn’t need to worry about Disterhoft on the perimeter; the graduate finished just behind Gustafson with 16.6 points per game and was Iowa’s secondary threat.

Kaila Charles, So.

Maryland | G | 6-1

Last Year: 9.9 PPG | 5.6 RPG | 1.4 APG

There’s no way of getting around it: Maryland, one of four Big Ten teams to dance in March Madness last year, lost a ton of production. The Terrapins' top two scorers — Brionna Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough — are currently playing in the WNBA, and their third-leading scorer Destiny Slocum decided to move about 2,500 miles west, finding a new home at Oregon State.

That leaves Charles, who played an important if not critical role last year as a freshman, scoring nearly in the double figures in her first year.

A regular contributor on the glass, Charles plays more of a guard-forward position than anything else, as she doesn’t threaten from deep — attempting 0.1 3-pointers per game. Charles, even as a sophomore, will lead a new-look Maryland team in a league with a wealth of experience.

Katelynn Flaherty, Sr.

Michigan | G | 5-7

Last Year: 20.0 PPG | 1.6 RPG | 2.9 APG

The moment Flaherty stepped off the plane from New Jersey into her new home Ann Arbor, she got buckets — so many buckets, actually, that the senior is threatening to break the all-time scoring record in Michigan history. That’s for both women’s and men’s basketball, folks.

Those buckets helped the Wolverines win the NIT championship in a triple-OT thriller against Georgia Tech, 89-79. In that game, Flaherty rained down 27 points, nailing four triples and earning MVP honors. Michigan finished the year with 28 wins, the most in program history.

Flaherty and frontcourt partner Hallie Thome — with respect to Ohio State’s squad — make up the best inside-out combo in the conference. After last season’s success, now seems like the moment for Michigan to skip the NIT and compete with the country’s best.

Hallie Thome, Jr.

Michigan | C | 6-5

Last Year: 15.2 PPG | 7.2 RPG | 1.4 APG

As a member of the aforementioned record-breaking Michigan squad, Thome played “ying” to Katelynn Flaherty’s “yang.” Thome is almost always the tallest player on the court, and her size coupled with her rim awareness gives her the ability to score almost at will in the post. In both her freshman and sophomore years, the lefty shot over 60 percent from the field.

Thome boasts a left-handed hook shot that makes one pine for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The naturalness with which Thome moves in the post belies her size, actually, and that’s just as true on the defensive side of the ball. In her transition from year one to year two, Thome played more minutes but averaged fewer fouls. For a true center, that’s — forgive the pun — huge.

The 6-5 frontcourt anchor played almost 30 minutes per game and averaged fewer than three fouls; her 2.1 block-per-game mark was up from 1.2 the year before, and will probably continue to rise for the junior.

Branndais Agee, Sr.

Michigan State | G | 5-11

Last Year: 9.4 PPG | 7.1 RPG | 1.8 APG

Sparty is coming off two consecutive years of making the NCAA Tournament, but that budding streak may be in jeopardy. Like Maryland, Michigan State lost a substantial amount of production from a year ago. You can’t really replace someone like Tori Jankoska — the Spartans’ all-time leader in points, field goals made, and 3-pointers — and if that loss wasn’t enough, the frontcourt also took a blow with the graduation of 6-4 Taya Reimer.

Agee is the best returner for a Michigan State program looking to avoid regression. The redshirt senior served mostly as a rotation player in her first few season in East Lansing and gradually grew into a viable option in the last two seasons. As a redshirt sophomore, Agee dropped 42.9 percent of her 3-pointers, a number that dropped significantly last year — to 30.2 percent, attempting virtually the same number of shots beyond the arc.

If the Spartans want to maintain their form, Agree will need to regain hers. She brings a wealth of experience to this squad, and she’ll need to be a leader for Michigan State from the get-go.

Carlie Wagner, Sr.

Minnesota | G | 5-10

Last Year: 18.8 PPG | 5.0 RPG | 1.7 APG

Another prolific guard, Wagner spearheads arguably the deepest returning backcourt in the Big Ten. Last year, the Golden Gophers trio of Wagner, Kenisha Bell, and Gadiva Hubbard collectively averaged 47.2 points per game.

As a junior, Wagner attempted more than eight 3-pointers per game, connecting on just 30.1 percent of those attempts. If there’s any knock on the senior guard, it’s that she tends to be a volume scorer. But with Hubbard emerging already as a potential star last year as a freshman, Wagner could have more room with which to work.

A year ago, Minnesota was the best of the bad teams in the league, accruing a 5-11 conference mark and finishing 15-16 overall. Behind the Gophers was Wisconsin (3-13, 9-22); in front of them was Iowa (8-8, 17-13). With this backcourt, Minnesota should trend toward the latter group.

Stephanie Mavunga, Sr.

Ohio State | F | 6-3

Last Year: 11.8 PPG | 11.3 RPG | 0.5 APG

Were it not for another well-known Buckeye — you know who we’re talking about — Mavunga would be the star of this Ohio State team. For three years, the senior has grabbed rebounds and scored buckets; a season ago she averaged a double-double, and in her first two years in Columbus she never averaged fewer than eight rebounds or 11 points per game.

Mavunga paired with Mitchell offers the conference a third stellar inside-out pairing, along with Buss/Cahill at Indiana and Flaherty/Thome at Michigan. With the sheer stardom of Mitchell and the superior depth at Ohio State, this is the best pairing.

The 6-3 forward does the things you’d expect a big to do — blocks more than two shots per game — and also things you might not expect, like sinking nearly 70 percent of her free throws, a drastic improvement from her first year on campus.

Kelsey Mitchell, Sr.

Ohio State | G | 5-8

Last Year: 23.4 PPG | 2.9 RPG | 4.0 APG

The numbers are truly astounding for Mitchell: over 2,500 career points, three times a consensus All-American, two times conference player of the year, and record-holder for 3-pointers made in the Big Ten (368). (To boot, she's is a stud in the classroom; on two occasions she’s made all-conference academic honors, and she was a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, too.)

Mitchell, however, is the peculiar case of a player whose epic numbers actually belie what a cosmic force she is on the hardwood. Along with a nasty crossover, she’s got range and vision and a stop-on-a-dime pull-up.

Mitchell is the undisputed leader of the No. 5-ranked Buckeyes, a team chosen by both the media and the coaches to win the Big Ten and certainly the conference’s best shot at a Final Four — or maybe something greater.

Teniya Page, Jr.

Penn State | G | 5-7

Last Year: 19.4 PPG | 3.7 RPG | 3.8 APG

As the conference’s best returning markswoman, Page finished ninth in the country in 3-point accuracy a year ago, dropping 44.1 percent of her long-distance bombs. 

She also stuffs the stat sheet with boards and dimes in addition to her 19.4 point-per-game tally, which was good for sixth best among NCAA sophomores and 21st in the nation. If the Lady Lions want to claw their way out of the middle of the conference, they’ll need everything Page can offer.

After starting the season 10-2, Penn State entered conference play in somewhat disastrous fashion, losing four of their first games. But, behind Page, they rallied, finishing the Big Ten slate by winning eight of their 11 games for a 9-7 total.