Three years ago, the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) started formal programming for Love Data Week with workshops and panels to highight the critical role data play in teaching, research, and careers. Penn State and the other institutions that make up the Big Ten also host an annual Data Viz Championship for students and faculty/staff. Each year, I look forward to the announcement of the theme and the friendly competition across universities.

The BTAA 2027 theme announcement came early! On May 20, 2026, an email appeared in my Inbox that the featured data sets would spotlight NCAA Women’s Basketball. Although the faculty/staff entries for the Data Viz Championship are not required to follow the annual theme (in fact, my prior three entries have not), I immediately knew how to integrate the theme with a story and fabrics I have been waiting to sew with. (As a quilter, each year I have constructed an analog data visualization for entry)

This video explains the connection between an oceanographic research expedition I sailed on in 2022, a Japanese microbiologist I met on the ship, and our shared passion for basketball. All of these combined resulted in my Love Data Week 2027 Data Viz Championship entry, She Shoots, She Scores!. This quilt celebrates the 44 championship titles earned by the 17 schools for the history of the Division I NCAA Women’s Basketball tournament, since the title has been awarded starting in 1982 (with no champion named in 2020).

Quilt was completed June 18, 2026, and measures 46 inches wide by 28 inches tall. Data sources include NCAA – Women’s Basketball and ESPN’s NCAA women’s basketball championship: all-time winners list.

The fabrics provided by colleague and friend Mako Takada are the overall focus and basis for this data visualization. All of the additional fabrics used came from Spoonflower – the basketball court wood, the squares part of an overall patchwork with the female basketball player and basketball hoops, the overall backing showing basketball plays, and the gray fabric with small scale women basketball players.

Not only have the amazing female athletes at these institutions scored a championship, but I myself have “scored” with an incredible friendship, forged at sea, over basketball.