MU Women's Basketball Thread

[muwarrior69]

It was a super ugly game today and Marquette didn't play very well.  But the bottom line is they found a way to win - 53-51 over Belmont. 

They finish non-conference play 9-2 which is way better than I was expecting.  They have a tough 3 game road trip to open BE play - at pre-season top pick DePaul next Sunday 12/29 and then the toughest road trip in the BE the following weekend - at Creighton on a Friday night and at Providence Sunday afternoon (quick turnaround to travel so far).  Creighton has a pretty good RPI so far too.

The schedulers really screwed the women team. Any other teams start with 3 road games?

[Marquette Fan]

That would be a quick reload.

I think WNIT is still more likely but it's nice to see them in the conversation at this point about a potential NCAA Tournament bid. 

The beginning of the Big East schedule will be real telling as they start off facing the two teams ahead of them in the RPI in the BE on the road - at DePaul (#8) and at Creighton (#12).  Marquette is next in the BE in RPI at 49.  Then St. John's at 55 and then their 3rd BE opponent on the year Providence at 64th.

It doesn't matter in the scheme of things but it still really bothers me that Marquette was picked below Xavier in the preseason Coaches' Poll - Xavier was picked 8th to Marquette's 9th.  Xavier is 1-10 with the league's worst RPI of 247.  I'd say Marquette is doing a tad better than them so far .

Here's the link to the RPI I was checking:

https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-basketball-rpi

[Marquette Fan]

The schedulers really screwed the women team. Any other teams start with 3 road games?

No but only DePaul could have had that this season with the way they do their conference schedule.  Every other team is playing the usual two games over three days on Sun 12/29 and Tue 12/31 to open BE play while Marquette and DePaul are the teams to only play one game then as they play their travel partners.

DePaul has come here first the last two seasons and Marquette has had 3 home games to start BE play the last two seasons so they were probably due to go on the road more at the start of BE play.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Creighton and Providence are travel partners. That will change when UCONN arrives. DePaul  and MU are travel partners but they play each other on odd dates as they just bus. 

[Marquette Fan]

Creighton and Providence are travel partners. That will change when UCONN arrives. DePaul  and MU are travel partners but they play each other on odd dates as they just bus.

I don't think the dates Marquette-DePaul play have so much to do with being able to bus so much as being travel partners.  When teams are only playing their one game against their travel partner, the day of the week can fluctuate a bit.  The Creighton-Providence one is a crazy one with 1,400 miles between the two cities. 

And as far as 3 straight road games to open BE play, I did find where St. John's had that last season - they opened at travel partner Seton Hall on Sun 12/30/18 and then went to Xavier and Butler the following weekend.

[Marquette Fan]

It's opening day for Big East Women's Basketball.  Marquette is at DePaul at 4P central.  DePaul was the preseason favorite to win the Big East and are currently the only ranked BE team at #16 in both polls.  I think DePaul is the opponent the Women have played the most all-time and today is the 76th meeting between the two teams.  DePaul owns the overall series at 45-29.

Live Stats:  https://depaulbluedemons.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
Watch online:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgXP5uCmwaQ

I fear that DePaul will force a lot of turnovers from Marquette - we will see.  They bookend conference play with DePaul as they'll finish the regular season hosting DePaul on March 1st. 

[shoothoops]

DePaul 89 Marquette 71.

[Dr. Blackheart]

It's opening day for Big East Women's Basketball.  Marquette is at DePaul at 4P central.  DePaul was the preseason favorite to win the Big East and are currently the only ranked BE team at #16 in both polls.  I think DePaul is the opponent the Women have played the most all-time and today is the 76th meeting between the two teams.  DePaul owns the overall series at 45-29.

Live Stats:  https://depaulbluedemons.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary
Watch online:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgXP5uCmwaQ

I fear that DePaul will force a lot of turnovers from Marquette - we will see.  They bookend conference play with DePaul as they'll finish the regular season hosting DePaul on March 1st.

As you predicted, 26 turnovers killed MU.

[Marquette Fan]

As you predicted, 26 turnovers killed MU.

I think MU had 11 turnovers in just the first quarter and actually held a 12-9 lead at that point.  Imagine if they could have actually  held onto the ball in that quarter. 

Now they have a few days without a game prepare for the worst road trip in the BE - Creighton on Fri night and a short turnaround to travel far and change time zones to play at Providence on Sunday.  (the other 8 BE teams besides MU and DePaul have games on Tuesday).

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette is at Creighton tonight at 7P central and the links to watch the free broadcast on the Big East Digital Network can be found here:

http://www.bigeast.com/news/2020/1/2/womens-basketball-bigeastwbb-minute-four-teams-featured-on-tv-this-weekend.aspx

Creighton looks to be one of the top teams in the BE right now maybe just below DePaul and this will be a tough contest.  It feels like senior Jaylyn Agnew has been at Creighton forever and she is the 2nd leading scorer in the BE this year.

For anyone else interested in former Coach Carolyn Kieger - her Penn State squad travels to Madison tomorrow for a game that will be on the Big Ten Network at 3P Central.

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette splits the weekend games losing at Creighton Friday and picking up the win 60-50 today at Providence.  They are now 10-4 overall and 1-2 in the BE.  They have their first two home BE games this coming weekend against St. John's Friday and Seton Hall Sunday.  Both are ahead of Marquette in the standings as both started out BE play 3-1.

[Marquette Fan]

Awesome comeback tonight:

https://gomarquette.com/news/2020/1/10/womens-basketball-mu-bests-st-johns-94-85-in-comeback-victory.aspx

[Dr. Blackheart]

MU whomps the Hall. Taylor gets a double double. MU in 4th in the BE despite being picked ninth in the preseason. Congrats Coach Duffy.

https://gomarquette.com/news/2020/1/12/womens-basketball-marquette-downs-seton-hall-81-60.aspx

[Marquette Fan]

MU whomps the Hall. Taylor gets a double double. MU in 4th in the BE despite being picked ninth in the preseason. Congrats Coach Duffy.

https://gomarquette.com/news/2020/1/12/womens-basketball-marquette-downs-seton-hall-81-60.aspx

It was really fun to see Taylor's game today.  I would love to see her playing time increase - she played 24 minutes today compared to 9 minutes Friday.

I would think Selena Lott has a decent shot at BE POW - will find out tomorrow - sure she'll be on the honor roll for sure after her career high 34 points Friday night to help MU to the comeback win and she added 19 points today.

Turnovers and free throws are killing me this year with this team...

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Are they practicing FTs!?!



Always look forward to your game updates Marquette Fan. Thanks for doing them.

[Marquette Fan]

Are they practicing FTs!?!



Always look forward to your game updates Marquette Fan. Thanks for doing them.

I would think so .  They had a pre-game chalk talk yesterday for season ticket holders and it was pretty interesting.  Duffy was quite up front about their difficulties bringing the ball up the court and with turnovers in general so I'm sure they're very well aware of the free throw struggles too. 

I watched the replay of the St. John's game during a long run on the treadmill Saturday morning and was still in a bit of shock watching the replay that they won that game .  They looked so awful for the first 2 plus quarters of that game - they finally cut into the lead a bit near the end of the 3rd quarter and then just dominated in the 4th quarter.

Interesting stat - Marquette has outrebounded every opponent this season so far.

Selena Lott put up a monster weekend that did earn her the BE Player of the week honor for the first time:
http://www.bigeast.com/news/2020/1/13/womens-basketball-lott-siegrist-earn-latest-bigeastwbb-weekly-awards.aspx

I thought it was impressive that she led the league in scoring for the week and also tied for the lead in assists for the week.

I think there's not much doubt that Providence frosh Maddy Siegrist will be BE FOY - she picked up her 7th BE frosh of the week honor this week and has been the national frosh of the week twice.  The BE POY race looks to be a little more wide open.

Finally my last random note in this post - this weekend is a big one to me as they go on the road to play two teams they should be able to beat (Butler and Xavier).  To keep the momentum going from the big wins this past weekend, I think they need to win these two.  Friday night is nice as they're on FS1 at 5:30P central vs. Butler - they don't get that many TV games.  Then they have 4 straight home games after these road ones - Georgetown, Villanova, Providence and Creighton.

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Women's Bracketology has Marquette among the first four out. Making the NCAAT would be a tremendous accomplishment this year.

http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology

[Marquette Fan]

Women's Bracketology has Marquette among the first four out. Making the NCAAT would be a tremendous accomplishment this year.

http://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/bracketology

He had them projected as an NCAA Tourney team a few weeks ago which was a surprise to me.  To even be talking about them as one of the first four teams out was beyond my wildest expectations heading into the season.  I truthfully was hoping for at least a .500 overall record so they could get experience playing in the WNIT.  I'm not sure the Big East is going to get more than 2 teams in the big dance - maybe they can get 3 - we will see.   But so far it looks like outside of DePaul most of the rest of the teams in the Big East are going to beat up on each other.  Villanova had a nice OT win on the road at St. John's but then turns around and gets blown out at home by Butler.  Butler then goes and wins by only one point at Georgetown.  And Georgetown looks to be the worst team in the BE this year - they lost at home to Xavier Friday night by double digits - the same Xavier team who won their season opening game and hadn't won since then.

There's a lot of games yet to be played of course - it will be interesting.  And then UCONN rejoins next season and it will just be a battle to see who can finish 2nd behind UCONN .

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette is at Butler tonight at 5:30P central on FS2.  Both teams are 3-2 in the BE heading into this game.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Well, I think recruiting Aneesah Morrow May be out of the picture now.

[Galway Eagle]

Well, I think recruiting Aneesah Morrow May be out of the picture now.

Didn't cohens sister still come after sandy left? Just saying.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Didn't cohens sister still come after sandy left? Just saying.

She *stayed* after Sandy left.  Recollection is that she was a sophomore when he transferred.

[Marquette Fan]

She *stayed* after Sandy left.  Recollection is that she was a sophomore when he transferred.

You are correct about the timing.  I looked it up and Cohen transferred in December 2016 and Hiedeman was in her sophomore season at Marquette by then.  I also recall that Hiedeman played with Amani Wilborn and Allazia Blockton during her high school years (AAU ball I think) and that was one of the things that drew her to Marquette.

Speaking of Wilborn and Blockton - I saw both of them at the MU-St. John's game last week.  Blockton has been playing in Spain and Hiedeman is playing in Sweden now.

And speaking of MU men's players sisters - MU had been recruiting Greg Elliott's sister Gabrielle but she chose Clemson.

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette looks to bounce back at Xavier today at 1P central.  Xavier won their first game of the season and then lost about 11 straight until winning at Georgetown recently.  They are one of the teams at the bottom of the BE and this is a game MU really needs to win especially after losing at Butler Friday.

Info for the digital broadcast:
http://www.bigeast.com/news/2020/1/18/womens-basketball-bigeastwbb-minute-wildcats-break-free-of-logjam.aspx

Good news as LVK is in the starting lineup as usual - her minutes were limited after she got hurt in Friday night's loss at Butler.

[Marquette Fan]

Congrats to Altia Anderson on her first ever Big East Honor Roll honor: 

https://gomarquette.com/news/2020/1/20/womens-basketball-altia-anderson-selected-to-big-east-honor-roll.aspx

It's a big stretch of 4 home games coming up for Marquette as teams 2-7 are pretty bunched in the standings right now:

Villanova 5-2
St. John's 5-3
Seton Hall 5-3
Butler 4-3
Marquette 4-3
Creighton 4-3

DePaul is out front at 7-0 and Providence is at the other end at 0-7 and Xavier and Georgetown are solidly near the bottom at 8th and 9th with 1-6 records. 

This upcoming weekend completes the first round of league play.