Cara Consuegra is back at Marquette.
The former Golden Eagles assistant coach will replace Megan Duffy, who left the program last week to become the head coach at Virginia Tech, the university announced Wednesday.
Welcome back to Marquette, head coach Cara Consuegra
#MUWBB | #WeAreMarquette pic.twitter.com/o51byD2ihU
— Marquette WBB (@MarquetteWBB) April 17, 2024
Consuegra just finished her 13th season as the head coach University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where she became the program’s all-time wins leader (224). The 49ers finished last season 16-15 and 9-9 in conference play.
“My family and I are very excited to be returning to Marquette, a place that we consider home,” Consuegra said in a release from Marquette Athletics. “I want to thank Bill Scholl and Dr. Lovell for the opportunity to lead this prestigious program.
“I also want to thank Charlotte and all the people and players who allowed us to be a part of their lives for 13 incredible years.”
In her seven years as an assistant at Marquette (2004-11), Consuegra helped the Golden Eagles to 145 wins — also helping them to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and a WNIT championship in 2008.
Consuegra shined in her time on the court as well. The 5-foot-8 guard was a four-year player at the Iowa from 1997-2001. The three-time All-Big Ten selection racked up 1,147 points en-route to being the No. 56 overall pick in the WNBA draft by the Utah Starzz.
Consuegra only played one year with the Starzz before turning her attention to coaching. She was the director of operations at Penn State from 2001-04 before heading to Marquette in the fall of 2004.
“When we started this process, it was our goal to find the best possible head coach to lead our student-athletes into the future,” vice president and director of athletics Bill Scholl said.
“Ultimately, that person turned out to be one of our own. Having served seven years as an assistant coach at Marquette, Cara has an acute appreciation for the values that make both the university and the women’s basketball program so special.”
Marquette lost all five of its starters after the season ended — bench piece Lee Volker also entered the transfer portal. As it stands, the Golden Eagles have only five players on last year’s team returning (Halle Vice, Bridget Utberg, Skylar Forbes, Abbey Cracknell and Charia Smith).
So Consuegra’s first duties will likely be assembling a staff and figuring out next year’s roster.
Marquette was slated to have three incoming first-years in Kayl Petersen, Jaeda Wilson and Leila Wells.
Petersen, who hails from Waupun, Wisconsin, was Duffy’s highest-rated recruit at No. 67. She along with Wilson already announced they were re-opening their recruiting processes after Duffy left. Wells is yet to make an official announcement.
Amani Jenkins from the class of 2025 also verbally committed, but she too announced she would be re-opening her recruiting.
The Golden Eagles may have found their coach, but the work is just beginning.
This story was written by Matthew Baltz. He can be reached at matthew.baltz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @MatthewBaltzMU.