The Butler transfer returns home to Wisconsin with two years of eligibility remaining.
With three scholarship spots available for 2025-26 and no freshmen rising to be sophomores for next year, I figured that there was a pretty solid chance that Marquette women’s basketball head coach Cara Consuegra was going to make an addition or two to her roster by way of the transfer portal this offseason.
That instinct was right, but as it turns out the reasoning wasn’t quite that solid.
On Thursday, Butler guard Jordan Meulemans announced her commitment to Marquette. She will arrive on campus with two years of eligibility remaining, which means she joins Jada Bediako, Skylar Forbes, Charia Smith, and Halle Vice as a junior for 2025-26. As I alluded to, that doesn’t quite adjust the roster balance towards the younger half of the possible roster for next season.
With that said, the 6’0” Meulemans is likely to be able to contribute to Marquette immediately, possibly as a Lee Volker replacement.
Volker’s per-40 minutes stats this year for Marquette: 16.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.9 steals, shooting splits of 47.2% overall, 41.5% from three-point range, and 73.9% at the three throw line.
Meulemans per-40 minutes stats for Butler as a sophomore in 2023-24: 11.7 points, 2.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists, shooting splits of 42.0% overall, 42.4% from three-point range, and 77.8% at the free throw line.
I used the per-40 numbers because Meulemans was a part-time starter for the Bulldogs and ended up averaging about five minutes per game less than Volker. The per-40 evens that out, and the two stat lines aren’t that far off at that point.
The catch, of course, is that you may have noticed that I said Meulemans put up those numbers in her second year of action in 2023-24. The DePere, Wisconsin native suffered an ACL tear during preseason activity last season and missed all of the 2024-25 season. There is a certain amount of risk involved here as it’s mostly impossible know exactly how well Meulemans is going to finish her rehab over the next six months. With that said, if Consuegra is bringing her in to be more of a deadeye three-point shooter to impact the offense, that’s probably something that’s not going to be that affected by any loss of mobility by way of the injury. 77% of Meulemans’s field goal attempts in her two years at Butler were from behind the three-point line. That made a lot more sense when she was shooting over 42% as a sophomore than it did when she was shooting under 33% as a freshman, so hopefully that trend can continue.
And now, the brand new Marquette women’s basketball scholarship chart.
As I mentioned earlier, Meulemans comes in as a junior in terms of eligibility, which means that Marquette will have 11 juniors and seniors on next year’s roster alongside JJ Barnes and Kameron Herring as freshmen. I still think that there’s space on the roster to add someone who will be a sophomore in 2025-26 even though 13 women is hard enough to find playing time for everyone. If nothing else, it solves a roster problem for Spring 2026 Cara Consuegra, but I’m not sure if it 100% makes sense if it’s a player that’s transferring and expecting a notable dose of playing time.