The Golden Eagles get a home game as an opportunity to shake off the lopsided loss to UConn.
Alrighty, UConn matchup #1 of the season is in the rearview mirror for Marquette women’s basketball. The Golden Eagles are going to get through the entirety of the rest of Big East play before they have to encounter the Huskies again. That’s great news for MU, as they can focus on getting better as a team instead of taking time out from that process in the first year of Cara Consuegra’s time in charge at Marquette to stick their hand into a woodchipper dressed in UConn blue.
Saturday afternoon presents an interesting challenge for Marquette, as they have to completely put that UConn game out of their mind, focus on the 40 minutes in front of them at 770 N. 12th Street, and then move on to worry about the significant challenge of heading down to Omaha for a midweek contest against what clearly seems to be the second best team in the Big East. If this team is on a path of progress, then Saturday’s game is a contest that they should find a way to get a victory. It doesn’t balance out that loss at Bowling Green in terms of progress this season, but you gotta take the steps forward that are in front of you and not worry about the slips and falls behind you.
This does bring us to a thing that I do want to point out from that UConn game, and it’s a thing that’s been a problem all year for Marquette. Skylar Forbes had five turnovers in that game, accounting for nearly a quarter of MU’s 21 turnovers in that 40 minutes. Olivia Porter had three giveaways. Neither woman was the biggest problem in that game — Halle Vice had 7! — but Forbes and Porter are Marquette’s two biggest problems amongst the six women who play in at least 45% of MU’s minutes. Forbes has a turnover rate north of 25%, while Porter is just barely short of 25%. You can’t have your leading shot taker coughing it up that much. You can’t have your assists per game leader coughing it up that much. It’s just causing too many problems this season.
Don’t get me wrong: Marquette is a little too fumble-fingered with the ball in other spots on the roster as well. But the Golden Eagles would be doing a lot better in general if they weren’t sub-130 in turnover rate as a team, and that number would get a lot better really quickly if Forbes and Porter got themselves to a spot where they’re a bit more surehanded with the ball. Less turnovers = more shots = more points = more pressure on defenses = less pressure on MU’s defense to be perfect every trip on the court, etc., etc., I can keep going, you get the point.
Big East Game #3: vs Butler Bulldogs (10-6, 0-3 Big East)
Date: Saturday, January 4, 2025
Time: 3pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Television: FS1, with Kylen Mills (play-by-play) and Shimmy Gray-Miller calling the action
Streaming: FoxSports.com/live or the Fox Sports app
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 22-9 all time against Butler. The first ever meeting was in 1986, and like all of the first four, the Bulldogs came away victorious. Since 1991, Marquette has lost just five times and comes into this one on an nine game winning streak against Butler after a season sweep last year.
Butler’s home win over Indiana is a long time ago. That 56-46 W back on November 13th moved the Bulldogs to 3-0 on the year and gave them a tippy top victory that looked very impressive at the time and it’s not exactly getting worse right now. Following it up with a lopsided road loss to a Vanderbilt team that’s looking pretty great wasn’t a problem, losing on a neutral floor to Texas on the last day of November wasn’t a problem. Butler was 9-2 back in early December, and they looked like they might be going somewhere theis season.
Then they lost to Wisconsin in double overtime, and that result has combined with their 0-3 Big East start to hand them four losses in their last five games. That run has caused the Bulldogs to tumble from what was an improved #90 ranking on BartTorvik.com to #118, which is worse than where they were when the season started.
It’s not a coincidence that leading scorer Caroline Strande suffered an injury before halftime of that Wisconsin game. Butler was leading by nine at the break and ended up with a double OT loss. She’s played just 11 minutes since then, trying valiantly to go against Seton Hall. That didn’t work out well in a 69-49 loss, and she sat out their 68-64 loss to Creighton on New Year’s Day. That seems an awful lot like the Bulldogs will be without her 13.4 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game, not to mention her 37% three-point shooting on Saturday.
No Strande makes Kilyn McGuff Butler’s top scorer at 10.4 points per game, and she’s the only other double digit scorer. Riley Makalusky is the only other scorer even north of six points per game this season, so it’s clear that Butler’s offense is going to struggle if they don’t have Caroline Strande creating some gravitational force on the floor.
If Marquette’s defense is on their toes, they can affect BU’s top two strengths with turnovers. Butler’s not so hot at keeping track of the ball, coughing it up more than 25% of the time as a team. They make up for that by 1) getting a whole bunch of second chances and 2) getting to the line a ton. You can’t get a rebound on your shot if the ball’s going the other way on a turnover, and you can’t draw contact in the paint if the ball’s going the other way on a turnover. That’s simple 1+1=2 math, and while MU isn’t elite at forcing turnovers, leaning into it a little bit for 40 minutes might be an easy track to a win.
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