The Golden Eagles head down to Omaha for their only regular season meeting with the Bluejays.
It took Cara Consuegra all of about 30 seconds to figure out what her first message to her Marquette women’s basketball team was going to be following their very not good 57-54 victory over Butler this past Saturday.
See the blinking blue and gold lighting in the video? That’s from the postgame lightshow after Marquette’s win at the McGuire Center. Game ended, postgame handshake line with the Bulldogs, huddle up at center court, and that’s the message that she had for her team. She knew it and she had it ready to go. In fact, the only time in there that she catches herself and backs up to change what she’s saying is when she says “we have to learn to play when it’s difficult” but realizes that she needs to say “we have to learn to play and win when it’s difficult.”
The one thing I have definitely not questioned about this team is their ability to play with heart, both in the generic term and as well as Consuegra’s H.E.A.R.T mantra. The Golden Eagles will keep coming after you, especially on the defensive end. Sometimes the offense doesn’t look like it’s going to come around, and Saturday was definitely one of those days.
But Marquette didn’t quit, they stayed in the fight, and eventually they made enough plays to pick up the W.
Wednesday’s game is going to be Marquette’s last truly difficult game until the regular season finale. After they get through this one, you can argue that everything else until March 2nd is winnable for the Golden Eagles. 40 minutes, test yourself against an NCAA tournament caliber team, find out what happens, learn from that one, and then launch into the rest of the regular season.
REMINDER: Marquette’s home contests are streamed nearly exclusively on FloSports, and the same goes for almost all Big East home games and almost all league schedule contests. If you are paying full price for FloSports at $30 a month, you are doing it wrong. Please use this link to pay $20 via the new-ish FloCollege offering.
Big East Game #4: at Creighton Bluejays (12-3, 4-0 Big East)
Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2025
Time: 6pm Central
Location: D.J. Sokol Arena, Omaha, Nebraska
Streaming: FloSports
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 14-18 all time against Creighton. The Bluejays have won three of the last four meetings between the two teams, and the Golden Eagles have not won in Omaha since February 2021.
Were it not for UConn being UConn, we would be talking about 2024-25 Creighton women’s basketball as an unholy wrecking machine within the context of the Big East. They are far and away the best team in the league that doesn’t hail from Storrs. Here, let me provide you with some visual information to that effect, and please note: I have edited UConn out of the graphic.
BartTorvik.com
Marquette might have the best non-UConn defense in the Big East to this point of the season in terms of efficiency, but Creighton’s defense is more than plenty effective for the Bluejays since they’re the most productive non-UConn offense in the league by a pretty notable margin over Villanova.
They shoot the ball incredibly well, which should be no surprise to anyone paying attention to how head coach Jim Flanery runs his outfit. The Bluejays are top 40 in the country in effective field goal percentage because they hit over 51% of their two-pointers and nearly 36% of their three-pointers. They shoot a bajillion threes per game, and as a neat counterpart to their system, they drive you off the arc a whole bunch, too. Only eight teams in the country let you shoot fewer threes according to BartTorvik.com. You don’t hear about “complimentary basketball” the way you hear it about football, but that’s what Creighton is doing here. You can’t get into a shootout with them because they won’t let you.
Oh, and they don’t turn the ball over. That shot is going up 84% of the time this season, it’s up to you do make it hard for them and limit them to just one try. The Jays will help you out a little bit in that department, as they’re one of the worst offensive rebounding teams in the country in terms of rate. As always, when you’re this good as a team, I presume this is on purpose. Think about it as if you’re Creighton: The shot’s probably going in, so why not just get back on defense, right?
Six women in Creighton’s eight woman rotation are a threat to hit a three-pointer if you leave them open, but Marquette’s defensive scouting report is going to focus on slowing down Lauren Jensen and Morgan Maly. Those two are averaging north of 17 points per game, but no one else on the team is chipping in more than eight a game. Creighton is not really a team where you want to start saying “make someone else beat you” because of that three-point shooting, but Jensen and Maly are are also CU’s top two shooters in terms of attempts per game.
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