The Golden Eagles open the season as well as Cara Consuegra’s tenure on the road in Orlando
Finally, we get to open the mystery box that is Marquette women’s basketball in 2024-25.
There are a lot of things that we don’t know about the Golden Eagles this season. One of them is not who’s in charge, as Cara Consuegra is the new head coach as Megan Duffy left last offseason to take the vacant Virginia Tech job. That coaching change is ultimately responsible for a lot of the mystery surrounding Marquette heading into the season.
For example: Marquette only returns six women from last year’s team, and no one who averaged more than five points per game. In fact, MU returns just four starts — not starters, games started — from last year, all from Skylar Forbes, who came closest to five points at 4.7 per contest last year. There might be talent in the six women that return from last year’s squad, but for the most part, we didn’t get to see it on the court last season.
There are also six new faces on the roster this year to supplement the returning players. One of them, Olivia Porter, has followed Consuegra from Charlotte to Marquette, so I think we can expect her to play a notable role this year, just maybe not a leading scorer type job. Jaidynn Mason was a double digit scorer at Southern Illinois last season, but from how Consuegra handled her roster when going up against male practice players at the open scrimmage in early October, it seems like Mason might be coming off the bench.
It’s hard to say who’s going to start for Marquette on Thursday night, much less who’s going to be providing the important pop on the stat sheet. Heck, based on Consuegra’s track record at Charlotte, it’s hard to say for certain what kind of basketball we’ll be seeing coming across the ESPN+ streaming broadcast from Orlando when the ball goes in the air.
Like I said: It’s a mystery box, and we’re going to get a lot of quick answers to a lot of questions right away. We’ll see what happens in the opener — BartTorvik.com projects UCF by 4 — and then we’ll start asking new questions from there.
Game #1: at UCF Knights (1-0)
Date: Thursday, November 7, 2024
Time: 6pm Central
Location: Addition Financial Arena, Orlando, Florida
Streaming: ESPN+
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 0-1 all time against UCF. The only meeting was waaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1987, and the Knights picked up a 77-75 victory in their home facility. That was one of four wins for UCF that season, while MU went 9-19.
UCF opened up their season on Tuesday night with a 76-44 home win over Iona. Perhaps not a surprising result, but the Knights are picked to finish 14th in the 16 team Big 12 this season. If conference play does turn out in that direction, Tuesday night’s opener will likely be one of a few rare blowout wins for UCF as the season rolls along. With that said, BartTorvik.com did have the Knights at #82 in the computer rankings before the season started. This could easily be a “team pretty good, conference ridiculous” situation.
Kaitlin Peterson was UCF’s lone representative on the 10 woman preseason all-Big 12 team. She was not one of the three unanimous choices, but when there’s two Baylor players and two Kansas State players taking up spots in a list of 10 people in a 16 team league, getting through the door is still a pretty good accomplishment. Peterson led the team in scoring a year ago, accomplishing the double feat of scoring more than 20 points per game and also being the only Knight to average more than 10 points per contest.
UCF also returns two women who nearly tied for the team lead in rebounds last year. Khyala Ngodu officially won the team rebounding title at 5.9 per game, but Achol Akot was right behind her at 5.8. The Knights do not have anyone returning who averaged more than 1.5 assists per game last year, so the offense may be dependent on Peterson getting her own shot.
Peterson did Peterson things in the opener it seems, getting 22 points on 9-for-16 shooting. That’s mostly coming inside the arc, as Peterson shot just 1-for-4 from long range. She’s never been a reliable three-point shooter, so Marquette has to take that into account on defense. They’re also going to have to take Hannah Gusters into account, as the 6’6” transfer from Oklahoma State put up 12 points and 10 rebounds in just 24 minutes of action. Akot rang up a team high 13 rebounds in just 19 minutes, including six on the offensive end. Freshman Emely Rodriguez added 13 points off the bench, but she had to take 13 shots to do it.