When: Saturday, January 18, 2014, at 4pm Central
Where: Al McGuire Center
Audio/Visual: Home game = FREE VIDEO STREAMING! Also, you can get live stats here.
Special Promotions: It's Dollar Day! General admission tickets, sodas, and hot dogs are all $1!
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
I'm telling you, guys, men's and women's basketball are not allowed to have a week off at the same time ever again.
It's not going to be a surprise to anyone, but the Big East isn't a strong women's basketball conference, at least not right now. ESPN's Charlie Creme does bracketology for the women's NCAA tournament field, and as things stand right now, there's only two Big East teams in the field. Creighton gets the all caps treatment as the current league leader. The other team? The Red Storm of St. John's. Creighton, St. John's, and Marquette are the only teams in the Big East with just one loss so far in league play, and with a showdown with the Bluejays looming next weekend, Marquette would benefit greatly by picking up a win over St. John's tomorrow afternoon.
Katherine Plouffe continued her stellar senior season by being named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll on Monday. Plouffe had her sixth 20+ point game of the season last Saturday against Xavier. As usual, rebounding is Marquette's biggest strength. The Golden Eagles are leading the Big East in both offensive and defensive rebounding, and they're currently fifth in the country in rebounding margin, averaging 14.4 more caroms than their opponents.
The expertise of St. John's comes at the three point arc. They're the best three point shooting team in the Big East, splashing 33.5% of their attempts. More importantly, they only allow their opponents to hit 27.2% of their long distance shots, which is also the best mark in the conference. The good news for Marquette here is that they don't rely on shooting the three, which is good, as they're the worst three point shooting team in the Big East. On top of that, Marquette is the third best team in the league in three point percentage defense, holding opponents to 28.9%.
Aliyyah Handford leads the Red Storm in scoring, averaging 17.6 points per game, the third best mark in the Big East. Amber Thompson will be the focus of Marquette's efforts on the glass, as the junior forward averages 8.4 rebounds per game. Luckily, that only has her ranked sixth in the Big East, while both Plouffe and Katie Young average more rebounds than Thompson.