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It’s always a fun and good thing to say “a season high” when it comes to sports. Marquette women’s basketball reached a season high in the Associated Press top 25 poll for the 2018-19 season on Monday when the voters installed the Golden Eagles as the #18 team in the country. MU started out the season ranked #19 and dipped to #22 after losing on the road against Miami. Those are the only two spots in the poll that they’ve held this season up until their brand new #18 ranking.
It almost wasn’t that way. Marquette got 195 points in the balloting, while #19 Kentucky snagged 194. Very close. #17 Arizona State earned 222 points, so MU was only kind of close to them. Adam Minichino of the Commercial Dispatch in Columbus, Missouri, is the biggest supporter of the Golden Eagles right now, as he has MU ranked #11 in the country on his ballot. There is still one voter — Ryan Thorburn from The Register-Guard in Oregon — that doesn’t have MU on his ballot at all. That’s odd.
I do have ever so slightly bad news. Marquette is no longer slated to play the #1 team in the country this season. Connecticut beat Notre Dame over the weekend, so now the reigning national champs are ranked #2 in the country. MU’s next opponent, Mississippi State, stayed undefeated last week and thus are still the #6 team in the country. DePaul dropped down four spots to #20 this week after also losing to Connecticut over the past seven days. Miami suffered a loss to Purdue and dropped four spots to #25 in the new poll.
Northwestern, which will host Marquette on Sunday afternoon, is hanging around the bottom of the Receiving Votes department with two points this week. The Wildcats are the only MU opponent outside the top 25 but still getting recognition this week.
As mentioned a moment ago, Marquette returns to action on Thursday night when they visit #6 Mississippi State. Tip off is set for 7pm Central and the game will be streamed via SEC Network Plus and WatchESPN. I’m not 100% clear if that means the broadcast is available to anyone who gets SEC Network on their cable package or not.
You can check out the full top 25 and each individual ballot right here.