Your Marquette Women’s Basketball Bracketology Update: February 22, 2018

Welcome back to your weekly check-in on the postseason future of everyone’s favorite Marquette basketball team. Carolyn Kieger’s squad closed out the home slate last weekend with wins over Georgetown and Villanova to move to 19-8 overall and 13-3 in Big East action. According to the NCAA’s handy-dandy (and delightfully freely available) team sheets, the Golden Eagles are 2-3 against Top 25 teams (Villanova, Green Bay, Tennessee, and Notre Dame) and 2-3 against the teams between 26 and 50 (Creighton, DePaul, and Michigan) in the ol’ RPI.

Keep all of that in mind as we see what we can see.....

ESPN (2/19): Charlie Creme kept Marquette steady as a #7 seed this week. However, I’m not sure if Creme’s first round game for the Golden Eagles is possible. See, he has Michigan as the #10 seed on the other end of the court, and MU already played the Wolverines in non-conference action this season. I know that would be a violation of principles for the men’s bracket, and I presume it would be for the women as well. For the record, the other #10 seeds are Virginia, Purdue, and Minnesota, so it certainly looks like Marquette could be heading towards a clash with the Big Ten in the round. Creme has MU headed to Tallahassee for their opening round, and if they win, they would (likely) get a second round game against host Florida State. There are three other Big East teams in this field: DePaul (#6), Villanova (#8), and Creighton(#9). The Bluejays are the third team clear of the cutline. St. John’s pops in as one of the Next Four Out teams, and sadly, Marquette is going to have to end their tourney hopes on Sunday.

Summitt Hoops (2/20): Win two games, drop a seed line. Seems a little uncalled for, but that’s what Russ Steinberg has done with Marquette this week. Last time, MU was a #7 seed, now they’re a #8. That slots Allazia Blockton and crew up against #8 West Virginia in the first round. It also means a very short trip for the tournament, as Steinberg slots the Golden Eagles into the 8/9 game paired up with #1 Notre Dame and thus, that means playing in South Bend on Notre Dame’s court to start the tourney. Again, the men’s bracketing principles should prevent a rematch game in the first two rounds, and MU already went to South Bend for a game in December. We’ll have to see how that plays out. There are only two other Big East teams in Steinberg’s bracket: Villanova (#6, even though Marquette has beaten them twice) and DePaul (#6). Creighton sits as the second team out.

Marquette returns to action on Friday night when they visit Seton Hall in the penultimate game of the regular season. The Golden Eagles are tied for first place in the Big East with DePaul at 13-3 with both teams playing Seton Hall and St. John’s in the final two regular season games. Tipoff against the Pirates is set for 6pm Central on the Big East Digital Network.