Marquette Women’s Basketball Announces 2018-19 Big East Schedule

One thing you can always count on: Once the Big East men’s basketball conference schedule is released, it’s only a matter of time before the women’s basketball schedule is out in the public.

That’s the case here, as the league announced everyone’s 18 game slates on Monday afternoon.

Let’s not dilly-dally, let’s get right into Marquette‘s schedule, shall we?

First off: No, I don’t know what’s up with that Villanova game. For what it’s worth, when the league announced all of the schedules on their Periscope show, the game was listed as being streamed on the Big East Digital Network, but MU’s official schedule page does not show that. Your guess is as good as mine as to why there’s no time set for it. Maybe waiting on confirmation of a Kids’ Day or something?

Next up: Marquette is going to have four games on national television this season through their broadcasting agreement with Fox Sports as well as a fifth game on the Big Ten Network. Here’s the list:

• December 9 - at Northwestern (BTN)
• December 22 - vs Notre Dame (FS1)
• January 4 - vs DePaul (FS1)
• February 8 - vs Georgetown (FS1)
• February 17 - at Seton Hall (CBS Sports Network)

Next up: The Big East uses travel partners for women’s basketball, just like they do for volleyball. Games on Friday and Sunday, you either host two travel partners or you go visit to travel partners. This does leave two weeks in the season where you play just one game, where your only game is against .... wait for it... your partner. Due to location, Marquette is partnered with DePaul. Marquette kicks off their second pass through the entire league with a trip to visit the Blue Demons on February 3. MU and DePaul will be the two favorites to win the league this year, but they’ll have knocked out both games against each other by the first weekend in February. The remaining eight games — four at home, four on the road — will decide the regular season title.

Next up: Marquette closes the season with the worst road trip in the league. Remember the travel partner thing I just explained? Eight of the 10 teams in the league have a relatively close partner. Marquette/DePaul, Butler/Xavier, St. John’s/Seton Hall, and Georgetown/Villanova. Those are all very obvious travel partners, which leaves.... Providence and Creighton to be partners. Nebraska and Rhode Island. In this year’s iteration of the schedule, Marquette will play in Omaha on Friday night, then be back in action 41 hours later in Providence for the final regular season game. It’s not ideal to make this trip in the first place, it’s even less ideal to have to make it potentially with the regular season championship on the line, or even just seeding in the Big East tournament.

Last but not least: Senior Day is set for Sunday, February 24th, with Xavier in the McGuire Center as the opponent. This will be quite the happening, as MU will be honoring the group of Allazia Blockton, Sandra Dahling, Erika Davenport, Natisha Hiedeman, Danielle King, and Amani Wilborn. These six women have been the core of the re-invention of MU women’s hoops under the guidance of Carolyn Kieger, and I already miss them even though there’s still a full season left to go.

You can check out Marquette’s full schedule right here. What jumps out to you on the schedule? What catches your attention? What makes you scratch your head?