Wellllllll, the quest for a perfect Big East season for Marquette women’s basketball was fun while it lasted, but it did come to an end on Friday night with a loss to St. John’s. It happens. Oh well.
As an after effect, Marquette is no longer ranked #8 in the country. In fact, they’re not even a top 10 team anymore, dropping to #11 in the country in the newest Associated Press poll. Oh well. As has been the case since October, the goal is to be one of the 16 best teams in the country when Selection Monday comes around, and the Golden Eagles are still very much on track for that.
There are three true believers in Marquette: Deb Antonelli from CBS Sports, Kent Youngblood from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and our man Adam Minichino from the Commercial Dispatch down in Mississippi. All three have Marquette ranked #7 in the country in this week’s ballot, which is actually pretty impressive. Most of the rest of Marquette’s votes are scattered around the 8-11 spots in the poll, with a few more trailing along behind at 12-14. Kevin Tresolini from the Delaware News Journal has Marquette at #17, so we’re going to need Altia Anderson to have a very strongly worded conversation with him.
Marquette picked up 437 points this week, and quite honestly, they’re just barely not a top 10 team. Iowa ended up up three spots from last week to land #10 with only 439 points, so there was only a couple of votes one way or another that landed MU at #11. Oregon State is down three spots this week just like Marquette, putting them at #12 in this poll.
Notre Dame is the top ranked Marquette foe in the poll. They’re up one spot to #5 this week, while Mississippi State is down one spot to #6. Miami is bounding their way up the top 25, reaching #14 this week after knocking off then-#2 Louisville while ranked #20 on Sunday. Imagine where Marquette would be sitting if they had managed to pull off the win in the Preseason WNIT against the ‘Canes.
That’s it for MU opponents in the poll, but South Dakota State did earn four points, while DePaul snagged one 25th place vote. I’m not entirely sure why.
Marquette returns to action on Friday when they host Butler at the McGuire Center. Tipoff for the game is set for 7pm Central and it’ll be broadcast on the Big East Digital Network. The Golden Eagles would be able to clinch at least a share of the Big East regular season title with a win.
You can check out the entire poll and every ballot right here.