Anonymous Eagle - The 2022-23 Marquette Women’s Basketball Season Preview!Your home for coverage of Wisconsin's elite college athletics.https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/community_logos/46843/anon-fave.png2022-11-06T13:30:00-06:00http://www.anonymouseagle.com/rss/stream/231783472022-11-06T13:30:00-06:002022-11-06T13:30:00-06:00Big East What To Watch: Week 1
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<img alt="NCAA BASKETBALL: MAR 29 Div I Women’s Championship - Third Round - South Dakota State v Oregon" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/4agR-CcCGXRXCCW1KO2JR4Lws5w=/0x0:3831x2554/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71592809/1135175870.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>A ranked South Dakota State team is the biggest opponent on the schedule this week in the Big East. | Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>WELCOME BACK TO COLLEGE BASKETBALL, EVERYONE! </p> <p id="ZSZl2a">We’re changing things up for the Big East What To Watch this season!</p>
<p id="pmIyOw">In the past, we’ve given you notable highlights for the week ahead as governed by the Associated Press poll timing of Monday through Sunday. Those highlights have always included at least one women’s basketball game as part of the rundown. We’ll still be doing that part of the thing, but now we’ll give you the full women’s basketball schedule at the bottom of the page right along with the full men’s basketball schedule! It’s shaping up to be a very interesting league on the women’s side this season with four teams coming off NCAA tournament bids and two more teams coming off Sweet 16 runs in the WNIT. On top of that, <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a> has perhaps never been more vulnerable in the last several years after the season ending losses of both Paige Bueckers and Ice Brady.</p>
<p id="Y3YN0u">Get in on the ground floor is what I’m saying.</p>
<p id="HCo3nR"><strong>VERY BIG PROGRAMMING REMINDER:</strong> None of the eight men’s basketball games on Monday will be broadcast in their entirety on any television network. FS1 is taking all eight, giving them staggered start times, and doing whiparound coverage all night long. It’ll be like NFL Red Zone with Casey Jacobsen and Bill Raftery running things from the studio. If you want to watch any particular game — say, <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a>/Radford — you have to go through either <a href="http://FoxSports.com">FoxSports.com</a> or the Fox Sports app.</p>
<p id="U0a8YJ">Onwards to the highlights of the week.....</p>
<p id="wV4EFS"><strong>Monday, November 7: St. John’s Red Storm vs Merrimack Warriors (5:45pm Central, FS1 Whiparound coverage) —</strong> The Red Storm start off Mike Anderson’s fourth season in charge with a team projected to win the NEC. Well, okay, Merrimack is projected by <a href="http://KenPom.com">KenPom.com</a> to tie with Wagner atop the league standings at 10-6. <a href="https://northeastconference.org/news/2022/10/1/MBB_PreseasonMBBPoll_2223.aspx">In the league’s preseason poll</a>, the Warriors picked up six of the nine first place votes, besting Sacred Heart in second place with two votes for the top spot. It’s actually kind of a sneaky good scheduling move, as KP plots Merrimack in at #291 to start the season. On one hand: Heavily favored. On the other hand: Playing a team that’s coming into the year with getting to the NCAA tournament on their minds.</p>
<p id="ePdH79"><strong>Monday, November 7: #21 Creighton Bluejays at #23 South Dakota State Jackrabbits (7pm Central, </strong><a href="http://GoJacks.com"><strong>GoJacks.com</strong></a><strong>) —</strong> This is the best game of the week on either side of the league. Heck, this is actually the best basketball game in the country on Opening Day, as the Bluejays and the Jackrabbits are the only ranked teams opening up against another ranked team, men’s or women’s. Only downside? You’re going to have to hand SDSU a couple of bucks in order to stream this game. Emma Ronsiek and Creighton are coming off the program’s first ever Sweet 16 <em>AND</em> Elite Eight a year ago, while South Dakota State won the WNIT last season. This game is of particular note to Marquette fans, as there’s a chance that the Golden Eagles could see the Jackrabbits in the Battle 4 Atlantis.</p>
<p id="yqWQWy"><strong>Tuesday, November 8: Providence Friars vs Rider Broncs (5:30pm Central, FS1) —</strong> Hey, I thought the reason we were starting the season on Monday is so that everyone in the country would have the day off on Tuesday so all of their athletes could go vote? I thought that was a whole thing? Why are Providence and Georgetown playing today, not to mention the other eight games going on across the country? Also: Rider is the toughest team that Providence elected to play in their non-conference schedule, so this presents an interesting opening night challenge for the Big East’s reigning regular season champs as they figure out how to deal with losing all five guys from last season’s most used starting lineup.</p>
<p id="950k8z"><strong>Thursday, November 10: #21 Creighton Bluejays at RV South Dakota Coyotes (7pm Central, </strong><a href="http://GoYotes.com"><strong>GoYotes.com</strong></a><strong>) —</strong> If it was clear that Jim Flanery’s Bluejays had the biggest opening night test in the entire country by playing a ranked team on the road, then they <em>easily</em> have the toughest first two games of the season. On their way back to Omaha, they’ll stop in Vermillion for a contest against a Coyotes squad that’s earning votes in the preseason AP poll. I want to be clear about something: This isn’t Flan losing his mind after bringing back most of his Elite Eight roster. These are both return bouts from home dates at D.J. Sokol Arena a year ago, and Creighton will just be knocking them out on the same road trip. I presume they’ll just be staying up in South Dakota, at least. Does it make sense to play in Brookings on Monday, come home, and then go back to Vermillion for Thursday night? Feels like it doesn’t. Then again, it is only a two hour bus ride to Vermillion from Omaha.</p>
<p id="i7aAnz"><strong>Friday, November 11: #16 </strong><a href="https://www.vuhoops.com"><strong>Villanova Wildcats</strong></a><strong> at Temple Owls (6pm Central, ESPNU) —</strong> Congrats to the Wildcats for signing up for the only road game of the opening week of the season in the league, not to mention what is easily the toughest game of the week in the league! They will open at home against La Salle on Monday before playing “on the road” 20 miles away against the Owls. Temple projects as a middle of the road team in the American this season, but Villanova is only favored by six points per <a href="http://KenPom.com">KenPom.com</a> and will be without super freshman Cam Whitmore (hand injury, out for now) and Justin Moore (still out following tearing his Achilles in the NCAA tournament).</p>
<p id="FD2fGy"><strong>Friday, November 11: RV Villanova Wildcats at #24 Princeton Tigers (6pm Central, ESPN+) —</strong> We’re not done with the league’s women’s teams throwing themselves into the fire to start the year, nor with Nova’s teams doing the same! Not only are the Wildcats and Big East Preseason Player of the Year Maddy Siegrist playing their first seven games on the road this season, but for this second game of the year, they’ll be tangling with the nationally ranked Tigers. Princeton went 25-5 last year and upset #6 seed Kentucky in the NCAA tournament and were tied with #3 seed Indiana with 30 seconds left before bowing out to the Hoosiers in the second round.</p>
<p id="8QrwbU"><strong>Friday, November 11: RV </strong><a href="https://www.bannersontheparkway.com"><strong>Xavier Musketeers</strong></a><strong> vs Montana Grizzlies (7pm Central, FS2) —</strong> Sean Miller’s second game in charge in Cincinnati will involve hosting a team projected as a co-favorite in the Big Sky Conference. Both the Grizzlies and their cross-state rivals Montana State are aimed at a 12-6 record in league play according to <a href="http://KenPom.com">KenPom.com</a>, and KP’s math has Montana as a top 200 team in the country this season. The Musketeers are heavily favored, but <a href="https://goxavier.com/sports/mens-basketball/stats/2022-23/kentucky-wesleyan-exh-/boxscore/10687">if they goof off for 36 minutes like they did in their exhibition game against Kentucky Wesleyan</a>, they can’t expect the Grizzlies to let them close the game on a 15-0 run to win by double digits.</p>
<p id="5Kg9hV">Here’s the full men’s basketball schedule for the week!</p>
<div id="WEVqjV"><div data-anthem-component="table:11595173"></div></div>
<p id="qpF0mS">And here’s the full women’s basketball schedule!</p>
<div id="VQQXX1"><div data-anthem-component="table:11602912"></div></div>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/marquette-basketball/2022/11/6/23432433/big-east-mens-womens-college-basketball-schedule-creighton-south-dakota-state-villanova-templeBrewtown Andy2022-11-06T12:01:00-06:002022-11-06T12:01:00-06:00Women’s Basketball Preview: vs Fairleigh Dickinson
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<img alt="Fairleigh Dickinson v Prairie View A&amp;M" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/o4Qe0IGJC44-292JMMjDOhGE5KA=/0x13:2664x1789/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71592564/1136918561.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>They’re the Knights, but their mascot is a horse. Sure. | Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The Golden Eagles will play three home games in the first week of the season before they head to the Bahamas.</p> <p id="BVmk2V">And so we come to the start of a new <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a> women’s basketball season. </p>
<p id="xdIylA">For the first time since 2016-17, we start the year without the Golden Eagles coming off an NCAA tournament bid. Between Carolyn Kieger and Megan Duffy, Marquette went to four straight NCAA tournaments, and it would have been five, a new program record, if the 2020 tourney hadn’t been dumped for health and safety reasons. Last year, MU went 20-9 in the regular season with a 13-7 record in Big East play. They got bumped out of the Big East tournament in the semifinals by <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a>, 71-51, and that left them without enough quality wins to get into the field of 68. It was, however, enough for them to be the best Big East team that didn’t qualify for the NCAA tournament, and that made the Golden Eagles an automatic bid for the WNIT. They beat Ball State and Purdue at the McGuire Center, but fell in a barnburner, 92-82, to Toledo in the third round.</p>
<p id="QfMtnm">The Golden Eagles have lost their top two scorers from that squad, Lauren Van Kleunen and Karissa McLaughlin, both of whom averaged just a bit over 13 points per game last season. They went about getting their points in different ways, as LVK was one of if not the most dangerous post scorer in the Big East, while McLaughlin rained in threes from the outside at a nearly 42% clip. That leaves a lot of production to be replaced this year, and while LVK’s buckets might be easier to recreate, McLaughlin’s are not.</p>
<p id="n0VZVg">McLaughlin was MU’s only legitimate threat from downtown last season, and quite honestly, that probably limited their offensive output a little bit. If defenders didn’t have to take anyone other than McLaughlin seriously from beyond the arc, then that allowed defenses to collapse into the middle just a bit and thus make it harder for the Golden Eagles to score at the rim. There are possibilities with this year’s roster that could mean that MU has more shooters available. Jordan King actually hit 33% last season after a rough start, but she just did not try to shoot that many. Liza Karlen shot nearly 40% as a freshman but couldn’t buy a bucket last year. Freshmen Emily La Chapell and Nique Mayo were great shooters in high school, but that’s not necessarily enough to get them on the floor this year.</p>
<p id="H2Z1TM">Marquette had only gone to the NCAA tournament in four straight opportunities one previous time in program history. That run wrapped up in 2000. The Golden Eagles would not make it back to the NCAAs until 2004 after that. Let’s cross our fingers that Megan Duffy doesn’t take that long this time around.</p>
<h3 id="VjnkKT">Game #1: vs Fairleigh Dickinson Knights (0-0)</h3>
<p id="0hw5bB"><strong>Date:</strong> Monday, November 7, 2022<br><strong>Time:</strong> Noon Central<br><strong>Location:</strong> Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin<br><strong>Streaming:</strong> <a href="https://www.flohoops.com/teams/6969962-marquette-womens-basketball">FloHoops</a><br><strong>Live Stats:</strong> <a href="https://gomarquette.com/sidearmstats/wbball/summary">Sidearm Stats</a><br><strong>Twitter Updates:</strong> <a href="http://twitter.com/MarquetteWBB">@MarquetteWBB</a> </p>
<p id="fkhN9i">This is the first ever meeting between Marquette and Fairleigh Dickinson.</p>
<p id="ibkmt0">FDU went 19-12 a year ago, including a 15-3 record in the NEC. That earned them a regular season championship by two games over St. Francis Brooklyn and the top seed in the conference tournament.... but they were bounced out by #7 seed Bryant, 44-38, in the semifinals. That sent them along to the WNIT as the best NEC team that didn’t qualify for the NCAA field.... and they got bounced in the first round by eventual runner up Seton Hall, 67-45.</p>
<p id="LSnIkq">That’s not how you’d like to exit your best season since at least 2010. I’d love to tell you how long it has been since the Knights has at least 17 wins overall, but their website doesn’t seem to have a record book available and Her Hoop Stats only goes back to 2009-10. I’d imagine they’re going to be kind of feisty about the entire situation, and being picked to finish second in the NEC this year probably didn’t help their disposition, even though they did get two first place votes.</p>
<p id="m9yQVz">Fairleigh Dickinson does have a preseason all-NEC honoree in junior forward Chloe Wilson. She was the only underclassman to earn all-conference honors last year after putting up 12.1 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.5 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. They are going to have to figure out how to operate without Madison Stanley, who won NEC Player of the Year last season in her fifth season in Teaneck. The 6’1” New Jersey native was just a shade better than Wilson, going for 12.4 points and 6.8 rebounds on average. That’s a very strong one-two punch for the Knights, and they have to make up for the loss of Aniya Bell (11.4 points, 5.1 rebounds) as well. </p>
<p id="GI9h2H">At a glance, it seems like fourth year head coach Angelika Szumilo has been doing a good job at getting the Knights to buckle up on the defensive end of the floor. After finishing #259 per Her Hoop Stats on that end of the floor in her first campaign, they’ve been a top 150 defense each of the past two seasons. There’s not much that I can see that would stand out as a trend for FDU in the past three years, but they did get a lot of milage out of being a good defensive rebounding team last season. Megan Duffy wants MU hauling in misses at a high rate on both ends, so MU’s offensive glass may be where the game is decided.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/6/23440310/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-preview-fairleigh-dickinson-knights-king-marotta-duffyBrewtown Andy2022-11-05T11:30:00-05:002022-11-05T11:30:00-05:00WBB Season Preview: 3 Questions
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<img alt="Claire Kaifes" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/SI1Pykusy83P5HyN8b-d651JyM8=/0x202:3264x2378/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71588918/AB3F6AE1_A22D_421C_89A8_36E2C3A9B2E7.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Can Marquette rely on shooting from Claire Kaifes to push them towards an NCAA bid this season? | Marquette University</figcaption>
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<p>Let’s kick around some of the biggest questions facing Megan Duffy and the Golden Eagles this year. </p> <h1 id="5ZDdYB">QUESTION #1: Who is going to step up for <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a> this season?</h1>
<p id="lmqbFC">Think about last year’s team in terms of jobs. There were nine jobs — five starters, four subs — on last year’s roster. The five starters played in every single game and four of them started every game as well. Two of those starting jobs are now available with the departure of Karissa McLaughlin and Lauren Van Kleunen. Two of the bench jobs are available as well, as Danyel Middleton transferred to UIC and Antwainette Walker elected to spend her bonus season of eligibility at Eastern Kentucky.</p>
<p id="zBAPzE">That’s four jobs that are up for grabs this season.</p>
<p id="U7TWj9">If you want to argue that Rose Nkumu and Kennedi Myles are going to play bigger roles on this year’s team, sure! Right there with you. That would count as “stepping up” under the letter of answering the question at hand. But they were the other two bench role players last season. If they take on a different job, then that’s just opening up the job they had last year, and we’re still at filling four jobs.</p>
<p id="NQEh2l">Nia Clark comes to mind immediately as someone to take one of the jobs. She didn’t really have a choice when it came to leaving Xavier, but it feels like maybe she’s got something to prove now that she’s getting another chance in the Big East. Emily La Chapell is a top 100 prospect coming out of Appleton, and you’d like to believe that she’s going to get a chance to contribute right out of the gate.</p>
<p id="pTrYZy">MU is still going to need two more jobs filled. Makiyah Williams, now that she has a whole season of college hoops under her belt? Julianna Okosun, now that Marquette has a LVK shaped hole on the interior? One of the other three freshmen on the roster?</p>
<p id="D8VHHL">Or maybe Claire Kaifes, who I intentionally left for last here, just to leapfrog us into the next question.......</p>
<h1 id="lBc6Dp">QUESTION #2: Will someone, literally anyone, please hit a three-pointer this season?</h1>
<p id="yw1kqC">Karissa McLaughlin <em>on her own</em> accounted for 60.1% of Marquette’s three-point attempts last season and 72.5% of their makes. Total up everyone who left the active roster last season, and those numbers go up to 69.3% and 78.3%. Marquette’s returning players shot 26-for-107 from long range last year. I don’t know what part about that is worse: the 24.3% conversion rate or the less than one make on just over three attempts per game.</p>
<p id="P11PV7">By the way: That 24.3% includes Jordan King’s 33.3% for the year, and she went 3-for-12 in MU’s first six games of the year and had to shoot nearly 36% the rest of the year to get there... and please remember that she only averaged 1.7 attempts a game.</p>
<p id="eb13h8">Pinning an entire component of a modern 21st century basketball offense on one player last year was a notable flaw in the Marquette roster. That one player is gone now because McLaughlin was always only going to be here for one year. That leaves a grand total of.... well, no one as a reliable returning shooter. Before figuring out her shot last year, King had turned in shooting percentages of 23% and 27% from behind the arc, and with that low total of attempts, it’s clear that she wrapped up last year still not 100% sure of her shot.</p>
<p id="Psh5oE">I used Claire Kaifes as the leapfrog into this section because I presume that, up until her offseason knee injury, she was going to get a chance to shoot it more than a little last year. She connected on 34% of her long range attempts as a freshman in 2020-21, and was letting it go 2.8 times a game. If she can get into games and contribute, that’s going to help Marquette stretch the floor.</p>
<p id="rB2Llg">Liza Karlen is a big option as a shooter as well. She hit just short of 40% of her threes as a freshman, and then missed her first 18 attempts of the 2021-22 season. That pretty much put a halt to Marquette even trying to get Karlen some long range looks, so she went just 4-for-19 the rest of the year. If she can generate a dangerous inside/outside game, that’s going to create a dimension that was completely lacking from last year’s roster.</p>
<p id="WuqLUO">Nia Clark showed signs of hitting long range buckets in her first two years of college hoops, but only hit 27% last year. Emily La Chapell shot 40% and 38% from behind the arc in her final two years of high school. Aizhanique Mayo drained 47% of her tries as a senior in Connecticut. </p>
<p id="Y3FSFG">Marquette has options. Hopefully they can all come together and create a legitimate multi-dimensional shooting attack for the Golden Eagles. But for now, it’s a mystery as to who can be relied on as a given long range threat right now.</p>
<h1 id="R9acaE">QUESTION #3: Is this an NCAA Tournament team?</h1>
<p id="WoIxkx">Last year was the first time since 2016 that Marquette did not play in the NCAA tournament. That even counts 2020 when the tournament was canceled but Marquette was clearly deserving of an at-large bid at the time. While MU was gunning for a program record fifth straight appearance in tournaments that actually happened, there was never really an argument that they deserved an at-large bid in the closing weeks of the regular season.</p>
<p id="a8Esfw">The fact of the matter is that they lost non-conference games to eventual tourney teams Colorado (#7 seed) and Georgia (#6), split with non-tourney team but eventual WNIT runner-up Seton Hall, split with tourney team DePaul (#11), and got swept by tourney team <a href="https://www.vuhoops.com">Villanova</a> (#11). Turn two or three of those six losses to wins, or maybe even just close the door on the home game against <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a> — that was a two point game at the start of the fourth quarter, after all — and MU’s probably an NCAA tournament team there. They weren’t that far off, they just didn’t take advantage of the situations in front of them when they had the chance to do it.</p>
<p id="jHdGqL">This year, Marquette’s non-conference schedule is split into two parts: Home games, with five of seven coming against top 200 Her Hoop Stats teams last year, and the woodchipper known as the Battle 4 Atlantis. The good news is that B4A is going to be great for MU’s strength of schedule components in the NET. The bad news is that 0-3 is a realistic result in that tournament. If the Golden Eagles filch even one win out of that event and square up win after win at the McGuire Center, they’re probably in a lot better position for an at-large bid this year.</p>
<p id="U6pbI4">My answer to the question at the start of the year? I can see how they get there from here. Am I 100% confident that they figure it out between now and March? Not 100%, that’s for sure.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/5/23440325/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-preview-questions-shooting-ncaa-tournamentBrewtown Andy2022-11-03T15:15:00-05:002022-11-03T15:15:00-05:00WBB Preview: The Newcomers
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<img alt="Aizhanique Mayo &amp; Nia Clark" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pxtJ-FIEfWPu4SUDHzKyeGtbc78=/0x0:2555x1703/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71581395/1AFAC060_BCD3_4AB2_8AD0_CEFC36B52521.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>Aizhanique Mayo (#2) is a freshman on the team this year, while Nia Clark (#1) is a transfer with a long standing relationship with Megan Duffy. | Marquette University</figcaption>
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<p>Megan Duffy welcomes one transfer and four freshman to the team this fall. Who will make an immediate impact?</p> <p id="p6ib0P">The <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a> women’s basketball season starts on Monday! Holy crap!</p>
<p id="bp3uwm">You already read up on <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/1/23434061/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-season-preview-king-marotta-karlen-nkumu-kaifes-myles">the players returning from last year’s roster</a>, right? If not, <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/1/23434061/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-season-preview-king-marotta-karlen-nkumu-kaifes-myles">you should do that immediately</a>, if not sooner. Here we’re going to talk about the new faces on the roster. One of them is a transfer who has a history with head coach Megan Duffy, and the other four are freshmen. One of the freshmen might seem like she has a much better chance to impact the team directly out of the gate than the others, but we’ll see what happens as the season gets going.</p>
<p id="xkRPqO">Let’s figure out what the coaching staff has at their disposal this season, shall we?</p>
<h1 id="XbKuh9">THE TRANSFER</h1>
<h2 id="qrZrOs">Nia Clark</h2>
<h3 id="dFURrJ">Senior - #1 - Guard - 5’9” - Indianapolis, Indiana</h3>
<p id="E9EeiN">While Clark is one of the new faces on the team, she has the longest standing relationship with Megan Duffy. Clark was recruiting to Miami when Duffy was the head coach there, and she started in six of her nine appearances in 2018-19 before suffering a season ending injury. Duffy left following that campaign to take the Marquette job, which led to Clark transferring to Xavier. She was a most of the time starter for the Musketeers during her time in Cincinnati, averaging 11.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game in 30 appearances. Yes, she was there for two seasons and only played 30 games for Xavier. Part of that is because of XU only playing 13 games in the 2020-21 COVID season.... and the other part is <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516590&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cincinnati.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Fxavier%2Fxaviersports%2F2022%2F02%2F21%2Fxavier-womens-basketball-dismisses-2-players-violating-team-rules%2F6884842001%2F&referrer=sbnation.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.anonymouseagle.com%2F2022%2F11%2F3%2F23434846%2Fmarquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-season-preview-transfer-freshmen-clark-lachapell-mayo-hare" rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" target="_blank">because Xavier head coach Melanie Moore kicked Clark off the team in February last season</a>.</p>
<p id="hmfEl7">Yeah.</p>
<p id="fBbDai">No explanation from Xavier on that, so no solid idea as to what the reason was. I would presume that Duffy was in contact with Moore about it, particularly since the two programs are in the same conference. Given that Duffy has known Clark going back to at least 2017, it’s safe to say that the two had a heart-to-heart cards on the table talk about whatever caused the rift at Xavier.</p>
<p id="GOnvC3">Clark will be available this season for sure, as she’s only ever played two full seasons of hoops. She may have only her COVID bonus season of eligibility left after 2022-23, but she also might have a medical redshirt available after her injury shortened first year of college hoops. Marquette has never issued a press release on Clark’s addition to the roster, so things are still murky there.</p>
<p id="KIkUT2">As for how she fits into this year’s team? There’s a starting guard spot available with Karissa McLaughlin’s lone season in Milwaukee coming to an end. In theory, Clark knows how to start and play big minutes in the Big East, so she’s a natural fit in that regard. She shot 44% and 37% from long range in her first two seasons of college hoops (yes, a very short first one, but stick with me here) on three-ish attempts per game in both cases, and if Clark can replicate that again, then there’s a big role for her since MU does not have a shooting threat returning to the roster. If she’s shooting 27% from long range <em>and</em> turning it over on over 20% of possessions like she has in all three campaigns she’s played in so far? Hoooooboy, could be a long year if Duffy feels that she owes it to Clark to give her minutes.</p>
<h1 id="UCEaqH">THE FRESHMEN</h1>
<h2 id="uPQhWw">Mackenzie Hare</h2>
<h3 id="MxzVN6">Freshman - #12 - Guard - 5’9” - Naperville, Illinois</h3>
<p id="NQuAVr">Let’s start with this part: When Hare (pronounced like the hair on your head) committed to Marquette, everything I read about her had her as Kenzie Hare, including <a href="https://twitter.com/kenzie_hare12">her own Twitter</a>. Marquette is listing her as Mackenzie. I don’t know what this means other than we’re gonna call her Mackenzie because that’s how the team is listing her.... on the official roster. <a href="https://twitter.com/MarquetteWBB/status/1585300300377870338">In Twitter graphics</a>? Different story.</p>
<p id="U846ow">Hare is the most recent addition to the freshman recruiting class after making her commitment and signing with the Golden Eagles this past spring. She was originally committed and signed to play for Saint Louis this year, but SLU made a coaching change and that got Hare free from her letter of intent. Hare was an all-state player in all four years of her high school career, which involved three years at Bartlett and one at Naperville North. She averaged 20.1 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 3.1 steals to wrap up her prep career with just short of 2,500 points scored. </p>
<p id="bXFiU9">While she was an incredibly productive high school player, she was going to be headed to the Atlantic 10 for college hoops until SLU changed the direction of their program. That leads us to ask whether or not Hare is ready to contribute immediately to the Golden Eagles. If you figure that Jordan King and Nia Clark are your starting backcourt with Rose Nkumu, Claire Kaifes and Makiyah Williams as returning players in the rotation behind them.... well, things start getting a little bit crowded, and if we remember that Duffy doesn’t seem to like playing freshman all that much.... well, we’ll have to wait and see how it goes, I guess.</p>
<h2 id="rAv2Ou">Emily La Chapell</h2>
<h3 id="Sky27H">Freshman - #21 - Guard - 5’11” - Appleton, Wisconsin</h3>
<p id="v5PCG2">Let’s hit the important part first: law shuh-PELL is how you’re going to pronounce Emily’s last name. I don’t know if it helps your brain process it, but once I said it out loud, I thought of it as taking on the French accent to it.</p>
<p id="9VZpYn">Okay, second most important part: <a href="http://www.espn.com/high-school/girls-basketball/recruiting/player/_/id/247024">La Chapell is ranked #77 in the country by ESPN</a>. I would like to think that a top 100 prospect is going to get playing time straight out of the gate. I also think it is very good that Marquette was able to keep a top 100 prospect in the state for her collegiate career. <a href="https://marquettewire.org/4085027/sports/la-chapell-brings-three-level-scorer-mentality-to-marquette/">The Marquette Wire did the math for me</a>, and yes, La Chapell is Megan Duffy’s first top 100 prospect at Marquette and the first Wisconsin prospect as well.</p>
<p id="v09IE2">La Chapell wrapped up her prep career as Appleton East’s all-time leading scorer with 1,885 points, and the team — as coached by her father — went 83-19 during her time on the roster. The Patriots went all the way to the state Division 1 championship game last season, their first trip to the end stage of the tournament since 1998. SEEMS GOOD, much like La Chapell’s 20.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.0 assists, and 1.8 steals a night. </p>
<p id="m46wzs">Her biggest pathway to getting on the court in Game #1? <a href="https://www.wissports.net/roster_players/47977603?subseason=763824">She hit 40.4% of her three-pointers in her junior season and 37.9% as a senior</a>. I can’t stress the point enough that Marquette needs to hit threes this season, and if La Chapell can do it, whether as MU’s fifth starter or as a microwave coming off the bench, that’s going to go a long way for both her playing time as well as MU’s team success.</p>
<h2 id="qzwv2G">Aizhanique Mayo</h2>
<h3 id="EhsKvA">Freshman - #2 - Guard - 5’8” - Westport, Connecticut</h3>
<p id="rH9ODZ">Here we bump into the same issue as with Mackenzie Hare, except mostly the other way around. I was mostly always seeing her full name, Aizhanique, when reading about Mayo when <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2021/9/21/22687156/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-recruiting-commitment-aizahanique-mayo">she committed to Marquette in September 2021</a>. But I did see her get mentioned as Nique Mayo here and there, and <a href="https://twitter.com/MarquetteWBB/status/1578475421883981825">that includes some fall photoshoots that the Golden Eagles posted on Twitter</a>.</p>
<p id="rOpRKR">Now, if you thought it was neat that Emily La Chapell guided her high school team to an 83-19 record, can I interest you in Mayo’s squad going 77-5? She attended <a href="https://www.onefootdown.com">Notre Dame</a> Catholic in Connecticut, which means yes, this means that Megan Duffy pulled a Big East recruit out of <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a>’s backyard. “Yeah, Andy, but UConn recruits whoever they want, they don’t need to worry about local prospects.” What about players that are named state Player of the Year by MaxPreps? That’s Mayo, who earned that honor in her junior season on the back of a 20.4 point, 6.8 rebound, 7.0 assist, 5.0 steal per game average. She pretty much did the exact same thing as a senior while shooting 47% from long range.</p>
<p id="7F7Bv9">I can not say this enough: If anything resembling quality three-point shooting translates to high major college hoops for any of these freshmen, please give them the greenest of lights and all of the playing time that they can shake a stick at. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.</p>
<h2 id="08Pjlo">Charia Smith</h2>
<h3 id="rJqe8y">Freshman - #5 - Forward - 6’1” - Columbus, Ohio</h3>
<p id="mqBE4h">I’m always fascinated when Megan Duffy recruits in Ohio. After all, she’s from Ohio, the Dayton area in particular, and she got her collegiate head coaching start at Miami. This always gives me the vibe that she’s got a little bit extra connection and a little bit extra inside info as to an underappreciated prospect.</p>
<p id="QF3Cyi">I say this because my gut instinct on Charia Smith is that she’s the least heralded of Marquette’s four freshmen. Emily La Chapell gets the national ranking attention, Mackenzie Hare scored a bajillion points, Aizhanique Mayo was the state player of the year.... and all Smith did was averaged 20.1 points and 7.1 rebounds as a senior to guide Westerville North to a perfect 12-0 record in conference play after a 12&7 junior year.</p>
<p id="6e5W2e">See? Obviously good, but not quite the bright shiny light that we’re getting from everyone else. My gut instinct is that Smith is the newcomer — including Clark in this calculation — that is at the back of the line when it comes to immediate impact on this year’s team. Part of that is the accolades for everyone else, and part of that is what appears to be Duffy’s general reluctance to play freshmen. The Golden Eagles will be trying to get back to the NCAA tournament this year, and if Smith can help make that happen, then she’s got to get on the floor to do that.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/3/23434846/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-season-preview-transfer-freshmen-clark-lachapell-mayo-hareBrewtown Andy2022-11-01T13:15:00-05:002022-11-01T13:15:00-05:00Women’s Basketball Season Preview: The Returning Players
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<img alt="Rose Nkumu" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/60sbA6oFOoMr5on8dhXA2Zy3APc=/0x0:2304x1536/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71571285/D739B665_9AA1_4D59_A82E_A3DEF5FD8E28.0.jpeg" />
<figcaption>What does her junior year hold for Rose Nkumu? | Marquette University</figcaption>
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<p>Head coach Megan Duffy returns a heavy dose of her regular rotation from last season.</p> <p id="VCVjaQ">Hey!</p>
<p id="mbuhH5">Did you guys know that the <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a> women’s basketball season starts in less than a week?! It’s true! In fact, they’ll be the first <a href="https://www.bigeastcoastbias.com">Big East</a> team to actually play a legitimate game, as their first contest against Fairleigh Dickinson has a Noon Central time start on Monday.</p>
<p id="eVczpw">We should probably do some season previewing, huh? </p>
<p id="ZYwWpE">Let’s set the table a little bit. Head coach Megan Duffy and her team are picked to finish sixth in the Big East this season, and senior guard Jordan King is MU’s lone representative on the preseason all-conference team. Last year, Marquette went 23-11 overall, but missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016. That snapped a streak of four straight tournament appearances (it would have been five, thanks for nothing, COVID) that tied the program record for the most consecutive trips to the national championship field. After missing out, MU advanced to the third round of the WNIT, picking up wins over Ball State and Purdue before bowing out to Toledo.</p>
<p id="oKKacD">Below you’ll find about 2700 words about all of the returning faces on the Marquette roster this season. We’ll talk about all the new faces on the team in a different article, but we have to set the table with what the Golden Eagles are bringing back first. </p>
<p id="6KfNEW">Before we get to that, let’s start with who Marquette is missing from last season. Karissa McLaughlin spent just one year in Milwaukee, but she led the team in minutes played while starting every contest. She was the team’s only legitimate outside shooting threat, and averaged 13.1 points while knocking down 42% of her three-pointers. McLaughlin also chipped in just short of two rebounds and three assists per contest. Danyel Middleton elected to transfer to UIC following the 2021-22 season. She turned into a quality bench option for the Golden Eagles as a sophomore last season, so that’s a notable loss in terms of what this team could have looked like this season. She averaged just 3.3 points and 2.3 rebounds, but you need someone capable of surprising the opponent with a double-double like she did at home against DePaul last season. Antwainette Walker was also a notable bench contributor last season before electing to take her COVID bonus season of eligibility at Eastern Kentucky. She added 4.7 points and 3.0 rebounds to the proceedings in 28 appearances for the Golden Eagles a year ago. Nirel Lougbo is the final name I’ll mention in this paragraph, even though she’s still going to be on the bench this season. Lougbo suffered a knee injury at some point between the end of the 2019-20 season and the start of the 2020-21 campaign. She never played in that year, and her knee never got right. She played in just six games for a total of 19 minutes last season, and she has been declared medically disqualified.</p>
<p id="GTKhSk">I’m giving Lauren Van Kleunen her own paragraph here. As we talked about at the end of last season, her time in Milwaukee was <em>A RIDE</em>, going from redshirting due to blood clots in her first year to remaking her game under Megan Duffy’s direction to returning for a sixth year of college basketball last season. She led the team in scoring at 13.7 points per game and added 6.4 rebounds and 2.4 assists to the show as well. By the time that LVK wrapped up her time as a Golden Eagle, she broke the Marquette athletic department — not women’s basketball, we’re talking about everything — record for appearances in a Marquette uniform. MU will be missing her post play, but also her attitude and energy as well.</p>
<p id="4Pr712">Onwards we go to the familiar faces that you’ll see once again this year. They’re divided up into three starters from last season and five bench players, and both groups are sorted by averaged minutes played last season. In fact, we’ll actually wrap up with a player that you didn’t see on the court at all last season, but that will make sense when we get there. </p>
<h1 id="7IeQtN">THE STARTERS</h1>
<h2 id="FNECfJ">Jordan King</h2>
<h3 id="zvZKmS">Senior - #23 - Guard - 5’11” - Rockton, Illinois</h3>
<p id="ijlkoA">There’s a couple of big questions looming for King’s fourth season in blue and gold. The first is one that we’ll only answer as the campaign goes along: Is this Jordan King’s team now? It wasn’t last year, not with McLaughlin’s ability to fill up the basket from long range and Van Kleunen’s skill underneath the rim. King is the leading returning scorer though, and that makes her the biggest candidate to take a big jump forward and assume the role as lead dog. Her 11.5 points were a career best, as were her 4.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists <em>and</em> 1.4 steals. </p>
<p id="pJGSV3">She also knocked down 33.3% of her long range attempts, and that was a career best as well. In fact, that is one of the other questions facing King’s senior season: Is the Jordan King we saw launching threes in the middle of last year the Jordan King we’ll see all season long in 2022-23? Overall, King attempted 57 triples and made 19 of them. I know, it’s not much, definitely not much compared to the 65-for-162 from McLaughlin last season. But in Big East play, King connected on 34.3% of her long range attempts — 12-for-35 — and that includes MU’s run in the Big East tournament. Between January 21st against Xavier and February 16th against DePaul, King went 10-for-18. That’s 55.6%. In MU’s first two WNIT games? 4-for-6, or 66.7%. I don’t think that she can do either of those numbers for a whole season, and no one should. But can she capture most of that magic, and turn into a 37% or 38% shooter on three or four attempts a game? It would go a long way towards making the rest of her offensive game even more dangerous.</p>
<p id="jJ3wiv">Speaking of the rest of her offensive game, <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2018/6/24/17388204/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-all-time-assists-chart">Jordan King wrapped up the 2021-22 season at #14 all time on MU’s assists chart</a>. She’s at 355 career helpers, one short of a tie between Beth Crossett and Sharon Flaiz for the 12th most in program history and 10 away from Allazia Blockton’s 11th most ever. If all King does is repeat the 149 assists she had last season, she will become just the fifth Marquette player to ever record 500 assists in a career, falling behind only Carolyn Kieger, Joan Pitrof, Angel Robinson, and Lori Goerlitz on the all time chart. I don’t think she’ll be able to catch Goerlitz at 566 this season, not unless the Golden Eagles’ offense catches absolute fire all season every single time King sends someone the ball. But every assists King puts up this year sends her one more assist closer to Kieger’s record and a shot at breaking it if she comes back for her COVID bonus season of eligibility.</p>
<h2 id="NwjLV3">Chloe Marotta</h2>
<h3 id="3Q68os">Senior - #52 - Forward - 6’1” - Mequon, Wisconsin</h3>
<p id="U9wvQ4">One of the big parts of figuring out whether or not this is Jordan King’s team is figuring out whether or not this is Chloe Marotta’s team. I’ll say this much: Even if King is the lead dog in terms of statistical contribution, Marotta is most likely going to be the heart and soul of this squad, no matter what. </p>
<p id="y6pNDA">She’s coming off a season that was very clearly her best in a Marquette uniform: 6.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 3.1 assists, all three career bests, and her rebounds led the team as well, just barely edging out Liza Karlen. Literally just barely, just 0.1 separated them, and that’s if you round to the nearest tenth. Pretty much the only thing Marotta did not do for Marquette last season was knock down three-pointers, and if that’s just not her game — generally speaking scoring in general is not her best quality as a player — that’s fine. Marotta is a classic “just plays basketball very well” type of player.</p>
<p id="fq5TYO">She’s going to have an interesting time of things this year. Last year, Marquette had Marotta playing the 3 with Van Kleunen and Karlen taking up the roles in the paint. With no more LVK on the roster and none of the freshman immediately looking like a carry the weight in the paint option, what does that mean for how Duffy and her staff use Marotta? Can someone else step into the role and do some heavy lifting, or is Marotta going to have to focus on getting it done in the paint more this season? Is she still as efficient and productive of a player if she’s not zipping in from the wing to make plays? If she’s not, can she still find a way to be the driving force for this team?</p>
<h2 id="Z5UIkq">Liza Karlen</h2>
<h3 id="Di3k9s">Junior - #32 - Forward - 6’2” - St. Paul, Minnesota</h3>
<p id="3kSdG3">It’s hard to say that Liza Karlen’s second season with Marquette was anything other than a success. She started in 29 of 34 appearances, averaged 10.2 points and just barely missed the team lead in rebounds at 7.2 a night. 1.9 assists per game is just found money at that point, honestly, and she added a block and a steal per game as well.</p>
<p id="neLnnH">And yet, based on how her freshman year went and how her sophomore year started out, there is a heavy note of disappointment. Karlen shot 39.5% on three-pointers in her first season in Milwaukee, and I think it’s a safe bet that everyone expected to see the Minnesotan raining in some jumpers last year.</p>
<p id="zUOKrw">I say everyone because Karlen was readily taking threes to start her sophomore season.... and missing them. 18 straight to start the year, in fact. She didn’t make her first one until Game #10 of the season and she would go just 4-for-19 the rest of the season, and that includes making three of her final six attempts of the year, all after February 24th. </p>
<p id="HDx3DW">10/7/2/1/1 is a good stat line, I don’t want to take anything away from what she did there. But there is a tinge of a disappointment there, right? With McLaughlin gone, Marquette has no one returning who attempted more than 60 threes last season. Can Karlen regain her form from 2020-21? Can she turn into an offensive weapon all over the floor and create mismatches that the Golden Eagles can take advantage of all year long? Or is Karlen — and Marquette — best served by focusing her energy on becoming the best post player she can possibly be to help balance out the loss of Van Kleunen?</p>
<h1 id="7sAyD8">THE BENCH</h1>
<h2 id="vnM06f">Rose Nkumu</h2>
<h3 id="xA5qvk">Junior - #3 - Guard - 5’7” - Iowa City, Iowa</h3>
<p id="pEWcJd">Nkumu made a big jump forward as a contributor going from freshman year to sophomore year. She was a valuable rotation piece for the Golden Eagles last year, even starting three times, after appearing in just 15 games for a grand total of 55 minutes in her first year on campus. No one’s going to confuse 1.9 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.2 assists with worldbreaking numbers, but that’s not what she was out there to do.</p>
<p id="eMbDik">So that’s the question, right? What’s she out there to do this season? With McLaughlin gone, in theory there’s a lot more minutes at guard available for her now, especially if Duffy and her staff want to play Jordan King off the ball a little bit more to boost up her scoring. Does the possibility of Chloe Marotta moving more inside help Nkumu find time on the floor, even with Nia Clark (more on her in a future article) joining the team? </p>
<p id="FXlC2V">Personally, I think that if Nkumu can turn into a reliable three-point option, Marquette has to find minutes for her. She shot 2-for-5 as a freshman, but missed all four attempts a year ago. She has the potential to be a major threat attacking the rim after goin 16-for-18 from the charity stripe last season, and working in some long distance threat can only make her more dangerous.</p>
<h2 id="nN6CVu">Kennedi Myles</h2>
<h3 id="A0XosJ">Senior - #44 - Forward - 6’2” - Cincinnati, Ohio</h3>
<p id="evPQvd">It’s possible that the numbers game caught up with Kennedi Myles last season. After averaging nine points and nine rebounds as a freshman for Illinois and then nine points and eight rebounds as a sophomore, it seemed like she could jump right into some rotation minutes for Marquette after transferring in last year.</p>
<p id="HVYuRm">Annnnd that just did not happen. Or rather, the Marquette coaching staff thought it was going to work out and they became less enthused about what it actually looked like as the season went along. Myles played at least 11 minutes in each of Marquette’s first eight games, including two starts along the way, and then her minutes just kept drifting further and further downwards. She played more than 10 minutes in a game just twice after February 1st, so is that an issue of Duffy decided to ride with Karlen and Van Kleunen at the 4 and and the 5 as much as possible or is that Duffy and her staff stopped trusting Myles to give them productive minutes on the regular. It’s clear that there is a spot in the rotation for her this year with LVK’s departure, but if the coaching staff wasn’t trusting her late in the year, I don’t know how they trust her with a much bigger role this season unless something has dramatically changed.</p>
<h2 id="hYluMk">Makiyah Williams</h2>
<h3 id="8AkzZ7">Sophomore - #24 - Forward - 6’0” - Chicago, Illinois</h3>
<h2 id="mslX7Z">Julianna Okosun</h2>
<h3 id="ZVbCmC">Junior - #0 - Forward - 6’4” - Copenhagen, Denmark</h3>
<p id="U4JD5b">I’m putting Williams and Okosun together for conversational purposes because their stat lines from last year are effectively the same. 15 games for Williams, 19 for Okosun. 4.9 minutes per outing for both of them, 1.7 points per game for both of them, a notable rebounding advantage for Okosun at 1.6 to 0.7 for Williams.</p>
<p id="t9vgOL">In Williams’ case, this may just be a case of “well, she’s a freshman and we have upperclassmen who are going to play in front of her and that’s that.” If that’s the case, then we should probably expect to see her start to get at least some kind of rotation role this season. If nothing else, the departures of Middleton and Walker break those rotation roles open for Williams to jump in and claim them as her own.</p>
<p id="6sha4s">As for Okosun, her sophomore year was a lot like her freshman year in terms of on the court playing time. A few more minutes played, a few more minutes per game, but nothing that made you say “why is Megan Duffy not playing her more, this is a travesty” either. It must be noted that at 6’4”, she’s clearly going to play a post role on the squad, and from what she’s shown in limited minutes, she’s only going to play a post role. The past two years, those minutes have been largely chewed up by Lauren Van Kleunen and Liza Karlen. One of those women is gone now, so is Okosun ready to grab up at least some of the minutes left behind by LVK’s absence? In extremely limited situations, she has shown a knack for grabbing offensive rebounds, which makes sense because being 6’4” is a big help in the women’s game in that regard. Is that something that will help her get 10 or 12 minutes a night this season?</p>
<h2 id="2tfvtJ">Claire Kaifes</h2>
<h3 id="JNfZjU">Redshirt Junior - #10 - Guard - 5’11” - Shawnee, Kansas</h3>
<p id="LNUHRL">We’ve seen two years of relatively quality bench minutes from Claire Kaifes at Marquette. 8.4 minutes a game in 24 appearances as a freshman turned into over 15 minutes a night in 26 games as a sophomore. She wasn’t being asked to carry a load of any kind for the Golden Eagles, but she did show the ability to hop off the bench and knock down threes in her sophomore year. Her field goal attempts were darn near exclusively from long range, but she did connect on 25 of 73 tries for a 34% conversion rate on nearly three attempts a game. That’s definitely a talent that could provide benefits to Marquette.</p>
<p id="03KndK">In fact, I remain convinced that Kaifes missing all of last season with a knee injury suffered in the offseason was a detriment to the Golden Eagles overall. As mentioned earlier Karissa McLaughlin was Marquette’s only reliable shooter all season long, and only Jordan King turning it on later in the year gave MU anything resembling a second shooter. Given how much Marquette relied on cutting to the rim as well as post work by Lauren Van Kleunen, the inability of the rest of the team to stretch the defense out by at least threatening to shoot threes was a big problem! Kaifes could have helped that out at least a little bit, even if we’re just talking about three attempts in 15 minutes a night again.</p>
<p id="FT5nX7">If she’s healthy now, and 100% recovered from her injury, the only question is whether or not the injury sapped her ability to get free for shots as well as her ability to be able to defend the way MU needs all five of their players on the floor to defend. Remember: Marquette was ranked #50 in the country in defense per Her Hoop Stats at the end of last season. If Kaifes’ mobility fell off just a little bit but enough to cut off whatever advantages she used to have, then that’s going to harm her ability to get back on the floor and help Marquette out on the offensive end.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/11/1/23434061/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-season-preview-king-marotta-karlen-nkumu-kaifes-mylesBrewtown Andy2022-10-20T13:19:47-05:002022-10-20T13:19:47-05:00What Preseason Top 25 Teams Are On The WBB Schedule?
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<img alt="Marquette Women’s Basketball" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/3MCfuUgBTyPK8QWfPgD4h0pBBRo=/0x0:5225x3483/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71521784/Marquette_Women_s_Basketball_Huddle.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Marquette University</figcaption>
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<p>The Battle 4 Atlantis is going to be a whole thing, y’all.</p> <p id="WealAv">Hey! Didja see that <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll">the Associated Press released their preseason top 25 for women’s basketball</a> a couple of days ago? It’s true! That’s always a fun signpost on the way to the start of the season.</p>
<p id="HRVTX7"><a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette</a> is coming off a season where they missed the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2016. They did make it to the third round of the WNIT though, but that wasn’t enough to get the AP voters interested in voting for the Golden Eagles to start the year. Not really a surprise.</p>
<p id="gYxPei">It certainly looks like Megan Duffy and her squad are going to get more than a couple of chances to play their way into the top 25. It won’t be right away, but starting with the fourth game of the season, the Golden Eagles will be in the Bahamas to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis. Pretty much every way that Marquette turns in that event, they’ll be seeing either a ranked team or a team that at least earned votes in the preseason poll.</p>
<p id="40g3gH">Their first game will be against <a href="https://www.burntorangenation.com">Texas</a>, and the Longhorns are starting off the year at #3 in the country. Yep. After that, MU’s second round game will be against either <a href="https://www.cardchronicle.com">Louisville</a> or <a href="https://www.slipperstillfits.com">Gonzaga</a>. That’s the preseason #7 Cardinals or the unofficial #38 ranked Bulldogs as Gonzaga picked up three points in the polling. Finally, in Game #3, there’s a possibility of Marquette playing either #5 <a href="https://www.rockytoptalk.com">Tennessee</a>, #23 South Dakota State, or <a href="https://www.bruinsnation.com">UCLA</a>, which came in just two spots outside the top 25 in the voting. There’s also <a href="https://www.onthebanks.com">Rutgers</a> as the fourth option, and the Scarlet Knights are just like MU in terms of not earning any preseason votes. </p>
<p id="CGQWRy">That’s it for the non-conference schedule as Megan Duffy loaded up the slate with teams that were expected to not be ranked and you can’t really fault her for it based on the potential options here for MU. However, Big East play brings its own set of challenges. <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a> will start the year off at #6 in the country, while Creighton, fresh off the first Sweet 16 <em>and</em> first Elite Eight in program history, are the preseason #21 team in the country.</p>
<p id="edUOi7">In case that wasn’t enough, there are two conference foes earning votes in the preseason poll. They’re back-to-back just barely outside the top 25. <a href="https://www.vuhoops.com">Villanova</a> is the unofficial #28 team in the country after earning 25 points, while DePaul and sophomore star Aneesah Morrow picked up 19 points worth of votes to land one spot behind the Wildcats.</p>
<p id="7quH9f">Marquette starts the season on Monday, November 7th, with a noon start time at home against Fairleigh Dickinson. FloHoops will have the broadcast for that one in case you can’t figure out how to take a long lunch from work to make it down to the McGuire Center.</p>
<p id="98JHLK">You can check out the entire top 25 <a href="https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll">right here</a>.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/10/20/23414849/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-associated-press-ap-preseason-top-25-poll-rankingBrewtown Andy2022-10-19T11:30:00-05:002022-10-19T11:30:00-05:00WBB Picked 6th; King Named Preseason All-Big East
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<img alt="COLLEGE BASKETBALL: MAR 06 Big East Women’s Tournament - Marquette v UConn" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5PKd0L-dDa_fQJOViUtX2mosw-o=/0x162:2610x1902/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71516434/1239005816.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>Photo by M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</figcaption>
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<p>The Golden Eagles get one player on the preseason all-league team even while appearing to be the best amongst the bottom half of the league.</p> <p id="mjy5ht">Big East Basketball Media Day was on Tuesday, and that means that we got <a href="https://www.bigeast.com/news/2022/10/17/uconn-is-unanimous-big-east-womens-basketball-preseason-favorite.aspx">the results of the preseason poll of the league’s coaches</a> as to how they think things are going to go in 2022-23. Let’s just get right to it: The Big East coaches voted YOUR <a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com">Marquette Golden Eagles</a> to finish sixth in the Big East this season. MU secured 56 points in the polling, putting them in between DePaul and Seton Hall in a tie for fourth at 68 points and St. John’s in seventh at 47.</p>
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<img alt="2022-23 Big East Women’s Basketball preseason poll" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/m4N6WhEV2CJObsLuoJIp7N7IOZ0=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24123482/WBB_POLL.png">
<cite><a class="ql-link" href="https://www.bigeast.com/news/2022/10/17/uconn-is-unanimous-big-east-womens-basketball-preseason-favorite.aspx" target="_blank">Big East Conference</a></cite>
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<p id="AlEfvJ">To the surprise of absolutely no one, <a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com">UConn</a> is the preseason favorite to win the league this season, and they picked up all 10 possible first place votes since coaches can’t vote for their own teams. Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma sent his first place vote to <a href="https://www.vuhoops.com">Villanova</a>, which makes sense since the Wildcats knocked off the Huskies last season. However, that wasn’t enough to boost VU into second place, as that spot went to Creighton fresh off the program’s first ever Elite Eight appearance. Can’t really argue with the collective thoughts of the coaches on that one, that’s for sure.</p>
<p id="1J9yJj">There is a drop off in the point totals from the top three to the two teams tied for fourth place, and then another drop off from that tie to MU in sixth. At least, it looks like a drop off. If you wanted to make a tier in the league poll with DePaul, Seton Hall, Marquette, and St. John’s all together, that makes sense as well. You could probably put Providence into that tier as well, as there’s just three points separating a tie for ninth place between Butler and <a href="https://www.casualhoya.com">Georgetown</a> from <a href="https://www.bannersontheparkway.com">Xavier</a> in last place.</p>
<p id="tqaOLm">Much like men’s basketball, I have a major problem with the voting here. Butler went 0-18 in Big East play and 1-27 overall. Yet somehow I’m expected to believe that new head coach Austin Parkinson is going to somehow steer the Bulldogs out of last place because..... reasons? Sure, it’s a roster with a lot of new faces, but that doesn’t automatically make them better, and potentially automatically better than two teams? C’mon. You don’t need to give Parkinson a warm fuzzy in his first year in the league.</p>
<p id="LCkn8B">Onwards to individual awards where we will talk about the preseason All-Big East team first since Marquette guard Jordan King is one of the 11 players honored. </p>
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<p id="AHkho6">We’ll go to <a href="https://gomarquette.com/news/2022/10/18/womens-basketball-jordan-king-named-to-preseason-all-big-east-team">the Marquette press release on King’s honor</a> (from a newly refreshed <a href="http://GoMarquette.com">GoMarquette.com</a> by the way) because more detail is always more fun.</p>
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<p id="rUdKMa">King is coming off the strongest statistical season of her career in her junior campaign, where she led the squad and ranked fourth in the BIG EAST with 4.4 assists per game. She was also the third-leading scorer for the Golden Eagles as she averaged 11.5 points, while also pulling down 4.5 rebounds per contest. She also had her most efficient shooting season, finishing the year shooting 41.0 percent (161-of-393) from the floor. </p>
<p id="6uFwDi">The Rockton, Illinois, native has started all 92 games that she’s played during her collegiate career, averaging at least 30 minutes per contest each season.</p>
</blockquote>
<p id="2B8KU6">Do I have an explanation as to why there’s an 11 woman all-conference team which does not include the preseason Player of the Year? No, I do not. 10 women, that makes sense. Nine women, because the POY is #10, that makes sense. Five women, including the POY, that makes the most sense. Did they do any of these things? No.</p>
<p id="UPqYyg">Anyway, as for the POY award, it went to Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist. All due respect to Siegrist who was a shoo-in for a unanimous vote to the all-conference team if the POY vote went another way, but Siegrist is only getting this award because UConn’s Paige Bueckers is done for the year with a summer ACL injury. <a href="https://www.bigeast.com/news/2022/10/17/womens-basketball-villanovas-maddy-siegrist-voted-big-east-preseason-player-of-the-year.aspx">I’ll let the Big East lay out Siegrist’s credentials</a>, which includes being named the 2021-22 Big East Player of the Year: </p>
<blockquote><p id="mJU8Q1">Siegrist shattered the BIG EAST record for scoring in 2021-22, averaging 27.9 points per game over 17 league contests, besting the previous mark of 26.6 which had been on the books since 1991-92. Additionally, she finished second in rebounding at 9.9 boards per game, and 10th in both steals (1.6) and blocks (0.9). Siegrist’s overall scoring average of 25.3 points per game ranked second nationally last season. She reached the 30-point mark a BIG EAST-best nine times, the 20-point threshold 21 times and notched 12 double-doubles.</p></blockquote>
<p id="Elk9Dy">The Preseason Freshman of the Year award went to UConn’s Ayanna Patterson. This should not be surprising to you because when it comes to this award every year, you can pretty much just assign it to UConn’s best ranked freshman and keep it moving. Here’s the league writeup: </p>
<blockquote><p id="cJx7fz">Patterson is a five-star recruit from Fort Wayne, Ind. She is ranked fourth in the class of 2022, as listed by ESPN. She averaged 25.8 points, 11.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks as a senior at Homestead High and was named a McDonald’s All American and Indiana Miss Basketball. She is the third straight UConn rookie to be named BIG EAST Preseason Freshman of the Year following Azzi Fudd in 2021 and Paige Bueckers in 2020.</p></blockquote>
<p id="IiaIhQ">Marquette opens the season on November 7th against Fairleigh Dickinson, with tipoff on FloHoops scheduled for Noon Central time.</p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/10/19/23412804/marquette-golden-eagles-womens-basketball-big-east-preseason-poll-king-all-conferenceBrewtown Andy2022-10-14T11:30:00-05:002022-10-14T11:30:00-05:00Unscientific Predictions: 2022-23 Big East WBB Preseason Awards
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<img alt="NCAA Womens Basketball: Villanova at Connecticut" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/zDFw7J-nqj4BJjd7p4gX8YRJ5aM=/0x0:4129x2753/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71495384/usa_today_17650488.0.jpg" />
<figcaption>With Paige Bueckers sidelined for the year, Maddy Siegrist is the obvious choice for preseason POY. | David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption>
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<p>You’re not prepared for Media Day next week until you sort through our picks for the preseason honors in the league.</p> <p id="knXrie">Hello and welcome to our discussion of the Big East’s women’s basketball preseason awards!</p>
<p id="AeN3GJ">Media Day is coming up on Tuesday, so we have to get our picks officially out there in the wilderness so we can talk about how wrong and dastardly all the Big East coaches are when they vote for something different. That’s how this works! </p>
<p id="pncM0n">Anyway.</p>
<p id="1oJ9xC">You’re getting a preseason Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year here, plus a five woman all-conference team, as well as a predicted order of finish for all 11 squads in the league.</p>
<p id="BypNmL">Enough preamble! Let’s get to it.</p>
<h3 id="1HGBbS">Preseason Player of the Year: Maddy Siegrist, <a href="https://www.vuhoops.com">Villanova</a>
</h3>
<p id="F13r0g">If this attempt at preseason awards had been written and published on August 2nd, then this would have gone to Paige Bueckers. But her left ACL decided to take the year off, and so the obvious move here is to hand this year’s preseason POY to last year’s end of season POY. We don’t have to overthink these things.</p>
<h3 id="kwc2F9">Preseason Freshman of the Year: Ayanna Patterson, Connecticut</h3>
<p id="1pICTq">Hey, look, when ESPN’s #4 high school prospect is in your league, you pencil her in as FOY here and move on. Could it also be #5 prospect Ice Brady, who is also at UConn? Sure! Is there a chance it’s someone else at the end of the season because of how Geno Auriemma distributes minutes? Maybe, but that’s not the award we’re handing out here!</p>
<h3 id="EZ5bh5">Preseason All-Big East Team</h3>
<p id="B25P36"><strong>Azzi Fudd, </strong><a href="https://www.theuconnblog.com"><strong>UConn</strong></a><br><strong>Aneesah Morrow, DePaul</strong><br><strong>Lauren Park-Lane, Seton Hall</strong><br><strong>Emma Ronsiek, Creighton</strong><br><strong>Maddy Siegrist, Villanova</strong></p>
<p id="0I1CEb">This was fairly simple to put together. I looked at last year’s all-Big East First Team from the end of the season and took everyone who was returning. Then, I realized that left this five woman squad with no one from Connecticut. After laughing at my foolishness, I noted that Seton Hall had two representatives in both Park-Lane and Sidney Cooks. Since 1) Seton Hall ain’t beating UConn for the league title and 2) LPL was a unanimous choice for the all-league team and Cooks was not, I dropped Cooks in favor of Fudd, who is UConn’s leading returning scorer.</p>
<p id="FPxuO6">Is the Big East going to do something silly like put out a 10 woman preseason all-conference team and include both Cooks and probably at least one more Husky, likely Aaliyah Edwards or Caroline Ducharme, and thus make all of this hoop jumping I went through unnecessary? Probably, but we have <em>standards</em> here at Anonymous Eagle, dammit.</p>
<h3 id="veGg4M">Predicted Order of Finish</h3>
<p id="qTYqAH"><strong>1 — Connecticut</strong><br><strong>2 — Creighton</strong><br><strong>3 — Villanova</strong><br><strong>4 — Seton Hall</strong><br><strong>5 — </strong><a href="https://www.anonymouseagle.com"><strong>Marquette</strong></a><br><strong>6 — DePaul</strong><br><strong>7 — St. John’s</strong><br><strong>8 — Providence</strong><br><strong>9 — </strong><a href="https://www.bannersontheparkway.com"><strong>Xavier</strong></a><br><strong>10 — </strong><a href="https://www.casualhoya.com"><strong>Georgetown</strong></a><br><strong>11 — Butler</strong></p>
<p id="WX246K">I’ll pick against the Huskies to finish somewhere other than first in the league when they, y’know, actually do that. Creighton returns an awful lot of the firepower that finished third and then went to the Sweet 16, so I’ll nudge them up over Villanova here just to make things spicy. As mentioned, Seton Hall was <em>thisclose</em> to having two all-Big East teamers, so they have to be in the top four. </p>
<p id="nqkdwi">I have big questions about Marquette this season as we’ll get into in our season preview stuff, but not as many as I have for DePaul. But Doug Bruno’s still in charge there, so he gets the benefit of the doubt here, as much as “I’m picking you sixth which probably means no NCAA tournament” is a benefit. After that, I’m just throwing darts. Well, other than for Butler. They went 0-18 last season, and even though they changed coaches, I’m legally obligated to pick them to finish last until they actually win a league game again. </p>
https://www.anonymouseagle.com/2022/10/14/23401483/big-east-womens-basketball-preseason-poll-awards-uconn-connecticut-siegrist-patterson-villanovaBrewtown Andy