MU Women's Basketball Thread

[Marquette Fan]

Always happy to see a DePaul blowout regardless of MU team.

This was a weird game in that this was not the DePaul team I’m used to at all.  I’ll take the nice easy MU win though of course 😀.

Big contest Wednesday at Villanova - would be good to get a road win there especially as the game after that is hosting UCONN.  Villanova is 4-1 in the BE so far.

[Marquette Fan]

I admire Clark’s game and enjoy the attention she is bringing to Women’s Basketball also.

[shoothoops]

This was a weird game in that this was not the DePaul team I’m used to at all.  I’ll take the nice easy MU win though of course 😀.

Big contest Wednesday at Villanova - would be good to get a road win there especially as the game after that is hosting UCONN.  Villanova is 4-1 in the BE so far.

Yep. DePaul just wasn’t competitive. Too soon to tell. But a couple of challenging seasons recently for them for their standard. Rare tough shooting night for Hare didn’t matter for example, compared to the St. John’s game.

[Marquette Fan]

Yep. DePaul just wasn’t competitive. Too soon to tell. But a couple of challenging seasons recently for them for their standard. Rare tough shooting night for Hare didn’t matter for example, compared to the St. John’s game.

I have to wonder if Bruno at age 73 is thinking about retiring.  He’s had a great run at DePaul.

[shoothoops]

I have to wonder if Bruno at age 73 is thinking about retiring.  He’s had a great run at DePaul.

He’s getting closer to it. This would be two iffy seasons in a row and 3 out of 4 somewhat sub par seasons for them. But he has many good recent ones too.

Not sure if Bart Brooks would be interested in going back there. They would have to make a good effort to get him. He’s been great at Belmont for 7 seasons since his successful 11 year stint as a DePaul assistant.

We’ll see.

[Marquette Fan]

He’s getting closer to it. This would be two iffy seasons in a row and 3 out of 4 somewhat sub par seasons for them. But he has many good recent ones too.

Not sure if Bart Brooks would be interested in going back there. They would have to make a good effort to get him. He’s been great at Belmont for 7 seasons since his successful 11 year stint as a DePaul assistant.

We’ll see.

Bruno also has two former head coaches on his DePaul staff in Jill Pizotti (St. Louis) and Lisa Ryckbosch (UIC).  Although Ryckbosch came back to DePaul in a special assistant role and not a coaching role - she had been an assistant at DePaul before taking the UIC job.  I didn't realize that one of Bruno's sons was on his staff now until I looked up their roster tonight.  Also, I was looking up Bart Brooks and didn't realize he married former DePaul player Charlene Smith - I remember seeing her play at UW-Milwaukee before she transferred to DePaul.

Some random MU-DePaul things - former DePaul player Stacy Krumrei married one of Bruno's sons - her sister Stephanie played at Marquette (Stephanie's daughter ended up playing volleyball at Marquette).  And Kristen Maskala played at DePaul for one season and in three seasons at MU she scored 1,745 points.  Maskala would most likely still be the career scoring leader at MU had she played here all 4 seasons - she's one of the best players I've seen at MU.

[shoothoops]

Bruno also has two former head coaches on his DePaul staff in Jill Pizotti (St. Louis) and Lisa Ryckbosch (UIC).  Although Ryckbosch came back to DePaul in a special assistant role and not a coaching role - she had been an assistant at DePaul before taking the UIC job.  I didn't realize that one of Bruno's sons was on his staff now until I looked up their roster tonight.  Also, I was looking up Bart Brooks and didn't realize he married former DePaul player Charlene Smith - I remember seeing her play at UW-Milwaukee before she transferred to DePaul.

Some random MU-DePaul things - former DePaul player Stacy Krumrei married one of Bruno's sons - her sister Stephanie played at Marquette (Stephanie's daughter ended up playing volleyball at Marquette).  And Kristen Maskala played at DePaul for one season and in three seasons at MU she scored 1,745 points.  Maskala would most likely still be the career scoring leader at MU had she played here all 4 seasons - she's one of the best players I've seen at MU.

Yep. Brooks is good. He finally lost one of his stud players to transfer (Wells to Tennessee). He scooped up La Chappell from MUWBB. Kevin McGuff’s (Ohio State HC) daughter plays for him too.

Steph (Krumrei/Dragani) was a good player. She and her husband Pat (also a good multi sport athlete and hooper) are good friends of mine. They are two of the best people I know. Their son (Ben) was a college athlete as well, a baseball pitcher at Michigan/Pitt. They are also good friends with former MUBB hooper and current MU EVP/COO Joel “Pogo” Pogodzinski.

Kris was big time. She had a variety of skill sets. She was an Academic All American too.

Romeiser, Goerlitz, Persin were a few others that I know from that group.

[Marquette Fan]

Yep. Brooks is good. He finally lost one of his stud players to transfer (Wells to Tennessee). He scooped up La Chappell from MUWBB. Kevin McGuff’s (Ohio State HC) daughter plays for him too.

Steph (Krumrei/Dragani) was a good player. She and her husband Pat (also a good multi sport athlete and hooper) are good friends of mine. They are two of the best people I know. Their son (Ben) was a college athlete as well, a baseball pitcher at Michigan/Pitt. They are also good friends with former MUBB hooper and current MU EVP/COO Joel “Pogo” Pogodzinski.

Kris was big time. She had a variety of skill sets. She was an Academic All American too.

Romeiser, Goerlitz, Persin were a few others that I know from that group.

Goerlitz was a great outside shooter and they had three 1,000 point scorers in that class with her, Kerri Reaves and Christine Kennedy.  And speaking of Kennedy, that number 34 had a lot of rebounds from 1991-2000 - Kennedy is 3rd on the MU career rebounding list with 1,089 and Abbie Willenborg is number 1 with 1,167.  Both wore the number 34.

[Marquette Fan]

Some miscellaneous MU stuff:

-Here's the info on the unbalanced schedule in case anyone is interested - this chart has which opponent every team only plays once at home and on the road - https://www.bigeast.com/documents/2023/9/25/SchedulingPairings2324.pdf

-Liza Karlen became the first BE player to get the BE POW honor 3 times this season - https://www.bigeast.com/news/2024/1/15/womens-basketball-familiar-faces-claim-latest-bigeastwbb-weekly-honors.aspx

-Liza Karlen and Jordan King were both interviewed during the BE men's bball road show - I caught it after I saw an MUWBB tweet about it.  It was a nice interview - my favorite part was when King was asked what makes Karlen a great player.

-Marquette moves up one spot in the AP poll this week to 22 - Creighton is just above them at 21 and UCONN is 9th

-MU's NET is up to 25 now - Creighton just above them at 24 and UCONN has a NET of 4.

-Tough couple games coming up at Villanova and home to UCONN.  It's never easy to win at Villanova and they are 4-1 in the BE so far and UCONN is pretty darn tough this year despite all the injuries they've had. 

[shoothoops]

Goerlitz was a great outside shooter and they had three 1,000 point scorers in that class with her, Kerri Reaves and Christine Kennedy.  And speaking of Kennedy, that number 34 had a lot of rebounds from 1991-2000 - Kennedy is 3rd on the MU career rebounding list with 1,089 and Abbie Willenborg is number 1 with 1,167.  Both wore the number 34.

Yep. Reaves and Kennedy were very good players and are good people. Kerri was to move.

Funny Mac mini story. During a required team/group role play, the moderator asked Mac what would he do if Damon were at a party and someone was getting into it with Damon. He said flatly, “Nothing. Have you seen Damon.”

[Marquette Fan]

News story on the team - https://x.com/dariusjoshuatv/status/1747636644369604698?s=46&t=qmHojXzONY0z7kSh4Cq1Rg

[shoothoops]

Tough loss at The Finn. 66-63.

MUWBB led most of the game until the final minute.

Just 8 4th quarter points for MUWBB.

(Just 9 4th quarter points for MUWBB in the 1 point 57-56 loss at St. John’s.)

[Marquette Fan]

Tough loss at The Finn. 66-63.

MUWBB led most of the game until the final minute.

Just 8 4th quarter points for MUWBB.

(Just 9 4th quarter points for MUWBB in the 1 point 57-56 loss at St. John’s.)

They led 63-56 with 3:54 to go and didn’t score again.  Ugh - this was a bad loss.

[shoothoops]

They led 63-56 with 3:54 to go and didn’t score again.  Ugh - this was a bad loss.

I think Hare had the second to ball fake and side step that last 3 off the stagger screen at the top of the key. She hit one just like it earlier. (21, 5/9 3’s)

But the road 4th quarter is fixable issue in close games. Shooting a third less FT’s for the game when leading most of it late is tough to do.

Bounce back for the next.

[Marquette Fan]

I think Hare had the second to ball fake and side step that last 3 off the stagger screen at the top of the key. She hit one just like it earlier. (21, 5/9 3’s)

But the road 4th quarter is fixable issue in close games. Shooting a third less FT’s for the game when leading most of it late is tough to do.

Bounce back for the next.

The next game is UCONN though which is all the more reason I think last night was an important game.  Realistically I don’t see them bearing UCONN again this year.

[Marquette Fan]

Latest ESPN bracketology has MU facing Penn state in the first round - that would be one interesting match up 😀.  I doubt it will actually happen though.

[shoothoops]

Raoul had some of these today:

WBB NET rankings
—ACC: 5 top 25, 9 top 50 (ND 9 → Pitt 182)
—Big Ten: 4 top 25, 9 top 50 (Iowa 5 → NW 221)
—Big 12: 4 top 25, 7 top 50 (Texas 2 → Cincinnati 110)
—Pac-12: 7 top 25, 9 top 50 (Stanford 4 → ASU 127)
—SEC: 2 top 25, 7 top 50 (South Carolina 1 → Kentucky 165)

Big East: 2 in the top 25 (Marquette just outside at #26), 4 in the top 50.

[Marquette Fan]

Raoul had some of these today:

WBB NET rankings
—ACC: 5 top 25, 9 top 50 (ND 9 → Pitt 182)
—Big Ten: 4 top 25, 9 top 50 (Iowa 5 → NW 221)
—Big 12: 4 top 25, 7 top 50 (Texas 2 → Cincinnati 110)
—Pac-12: 7 top 25, 9 top 50 (Stanford 4 → ASU 127)
—SEC: 2 top 25, 7 top 50 (South Carolina 1 → Kentucky 165)

Big East: 2 in the top 25 (Marquette just outside at #26), 4 in the top 50.

Thanks.  I haven't seen NET compiled by conference (sure it's out there somewhere but I haven't found it yet) and I haven't felt like compiling it from the NCAA site that lists teams individually.

Creighton won pretty easily at Villanova today and Villanova didn't make a 3 - think they said on the broadcast that's the first time in 20 years that's happened.  Marquette needs to win the rest of their home games after Tuesday and a win at Creighton would be very helpful to them but I know that will likely be tough.

I enjoyed watching the end of the Ohio State-Iowa game today where OSU picked up the upset in OT.  And Penn State picked up a nice win over Nebraska today - it does seem like they are on track to make the NCAA Tourney for the first time in Kieger's five seasons at PSU.

And that concludes my random tidbits for now

[shoothoops]

Thanks.  I haven't seen NET compiled by conference (sure it's out there somewhere but I haven't found it yet) and I haven't felt like compiling it from the NCAA site that lists teams individually.

Creighton won pretty easily at Villanova today and Villanova didn't make a 3 - think they said on the broadcast that's the first time in 20 years that's happened.  Marquette needs to win the rest of their home games after Tuesday and a win at Creighton would be very helpful to them but I know that will likely be tough.

I enjoyed watching the end of the Ohio State-Iowa game today where OSU picked up the upset in OT.  And Penn State picked up a nice win over Nebraska today - it does seem like they are on track to make the NCAA Tourney for the first time in Kieger's five seasons at PSU.

And that concludes my random tidbits for now

Yep. I usually look for top end and bottom end teams/league and see where the Big East falls in other sports besides Men’s hoops. In Women’s Soccer for example, the AAC was hurt a lot by conference realignment and the WCC was down a little bit. So Big East was 7th best league vs 9th this year. Things like that.

In Women’s hoops, with fewer teams, I usually look at lifting the bottom of the Big East with a few of those schools that have been less competitive.

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette fell out of the AP poll today which wasn't really surprising.

[Marquette Fan]

UCONN game was pretty much like the one at UCONN and not real good.

They struggled big time at home yesterday against the second worst team in the BE - Butler.  In the end, they won but it was pretty darn ugly.  Butler came into this game with only one conference win and that was against Xavier who is by far the worst team in the conference.  Tough game coming up at Creighton on Wednesday night.

[Sandstone]

Hidalgo gave UConn a lot of trouble over the weekend.

With MU, increasing lateral quickness at both ends would help get to the next level and increase margjns a bit.

[Marquette Fan]

Natisha Hiedeman traded to Minnesota:

https://x.com/alexaphilippou/status/1752738984654979177?s=12

[Marquette Fan]

So apparently all MU needed to do to get another road conference win was go down by 18 to start the game 😂.  They trailed 23-9 after the first quarter but used a strong 4th quarter to prevail 66-62.  They pick up a much needed win today.

The last 7 league games are all winnable for MU - 4 at home and 3 on the road.  Two of those road games are against the worst teams in the BE - Butler and Xavier.  It would be very good to avenge their road losses to Villanova and St. John’s when those two teams come to town with both of them ahead of them in the standings now.

Liza Karlen wore a mask today after taking a hard hit to the face that caused her to bleed a lot at the end of their loss at Creighton Wednesday night.

[Marquette Fan]

Marquette is involved again in the Big East Female forward broadcast in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day (first one was for the MU at Villanova game last year) tonight as they host Georgetown at 8P central on FS1 - https://www.bigeast.com/news/2024/2/6/second-annual-big-east-female-forward-womens-basketball-broadcast-set-for-wednesday.aspx

It is also the Play4Kay game for breast cancer awareness.  Both teams will also honor Georgetown Coach Tasha Butts who passed away from breast cancer in October