Big East Champions!

[jsglow]

I really like the sound of that.  Congratulations to Coach Kieger and the Warriors!

http://www.gomarquette.com/sports/w-baskbl/recaps/022518aab.html

[Dr. Blackheart]

Great rebuild and progress in improvement.  Let's hope for some NCAA advancement this season. The team seems to be peaking at year-end again.

[GooooMarquette]

Congrats to the Warriors! Kieger is a keeper!

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

Clearing my schedule for March 6 at Wintrust. At least can ht Motor Row Brewing beforehand!

[Billy Hoyle]

Congrats to the Warriors! Kieger is a keeper!

CK won a title at Wisconsin Lutheran too? Damn, she's a keeper.

Go Golden Eagles.

[Babybluejeans]

Bravo to the team and especially to my MU classmate, CK.

Four years, rebuild complete...

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Well done Coach Kieger and the Golden Eagles!

[SaveOD238]

Four years, rebuild complete...

Remember, the goal is to get old and stay old.  The whole core of the team will be seniors next year (yay!) but then will be gone.  In the few games I've watched this year, I haven't seen much out of the freshmen, and their only 2018 recruit is Cam's sister, Chloe.  The best younger player is the transfer Tori McCoy, but who knows how her kidney issues will affect her on the court.

As we noted in the College Basketball Rebuild thread, sometimes quick rebuilds result in collapse, while slow rebuilds create a steady foundation for success.  I'm hoping that CK builds something that will last, but I will not judge her rebuild complete until we see what happens after Blockton/Hiedeman/Davenport/King/Wilborn graduate.

[MU82]

Way to go, Lady Warriors!

[jsglow]

Remember, the goal is to get old and stay old.  The whole core of the team will be seniors next year (yay!) but then will be gone.  In the few games I've watched this year, I haven't seen much out of the freshmen, and their only 2018 recruit is Cam's sister, Chloe.  The best younger player is the transfer Tori McCoy, but who knows how her kidney issues will affect her on the court.

As we noted in the College Basketball Rebuild thread, sometimes quick rebuilds result in collapse, while slow rebuilds create a steady foundation for success.  I'm hoping that CK builds something that will last, but I will not judge her rebuild complete until we see what happens after Blockton/Hiedeman/Davenport/King/Wilborn graduate.

Lauren van Kleunen is a heck of a player getting very solid minutes.  RS Frosh.  But agree, Carolyn has some work to do.  The good news is that she gets to recruit at a different level now.  This off season will be important as she'll be able to sell 'back up for one year' stuff.

[oldwarrior81]

Freshman Selena Lott sees a lot of time as the first player off the bench.

Boundless energy and usually is a major nuisance on the defensive end.   She doesn't take many shots, but they seem to have plenty of others that can score.

Somewhat similar to a Greg Elliott type off the bench.

[Marquette Fan]

Remember, the goal is to get old and stay old.  The whole core of the team will be seniors next year (yay!) but then will be gone.  In the few games I've watched this year, I haven't seen much out of the freshmen, and their only 2018 recruit is Cam's sister, Chloe.  The best younger player is the transfer Tori McCoy, but who knows how her kidney issues will affect her on the court.

As we noted in the College Basketball Rebuild thread, sometimes quick rebuilds result in collapse, while slow rebuilds create a steady foundation for success.  I'm hoping that CK builds something that will last, but I will not judge her rebuild complete until we see what happens after Blockton/Hiedeman/Davenport/King/Wilborn graduate.

Yes - I'm very concerned about this team after the 2018-19 season.  If you look at games where the 'regular starting lineup' of King, Hiedeman, Blockton, Davenport and Wilborn have started, there haven't been very many bench points.  Sophomore Isabelle Spingola lights it up from the outside in a game or two but hasn't gotten much playing time (I think her defense keeps her on the bench a lot).  Redshirt Frosh Lauren Van Kleunen looked great to start out the season but didn't play very consistently.  Freshman Selena Lott is a great defender and maybe she will be  bigger scorer once she needs to be.  The other true freshman Myriama Smith-Traore has been in sweats most of the second half of the season (no idea why) and I didn't see enough of her to make a judgment about her potential impact.  Chloe Marotta is a pretty highly rated recruit but is coming off an ACL injury that kept her from playing her senior year in hs.  And as mentioned, it remains to be seen whether Tori McCoy can play next season - hopefully she can and I wish her all the best with her health.  She was very highly rated in high school and this team needs more height desperately.

I feel like they underachieved during the non-conference schedule this year with the talent they have also.  I'm hoping they can really put it all together as a senior class and make a great run next season - still hoping for a good postseason run this year also of course.

[oldwarrior81]

I feel like they underachieved during the non-conference schedule this year with the talent they have also.  I'm hoping they can really put it all together as a senior class and make a great run next season - still hoping for a good postseason run this year also of course.

They did have 5 non-conference losses but I'm not sure I would call it underachieving.  All came by single digits.

4 road losses to teams with a combined 94-22 record.  Including to #2 Notre Dame in OT.
The 5th loss was in Cancun to a Tennessee team that has been around top 10 all year.  Also in OT.

The non-conf schedule seemed to unravel as several schools backed out of games originally set for the AL.  Which put them in position to fill in some of those games with tough road games.

[Marquette Fan]

They did have 5 non-conference losses but I'm not sure I would call it underachieving.  All came by single digits.

4 road losses to teams with a combined 94-22 record.  Including to #2 Notre Dame in OT.
The 5th loss was in Cancun to a Tennessee team that has been around top 10 all year.  Also in OT.

The non-conf schedule seemed to unravel as several schools backed out of games originally set for the AL.  Which put them in position to fill in some of those games with tough road games.

They came into the season with a national ranking and went a disappointing in my opinion 6-5 in non-conference play.  None of those 6 wins were what I would call a good win for NCAA Tournament Seeding purposes and close or not they lost to the 4 high quality opponents they played.  Their best non-conference win by RPI was over UW-Milwaukee who has an RPI of 119.  I expected more out of them this season and certainly hope they can do better during non-conference play next season.  They had a nice conference run this season so I guess you could say the close games against good opponents prepared them for conference play.  I certainly wasn't expecting them to go 15-3 in the Big East after what I saw during the non-conference games. 

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

They came into the season with a national ranking and went a disappointing in my opinion 6-5 in non-conference play.  None of those 6 wins were what I would call a good win for NCAA Tournament Seeding purposes and close or not they lost to the 4 high quality opponents they played.  Their best non-conference win by RPI was over UW-Milwaukee who has an RPI of 119.  I expected more out of them this season and certainly hope they can do better during non-conference play next season.  They had a nice conference run this season so I guess you could say the close games against good opponents prepared them for conference play.  I certainly wasn't expecting them to go 15-3 in the Big East after what I saw during the non-conference games.

4 of those losses were on the road and the other was at a neutral site. 4 of the 5 are top 40 teams, 3 are top 25, 2 are top 10. They took both of those top 10 teams to OT and lost by single digits to the other 3. They dominated everyone else on their schedule. I am not shocked they went 15-3 at all in conference play. They had a bad first game and a murder's row non-conference after that.

[SaveOD238]

4 of those losses were on the road and the other was at a neutral site. 4 of the 5 are top 40 teams, 3 are top 25, 2 are top 10. They took both of those top 10 teams to OT and lost by single digits to the other 3. They dominated everyone else on their schedule. I am not shocked they went 15-3 at all in conference play. They had a bad first game and a murder's row non-conference after that.

...and whatever the opposite of a murderers row is in conference.  Big East women's hoops is decidedly mid-major right now.

[Daniel]

Awesome!  Congrats lady Warriors!!

[herboturbo]

The non-conf schedule seemed to unravel as several schools backed out of games originally set for the AL.  Which put them in position to fill in some of those games with tough road games.

Who were the teams that backed out?

[warriorchick]

The accolades keep rolling in for the women:

Allazia Blockton is Big East Player of the Year and first team all-conference.  She had already won Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Carolyn Kieger is Co-Coach of the Year.

Erika Davenport named to the second team All  Big East team and Amani WIlborn gets Honorable Mention.

[Dr. Blackheart]

Blockton is the Wonen's Wade.  All-time great.  Wilborn is the glue.

[Mr. Sand-Knit]

Wilborn kinda odd, would of expected king or heideman before, but they are all so interchangeable

[Dr. Blackheart]

Wilborn kinda odd, would of expected king or heideman before, but they are all so interchangeable

Not great years for those two while Wilborn was on a slow tract to start the year.  She is the bomb and MU's turnaround started with going back to that recipe.

[warriorchick]

For those who are interested, Marquette is hosting a number of events for the Women's BEast championship games, including buses from campus down to the WinTrust and pre-game parties.

http://www.marquette.edu/alumni/eventsreunions-basketball-womans.php

[Marquette Fan]

Wilborn kinda odd, would of expected king or heideman before, but they are all so interchangeable

Hiedeman was very inconsistent during conference play - seemed to be either on fire or really off most games.  Wilborn actually had a higher scoring average during conference games.  I think King is the big key for the team with her leadership and doing so many little things but she doesn't have the stats to garner conference honors.  But what's great about this team is you never really know who's going to be the big scorer each game.