 WNIT 3rd Rnd @ Marquette Game Thread
Tip-off 8PM Thursday, 3/24.
Here's a little scouting of Marquette.
They play in the Big East where their rankings benefit from allowing themselves to be beaten up by UConn three times a year. They also play against some other good teams like Creighton and DePaul, but some pretty bad teams too in the likes of Butler, Georgetown and Xavier. They are 23-10 overall and 13-7 in conference, but interestingly enough they have a lower NET than Toledo (69 to UT's 65). They appear to be 2nd class citizens on their own campus, still playing in the old 4000 seat Al McGuire Center, while the men play in a much newer 18,000 seat arena. They average about 1300 fans per game (They had 900 v BSU, and 1300 v Purdue.)
Not able to watch any film because all their games are on flohoops, so can only look at stats. They are a tall team starting 6'2, 6'2, 6'1, 5'11, 5'7. As such they are an excellent rebounding team averaging about the same 41 boards as UT. They are a good defensive team about equaling UT in points given up, but they don't score as many (67 to UT's 72.)
They take very few three point shots for this day and age, making less than 4 per game and almost all of those come from 1 player, 5'11 G Jordan King who shoots over 42% from three. They have 4 starters all averaging between 10 and 14 points per game with their leading scorer being 6'2 F Lauren Van Kleunen. All their starters shoot over 40%, but none over 50%. UT has Cook and Noveroske both shooting over 50%. They get more assists than UT but also commit more turnovers, so the assist-to-turnover ratio is just a touch better than UT's.
They had some big wins including beating Creighton and DePaul both at home. They split with Seton Hall (each winning on their home floor) and you may recall UT took Seton Hall to OT in Mexico. They also beat a good Middle Tennessee team on a neutral court in OT. Both SHU and MTSU are still alive in the WNIT. They lost three times to UConn, all of them by double digits, but none were horrible losses. They don't typically score very much but they exploded for 93 against Ball State, and scored 77 against Purdue, so they appear to be on a hot streak.
All in all, on paper, the match-up looks pretty even, and it may come down to home court advantage. MU appears to be a much better team at home (15-2) than on the road (6-6), so it's unfortunate UT could not get this game at home. Their only losses at home were to UConn and Villanova who both made the NCAA. The small gym is pretty loud even with 1000 fans. Should be a good game. Hope it will be streamed for free like their Purdue game.
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WNIT 3rd Rnd @ Marquette Game Thread
