It’s times like this where it would be fun to be a fly on the wall in the McGuire Center.
If you’re Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra, it’s not difficult to rally your troops after a close loss. I don’t know what the process is for rallying them after a 43 point loss like they had at Minnesota on Tuesday night. I’d love to hear Consuegra’s approach to it.
How do you approach your team after they lost each quarter by 10, 9, 9, and 15 points, especially that 15 point margin for the fourth quarter?
I’m not enough of a homer to think that MU had much of a chance of winning after going into the 4th down by 28…. but I definitely didn’t think they were going to lose by 40+. How does Consuegra deal with that?
How does Consuegra deal with Skylar Forbes, Marquette’s lone preseason all-Big East honoree committing four of her six turnovers in the game in the first five minutes of the loss to Minnesota? How does Consuegra deal with Halle Vice finding a way to turn the ball over five times in 30 minutes? What does Consuegra do about Marquette shooting 29% from behind the three-point line, including a 1-for-5 from transfer sniper Jordan Meulemans and an oh-fer-4 from Vice?
What about the defensive end of the floor, which is clearly a topic of importance for Consuegra? 51% shooting for Minnesota on Tuesday night, 41% behind the arc, and I’d say it’s a safe bet that MU won’t win a lot of basketball games this season when they’re giving that up, no matter what the offense is doing. How do the Golden Eagles respond and react to that, and how does Consuegra get them to do it?
We’re going to find out on Friday night, I suppose.
Game #4: vs Bowling Green Falcons (1-2)
Date: Friday, November 14, 2025
Time: 6:30pm Central
Location: Al McGuire Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Streaming: ESPN+, with Bob Brainerd & Chloe Marotta calling the action
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWBB
Bluesky Updates: @AnonymousEagle
Marquette is 0-2 all time against Bowling Green. The first meeting came back in 1992, with the Falcons getting a 105-103 double overtime victory at a December event hosted by Purdue. The second was last season where the Golden Eagles went out to Ohio and took a 64-62 defeat.
Playing Bowling Green again gives me an opportunity to drop this video about the major donors to the Stroh Center construction into this preview. It is 14 years old, and I love it as much as the day I first saw it.
Bowling Green went 18-13 last year including that win over Marquette at the Stroh Center. That wasn’t good enough to do anything in the postseason other than suffer a 65-63 loss in the MAC tournament, and they started off this season picked to finish sixth in the league. That’s not the worst thing in the world seeing as four different teams earned at least one first place vote, but also not the best.
The Falcons got their season off on the right foot with an 82-67 road win over Louisiana down in Lafayette. That was the first of four straight road games to start the year, and the next two have not gone well for them. I don’t think anyone expected much in their visit to #2 South Carolina, and yep: Gamecocks won, 114-47. BGSU’s most recent game was on Wednesday night when they swung around to the Badger State and faced Wisconsin in Madison. That one went to the home team, 90-78, so there’s a nice little marker of measurement for Marquette after the Golden Eagles swiped away an overtime win against Wisconsin last weekend.
Marquette can recycle a little bit of their scouting report from last year, as Paige Kohler is Bowling Green’s leading scorer through three games. She’s putting in 14.3 points per game and shooting over 35% from behind the three-point line after scoring 13 against MU last season. She’s only shooting 28% overall, so clearly the Golden Eagles need to drive her off the arc. They don’t need to do that to Lauren Gerken, who is 1) leading the Falcons in three-point attempts on the year with 22 and 2) hitting less than 14% of them. I think Marquette can wait until she hits a second one to start worrying about Gerken, as she’s one-fer in each of BGSU’s first three games, including 1-for-9 against Wisconsin in 24 minutes.
I don’t think we can start making any serious statements about what Bowling Green does or does not do well right now given the lopsided nature of their game against South Carolina. Even looking at their other two games, it’s hard to say what this year’s team is. The Falcons turned the ball over 30% of the time against Lafayette and won handily, then kept the turnover rate under 20% against Wisconsin and lost. I don’t think we can really say “oh, every time Bowling Green allows an effective field goal percentage over 45%, they lose” because they allowed over 60% to both South Carolina and Wisconsin after holding Louisiana to just 44.8%.
Maybe let’s chalk it up to “let’s be better than last year in Ohio,” and that should be enough to push it across the line?
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