After Marquette’s 70-58 loss to Seton Hall on Wednesday night, the press availability for head coach Cara Consuegra started off with a question about late game execution for the Golden Eagles over the past
several games, particularly in the light of the Golden Eagles getting held to just three field goals in the final 16 minutes of the SHU game.
Her first response to how the team is working on dealing with that issue? Olivia Porter will miss the rest of the season with the knee injury she suffered during the game at Georgetown on February 1st.
In the Georgetown game, Porter took the ball inside and pivoted to kick it out to Lee Volker behind the three-point line. Volker sank the shot to put Marquette up 24-12 with 5:01 left in the second quarter, but as Porter planted to throw the pass, her leg buckled underneath her. She eventually walked off slightly supported by Marquette staff, and later gingerly walked herself back to the MU bench after being examined by the team trainer.
Since then, Porter has not played, and she has been wearing a hip to ankle brace that has kept her knee locked in place and not bending. Given that she wasn’t immediately using crutches to keep weight off her knee, I thought perhaps that, combined with Porter not needing assistance to get off the floor in D.C. was a sign that she would just need rest to recover from an ultimately mild injury. That won’t be the case, and her season is now over.
Porter started all 22 games that she appeared in this season, just like she started all 32 of Marquette’s games last season in Consuegra’s first year in charge. She averaged 5.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, and 1.4 steals per game in 27 minutes a night. The biggest plus for Porter this season was that she was having the best shooting season of her career. She was shooting 43% from the field, 46% on twos, and 39% on threes, all career highs.
It hasn’t all been good news for her, as BartTorvik.com notes that her offensive rating, the measurement of her efficiency on the floor, is at a three-year low at just 84.9. Part of that is her career worst turnover rate, where 35.4% of Porter’s possessions are ending with her turning the ball over to the other team. Her ability to avoid turnovers was a notable problem when she moved from Charlotte to Marquette along with Consuegra, but she was much better about it last year before regressing this season.
I believe this means that Olivia Porter’s collegiate career is now over as well. This is her second season at Marquette after a year at Charlotte, but she was at Michigan State for the 2022-23 season as a freshman. She played in six games for the Spartans, but never more than three minutes and they were scattered across the year: Three in November, two in December, and one in January. I presume that means that counts as a year of eligibility, but I’m well past the point of being sure exactly what the NCAA’s rules on eligibility are these days. Marquette does list her as a senior on the roster, so until further notice, we’ll stick with the idea that she won’t suit up again.
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