Marquette women’s basketball threw us a surprise on Friday afternoon. Not only did they fire off a press release with pretty notable information on a Friday afternoon, but the info in question is the 2024-25 non-conference schedule!

I had just kinda presumed that we weren’t going to get the non-con schedule until the Big East schedule came out at this point. Then again, this is about when we got the official non-conference schedule announcement last year with the league slate coming along two weeks later, so perhaps it’s not that surprising!

Anyway, who wants some delightful capsule previews of the teams in question? That’s right, you do.

UCF Knights

2023-24 Record: 12-17, 3-15 Big 12
Postseason: Just a 67-62 loss to Cincinnati in the first round of the Big 12 tournament
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #134 out of 360 Division 1 teams
Head Coach: Sytia Messer, in her third season with UCF and 6th as a Division 1 head coach. She has an overall record of 26-32 with the Knights and 80-73 overall.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 0-1 against UCF, with the only meeting coming in December 1987.

UCF had three NCAA tournament appearances under the previous head coach, so the Knights are searching for that kind of success again while adjusting to life in the Big 12…. and now readjusting as that league changes its membership for the second straight season. The league might be shifting, but the Knights are pretty steady. They return four of their top five scorers from last season, led by 5’9” guard Kaitlin Peterson, who put up over 20 points per game last season. UCF also has three of their top four rebounders coming back, led by Khyala Ngodu and Achol Akot, who went for 5.9 and 5.8 caroms per game a year ago.

Illinois Fighting Illini

2023-24 Record: 19-15, 8-10 Big 10
Postseason: After losing 75-65 to Maryland in their first game of the Big Ten tournament, the Illini went on a run, winning two home games and a road game to get to the WBIT semifinals. That’s the new postseason tournament that the NCAA is running, so it’s the second best postseason event, and Illinois smashed both Washington State and Villanova at Hinkle Fieldhouse to win the thing.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #44 out of 360 Division 1 teams
Head Coach: Shauna Green, in her third season with Illinois, ninth as a Division 1 head coach, and 11th as a collegiate head coach. She has an all-time record of 197-100 and 41-25 with Illinois.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 6-2 all time against Illinois, including a 71-67 victory at the McGuire Center last year.

Illinois started out the season ranked in the AP poll last year, so coming up short of the NCAA tournament has to be a bit of a down ending to the season even if it did end with a WBIT championship. With that said, 2022-23 was Shauna Green’s first season in charge as well as Illinois’ first NCAA appearance since 2003, so there’s upsides.

The Illini return all four women who averaged at least 11.0 points per game last season, so there’s reason to believe that they can be an NCAA contender again. Makira Cook led the team in scoring at 16.4 points per game a year ago, and she missed the game in Milwaukee when the Golden Eagles came out on top. Then again, this year’s MU roster looks nothing like last year’s, so that’s not really a fair comparison between the two squads.

Illinois-Springfield Prairie Stars

2023-24 Record: 15-14, 13-9 Great Lakes Valley Conference
Postseason: Just a quarterfinal loss in the GLVC tournament
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #152 out of 299 Division 2 teams
Head Coach: Olivia Lett, in her first season as head coach after six years in charge at Millikin University in Division 3, where she had a record of 105-48.
All-Time Series: This is the first ever meeting.

No, I’m not entirely sure why Marquette is scheduling a bad Division 2 team coming out of a coaching change as the home opener. I suppose the answer is “MU is starting off with two road games, one against a team expecting to make the NCAA tournament, let’s make sure Cara Consuegra wins her home debut as head coach,” but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

IU Indy Jaguars

2023-24 Record: 7-23, 5-15 Horizon League
Postseason: Just a 73-50 loss to Youngstown State in their first game of the HL tournament
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #277 out of 360 Division 1 teams
Head Coach: Kate Bruce in her third season at IU Indy and another six at Walsh University. She went 134-43 at Walsh and is 24-36 with the Jaguars.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 2-1 all time against IU Indy after a 92-58 road win last season when they were still called IUPUI.

Things went very not good for Kate Bruce in her second year in Indianapolis, and even worse when you consider that Austin Parkinson won at least 62% of his games in his final seven seasons with the Jaguars. IU Indy returns just one of the three women who scored in double figures for them last season, but the lone returner is leading scorer Katie Davidson. She went for over 16 a night last season, but Marquette held her to just eight points on four attempts from the field when the Golden Eagles went on the road to face the Jaguars.

Rutgers Scarlet Knights

2023-24 Record: 8-24, 2-16 Big Ten
Postseason: Just a 77-69 loss to Minnesota in their first Big Ten tournament game.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #198 out of 360 Division 1 teams
Head Coach: Coquese Washington, in her third year with Rutgers and 15th as a Division 1 head coach. She has a record of 20-44 with Rutgers and 229-213 overall.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 0-11 all time against Rutgers. All 11 contests happened between 2006 and 2013 when both teams were in the Big East.

Rutgers hired former Penn State head coach Coquese Washington following the end of Vivian Stringer’s run as head coach that dates back to the mid-90s. It, uh, is not going well, and considering how I know who Coquese Washington is — she’s the coach that Carolyn Kieger replaced at Penn State because Washington steered an iconic program into a ditch — that’s probably not great. They went from 12-20 to 8-24, and 5-13 in the Big Ten to just 2-16….. and the addition of the four PAC-12 teams did not make this league easier.

The Scarlet Knights do have a 2024-25 schedule up, but they don’t have a roster. As such I can’t tell you much about what they do or do not have returning for sure….. but I can tell you that Kaylene Smikle transferred to Maryland after leading the team in scoring last season as a sophomore.

Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks

2023-24 Record: 15-15, 8-6 MEAC
Postseason: Just a 61-55 loss to Coppin State in the MEAC tournament.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #246 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Malikah Willis, in her first season as head coach here or anywhere.
All-Time Series: This is the first ever meeting.

This is the first Division 1 team on the schedule that also went through a coaching change this past season, and the second team overall after Illinois-Springfield.

Zamara Haynes is the leading returning scorer for the Hawks after the 5’7” guard averaged 8.6 points per game last season. Is it weird that Ariana Seawell was the leading scorer and rebounder for UMES last season without A) starting a single game or B) averaging 20 minutes a night? Anyway, I think I figured out why they have a new head coach now.

Indiana State Sycamores

2023-24 Record: 11-21, 6-14 Missouri Valley
Postseason: A 79-57 loss in the MVC quarterfinals to Drake
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #266 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Marc Mitchell, in his first season as head coach. He has a 259-172 record as a collegiate head coach.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 3-1 all time against Indiana State. The most recent meeting was a 63-61 road victory in the 2014 WNIT. Don’t remember that? There were other things going on.

Back-to-back games against D1 squads in their first year with a new head coach. Is that a good thing for a team that has a new head coach themselves? Maybe, maybe not, who can say? Things weren’t going super great for Chad Killinger as head coach with just 11 wins in each of his first two seasons, but an undisclosed health condition caused him to miss most of the 2023-24 season and then officially step down in late April.

The Sycamores lose all three of their double digit scorers from last season, making 6’0” guard Bella Finnegan their top returning point getter at 9.6 per contest. Savannah White is the top returning rebounder, but she grabbed up just 3.4 per game in less than 18 minutes per game last season.

Illinois State Redbirds

2023-24 Record: 22-12, 13-7 Missouri Valley
Postseason: Lost to Northern Iowa in the MVC quarterfinals, then lost to Wisconsin in the second round of the WNIT, which was the tertiary postseason event last season.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #102 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Kristen Gillespie, in her eighth season as head coach. She has a 132-82 record with ISU and 237-147 overall as a collegiate head coach.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 3-2 all time against Illinois State. The Golden Eagles broke the tie against the Redbirds with a come-from-behind victory in Normal last season.

A fascinating matchup on the board for Marquette here, and not just because the Golden Eagles were wildly lucky to escape with a win last season. In another timeline, Kristen Gillespie is on the north sideline at the McGuire Center instead of the south one for this game. I’m not saying that Cara Consuegra should be extra motivated to win or whatever, but it’s interesting to note.

ISU loses leading scorer DeAnna Wilson from last year’s roster, but they bring back Maya Wong and Shannon Dowell, who were #2 and #3 in that stat column. Wilson combines with Kate Bullman to cause the Redbirds to lose their top two rebounders as well, but Wong led the team in assists at over four per game. That’s an idea that MU’s returning players are too familiar with, as she dished out eight helpers in last year’s encounter.

Milwaukee Panthers

2023-24 Record: 16-16, 10-10 Horizon League
Postseason: Just a 70-60 loss to Wright State in the HL quarterfinals.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #199 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Kyle Rechlicz, in her 13th season as head coach. She has a record of 181-189.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 33-20 all time against Milwaukee. The most recent contest was a 73-47 victory in November 2022, and UWM has just one win in the series since 2009.

I wonder how much longer Kyle Rechlicz will be the head coach at UWM. Not because she’s doing a bad job, far from it. The Panthers have had at least a .500 record in Horizon League play in eight of the last nine seasons. I say that because daughter Payton is a redshirt freshman on this team.

In any case, Milwaukee loses top scorer Kendall Nead from last season. She put up nearly 14 points per game, so filling that hole will be a requirement. Kamy Peppler and Anna Lutz were the next two scorers, and they’ll be asked to pick up the pace a little bit more. Lutz was also the top rebounder last season, while Peppler led the team in assists, so both women already have a lot on their plate.

Bowling Green Falcons

2023-24 Record: 16-15, 10-8 MAC
Postseason: Lost to Buffalo in the MAC quarterfinals and then lost at Butler, 75-63, in the WNIT first round. Remember: The WNIT is the third tier postseason event.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #156 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Fred Chmiel, in his second season as head coach after eight seasons on Dawn Staley’s staff at South Carolina.
All-Time Series: Marquette is 0-1 against Bowling Green. The only meeting was a neutral site contest at Purdue in December 1992. The Falcons won 105-103 in double overtime.

Robyn Fralick turned an 88-73 mark at Bowling Green into the Michigan State job in 2023 without ever appearing in an NCAA tournament. That’s a little unfair, as the Falcons went 21-8 in 2021 and 31-7 in 2023, but not in is not in, no matter how you slice it. Fred Chmiel had a pretty reasonably successful first season in charge, but I feel pretty safe in saying that it was a bit of a downer from the kind of experiences he was having on the bench for South Carolina for the several years before that.

BGSU is set up pretty well for Chmiel’s second season in charge, as they return four of the five women who averaged at least 10 points per game last year. Officially, they do lose top scorer Morgan Sharps, but 5’5” guard Lexi Fleming returns after falling just 0.1 points per game short of Sharps’ leading total of 15.1 per night. 6’2 forward Erika Porter is one of the four coming back, and she led the team rebounding as well. 5’7” Amy Velasco is in that group too, and she was the assists leader at 4.7 per game. It’s probably good news that MU is going to get more than a few games with Cara Consuegra in charge under their belts before they have to tangle with this team

Stonehill Skyhawks

2023-24 Record: 4-26, 4-12 NEC
Postseason: Lost to Le Moyne in the NEC quarterfinals, 79-59.
Final Her Hoop Stats Ranking: #355 out of 360 Division 1 teams.
Head Coach: Trisha Brown, in her 24th season as head coach. She has a record of 416-231 overall, but 13-46 in Division 1.
All-Time Series: This is the first ever meeting, mostly because Stonehill joined Division 1 in the 2022-23 season.

5’6” guard Sharn Hayward is Stonehill’s leading returning scorer from last season, and there’s good news and bad news there. The bad news is that she was fourth on the team last year. The good news is that she was still averaging 9.0 points per game, which is pretty good for fourth…. and the fact of the matter is that Stonehill was Not Good a year ago, so maybe a bit of a shakeup in how things work in Easton isn’t the worst thing. 6’0” forward Maureen Stapleton — not the Tony/Emmy/Oscar winning actress — was the leading rebounder for the Skyhawks last year at 7.6 per game, and she’s back this season to patrol the paint.

Here’s the schedule in table form!