Green Street | Getting to know Marquette & Eastern Illinois

Sep. 11—The Seminoles — coming off another NCAA tournament appearance — return all three of their top scorers from last season’s 23-11 team

With the 2024-25 season tipping off in about two months, the Illini’s nonconference schedule has now been fully released with an 11-game slate on tap for Shauna Green’s third Illinois team. We’ll preview each of those opponents. Today, we’ll take a look at Marquette and Eastern Illinois.

➜ . Marquette’s roster underwent a full reset this offseason with the 5-foot-9 guard from Kansas City, Mo., one of seven transfers for the Golden Eagles — who defeated Illinois last November, 71-67, in Milwaukee — ahead of the 2024-25 season on a 12-player roster. Mason, a Southern Illinois transfer, averaged 14.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.7 steals per game as a sophomore last season for the Salukis.

➜ by reaching the NCAA tournament after posting the best start in program history (12-0) and vaulting into the AP Top 25. A 95-64 loss at Connecticut on New Year’s Eve saw that undefeated start end. Marquette went 11-9 in the final three months of the season after that perfect start, including a 67-55 first-round loss to 7-seed Mississippi in South Bend, Ind., of the NCAA tournament with the Golden Eagles entering the Big Dance as a No. 10 seed.

➜ maintaining the level of play from the era. Duffy left for Virginia Tech with stepping in. Consuegra is a former Marquette assistant coach from 2004-11 and was 225-169 in 13 seasons at Charlotte. The best season for the 49ers under Consuegra came in 2021-22 when Charlotte went 22-10 and qualified for the NCAAs.

➜ that Illinois is playing Marquette within the first week of the season could be an advantage for and Co. with the Illini bringing back a veteran team that’s played together for three years now and the Golden Eagles basically featuring an entirely new team.

➜ . The 6-3 forward wasn’t only reliable (one of just two EIU players to start all 33 games last season) but productive…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/green-street-getting-know-marquette-144700458.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-09-11 14:47:00

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