April 29, 2008
MILWAUKEE -
The BIG EAST Conference announced Tuesday the home and away league schedule of opponents for the 2008-09 women's basketball season. Highlighting Marquette's conference home schedule are dates with eight teams who made post-season runs in 2008, including Final Four participant Connecticut, and Louisville and Notre Dame who advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
Along with UConn, Louisville and Notre Dame, Marquette will welcome NCAA Tournament participants Syracuse and West Virginia, and WNIT participants St. John’s and Villanova.
For the fourth consecutive year, the format of league play is a 16-game schedule. Each team will play 16 conference games- seven opponents home only, seven opponents away only and one opponent both home and away, a repeat opponent. Each member will have a total of eight home games and eight away games. The conference opted to maintain the same repeat opponents from the 2007-08 season for the upcoming year, thus USF and Marquette will face each other on both of its respective home courts.
The Golden Eagles will face these seven teams on the road: Cincinnati, DePaul, Georgetown, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rutgers and Seton Hall.
The Golden Eagles are coming off a 21-14 overall record for the 2007-08 campaign that was capped by a season- high five-game win streak and the WNIT Championship. WNIT MVP and First Team All-BIG EAST selection Krystal Ellis will return for her senior season to lead the Golden Eagles. Along with Ellis, Marquette returns four starters, including All BIG EAST Freshman selection Angel Robinson, and seven letterwinners to the 2008-09 team.
The BIG EAST landed eight teams in the 2008 NCAA Championship, tied for the most in NCAA history, and four in the WNIT. The 12 teams combined, playing in the NCAA and WNIT postseason tournaments, marked the highest postseason total in conference history.
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In an early preseason poll by ESPN.com released this month, seven BIG EAST teams are ranked in the top 30, including UConn at No. 1, Rutgers at No. 4 and Louisville at No. 10. Rounding out the rankings are Notre Dame (No. 17), Marquette (No. 25), Pittsburgh (No. 27) and Syracuse (No. 30). In an early SI.com poll, Connecticut (No. 1), Rutgers (No. 4) and Louisville (No. 10) are all ranked.
The complete 2008-09 women’s basketball schedule will be released at a later date.
