17th-ranked Marquette will put Lobos to test
UNM willing to run with Golden Eagles — but will pick its spots
The scouting report held no hidden pearls of wisdom for Mike Bradbury.
Preparing for tonight’s game against No. 17 Marquette at the Pit, the University of New Mexico women’s basketball coach saw pretty much what he expected to see while studying the Golden Eagles.
“They’re experienced, they’re deep and they’re supertalented,” Bradbury said. “Marquette’s a legitimate top15 team.”
To a small degree, that analysis actually simplifies things for Bradbury and the Lobos (1-0).
“Yeah, (the Golden Eagles) don’t really have any weaknesses you can exploit,” he said. “You just have to line up and play them, give it your best shot.”
It’s a tall order. Marquette has a slew of talented scorers led by 6-foot junior Allazia Blockton. The Big East Preseason Player of the Year averaged 17.1 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season and has enough strength and quickness to be a matchup nightmare.
“I don’t know what you do with Blockton,” Bradbury said. “I haven’t really seen a plan that worked.”
New Mexico did a respectable job slowing down Blockton and the Golden Eagles last season in a 62-52 loss in Milwaukee. Blockton scored just six points on 3-of-15 shooting and Marquette’s point total matched a season low.
But UNM’s limited 2016-17 roster largely required Bradbury to take the air out of the ball against Marquette. This year’s Lobos will be a bit more willing to run with the Golden Eagles.
“I think it will be a faster game than last year,” Bradbury said. “We don’t want to try to just outrun them because they’re probably better at it, but we can at least pick our spots and we will.”
Tonight’s game will be Marquette’s season-opener, which could allow coach Carolyn Kieger to unveil a new wrinkle or two. Regardless, several Lobos are looking forward to testing themselves against a nationally ranked foe. That includes senior transfer Tesha Buck, who scored 22 points in her UNM debut, an 88-76 win over Western Michigan.
“I’m excited,” Buck said. “I’ve played Marquette before (at Green Bay) and am familiar with some of their players. I think it’s good for us to see a talented team like that early in the season. We’ll come out ready to play.”
UNM practiced both Saturday and Sunday to try and clean things up after Friday’s season-opening win. Much of the emphasis was on defense, but not necessarily a complex game plan.
“We’ve just got to be able to keep the ball in front of us,” Bradbury said with smile. “Simple, right? Easier said than done, too.” ROSEVILLE CONNECTION: Marquette and UNM both have notable ties to Minnesota’s Roseville Area High School.
Golden Eagles coach Kieger played point guard there from 1997-2001 and is the school’s career scoring leader. She then played at Marquette and became the first player in program history to exceed 1,200 points and 600 assists.
When Kieger graduated from Roseville High, Amy Beggin took over as point guard from 2002-06 and is the school’s No. 2 career scorer. Beggin then played at UNM for four seasons and amassed 1,428 points and 441 assists.
Beggin also spent two seasons as a Lobo assistant coach under Yvonne Sanchez and is now UNM’s director of compliance.
DRAWING A CROWD: Marquette drew its largest home crowd of last season (3,700 fans) for a matinee game against UNM on Dec. 21. The Lobos attracted an announced 4,145 for Friday’s opener against Western Michigan.