At MU, Top 10 times two
The Marquette men’s and women’s basketball teams and flying high.
Marquette has two top-10 basketball teams.
The MU men are No. 9 in the USA Today coaches poll and 10th in the Associated Press rankings released Monday. The Golden Eagles were 11th and 12th, respectively, last week.
The MU women are ranked 10th by the AP, the same spot as last week. The women’s coaches poll will be released Tuesday.
MU is the only school with both teams in the top 10. It is also the first time that MU has accomplished that feat.
Bill Scholl, the school’s athletic director, was ecstatic for MU’s teams to be getting national respect.
“Our coaching staffs, our student athletes, they put in so much hard work and to see them get rewarded publicly like that is thrilling,” Scholl said. “It’s great for them.
“Also I am really happy for our fan base. Our alumni and our fans have been so supportive since Coach
(Carolyn) Kieger and Coach Wojo (Steve Wojciechowksi) and I got here, it’s really neat to see them have a chance to enjoy it as well.”
The Golden Eagles cracked the top 10 in the women’s poll for the first time last week.
The last time the MU men were ranked in the top 10 was March 5, 2012, when the Golden Eagles checked in at No. 9 in both polls.
The top-10 rankings come after long rebuilding efforts from the teams’ coaches, who were both hired in 2014. Scholl was hired a few months after Wojciechowski and Kieger.
The MU women were 23-37 in Kieger’s first two seasons.
MU then won the Big East tournament title in the 2016-’17 season and shared the regular-season title with DePaul last season.
Wojciechowski was 13-19 in his first season. The Golden Eagles cracked the AP rankings for the first time under Wojciechowski in November.
“Two thoughts come to mind,” Scholl said of the coaches’ efforts. “One is it’s certainly significant. It’s really impressive the way they built both of those programs together in what I believe to be very sustainable ways with tremendous young men and women.
“But I’m also not surprised. I got to know them both early on and if you get to know them as people, it shouldn’t be a surprise.”
The MU men (18-3, 7-1 Big East) play at Butler on Wednesday.
The MU women (18-3, 9-0) will face DePaul on Sunday in Chicago.