Rob Ebert and Nick Matkovich

Marquette will be moving all varsity sports teams from Conference USA to the Big East Conference next school year. To commemorate Marquette's 10th and final year in C-USA, the Tribune is running a series taking a look at each varsity sport's time in the conference. This seventh installment features the women's basketball team.

There's something to be said for being in the right place at the right time. In this case, the place was Marquette, the time was when the school was entering Conference USA and the person was head coach Terri Mitchell.

Although she came a year after the league's inception, one could consider her arrival the real start of a prominent Marquette women's basketball program in C-USA. After all, the team had been to the postseason only three times since it came into existence in 1975. After Mitchell took over in 1996, she has been at the helm of seven postseason appearances.

Now that the time has come to move on to bigger things in the Big East, Mitchell reflected on what being in C-USA meant to her and the program.

"The level of competition was so good it made us a stronger team year in and year out," Mitchell said. "The rest of the nation caught on to how good this conference was, but we knew from day one that we were playing against the nation's best and had to step it up another level."

She is also no stranger to winning in that conference, posting 22 wins three separate times and tying the school record.

Coinciding with those seasons were some exceptional athletes.

In the 2003-'04 season, when Marquette advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Duke, 2004 alumna Kelly Schwerman led the way by averaging 12 points per game as well as providing uncompromising senior leadership.

In the 1999-'00 season, in which Mitchell was named C-USA Coach of the Year and the team captured the regular season crown, Abbie Willenborg was named first team all-conference for the third straight year. Willenborg holds the all-time scoring and rebounding records at Marquette, which was impressive enough for the Houston Comets, who drafted her in the fourth round of the 2000 WNBA Draft.

Marquette was also C-USA co-regular season champions the year before, giving the team two such titles in the Mitchell era.

"We were definitely proud to win the regular season title," Mitchell said. "It is very special to say you are the best for that given year. It means a lot to the team because you're the best against the teams you are playing against year in and year out."

Assistant coach Michelle Nason shared similar sentiments.

"Our first four years we were one of the top top teams," Nason said.

Because only five teams from C-USA are moving along with Marquette, it will mean an end to some, but not all, of the established rivalries.

"The other thing that was really great was the rivalries like Cincinnati, Tulane and DePaul," Nason said. "You just got sick to your stomach when you lost to one of those teams. Of course, Cincinnati and DePaul get to travel with us."

While dwelling on the past can be enjoyable, it is impossible not to look to the future. Mitchell is not worried about the type of culture shock that can happen from switching conferences.

"It's important that we have some type of familiarity with the C-USA teams and Notre Dame," Mitchell said. "We can't say, 'It's us against the world.' We can say we know the five teams and have to learn the ten others."

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on April 28 2005.