For Marquette fans this weekend marks the beginning of two more Golden Eagles' basketball seasons with the men's and women's teams set to get things underway.
The Marquette women's basketball team starts its season Saturday taking on the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles at 2 p.m.
Marquette finished its exhibition season 2-0, defeating Winona State and Wisconsin-Parkside.
"We're so excited, we've pretty much been working out since the summertime so we've kind of just been waiting on this," senior forward Marissa Thrower said.
During exhibition games Marquette coach Terri Mitchell used all 14 players on the roster, but has said throughout the preseason that playing time must be earned during the regular season.
One player looking to make an impression will be junior transfer Lauren Thomas-Johnson, who had eight points and five rebounds in two exhibition games.
"I feel like I'm really fitting in, especially at the guard spot," she said. "It's good, we battle every day at practice, so it's a lot of fun."
Oral Roberts enters the game with a potent lineup, but one that will be missing two key starters from last season. Senior Jenny Hardin will be out with what coach Jerry Finkbeiner called a "foot issue" that will take a year and a half to heal, and junior Rachel Watman had to leave the team because of personal issues.
Watman and Hardin combined to average 25.7 points per game last season. Watman was also the 2007-'08 conference player of the year in the Summit League.
Oral Roberts will rely heavily on the production of senior Mariana Camargo and junior Janae Voelker, who last year averaged 13.3 and 11.4 points, respectively.
Finkbeiner said Camargo will start but he is not sure she will be 100 percent because of tenderness in her knee.
"It's no question our success will fall on their shoulders, probably for a month and a half or so because they have to lead the younger kids into areas they haven't been exposed to yet," Finkbeiner said.
Those younger players on the Oral Roberts roster include five freshmen who will have to contribute to make the Golden Eagles' attack effective.
One of those freshmen will be Georgia Jones, who played with Marquette's Thomas-Johnson as a representative for Great Britain at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Georgia Jones is not to be confused with Marquette's own Georgie Jones, a freshman forward.
The important part is that Georgia Jones scored 21 points in Oral Roberts' only exhibition game against Central Oklahoma, which the team lost.
"She can take it to the basket and she's very strong," Thomas-Johnson said. "If she gets hot she's going to be hard for us to handle."