Jerel McNeal is only 42 points away from breaking the Marquette men's basketball team's all-time scoring record. Impressive, right?

Eh. It's not bad, considering Marquette women's senior guard Krystal Ellis is already a step ahead of her male counterpart.

After falling three points short of Abbie Willenborg's 1,818 — nine year record — against Pittsburgh Friday, Ellis hit a layup with 5:43 left in the game against South Florida, finally pushing her over the mark.

Ellis has been having an off year, averaging only 13.2 points per game, down from her 19.2 ppg last season. She was expected to break the record much earlier than Tuesday but has been battling knee and ankle injuries for much of the season. She was forced to sit during Marquette's 80-65 defeat of Georgetown and has been limited in a number of others games.

All of this makes the fact that Ellis has received far less attention that McNeal even more astounding. What she has done for the

Marquette women's basketball program is no small feat.

"I think what it means is recruits are looking our way, they're looking at the Big East, they're looking at our competition, and they're looking at that record and saying, 'Krystal was able to do it, can I be that next kid,' " coach Terri Mitchell said.

Maybe I'm a bit premature. Maybe the team will make a big showing of Ellis Saturday when the team takes on top-ranked Connecticut. Maybe her accomplishment only seems minor because she broke the record in Tampa, Fla. and not at the Al McGuire Center.

Even so, I think she deserves a little more than a quaint welcome page, the number three story and half of a headline on the Marquette athletic web site.

"She deserves it," Marquette men's guard Dominic James said. "She's been working really hard…That's a record she's really deserving of, and I'm proud of her."

It's no secret that men's basketball is king. The fans that attend men's basketball games camp outside in below-zero temperatures so that they can be the first to reach Section 106. The fans that attend the Marquette women's basketball games are generally junior high girls who don't even have to wait in line for an autograph.

Perhaps the media doesn't help the cause. Since the writers here at the Tribune don't have publishers and stockholders watching over our shoulders, making sure we turn a profit, we have no problem devoting considerable time and resources to covering the women's basketball team, even though the stories are much less read.

Publications such as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, however, don't bother covering the games for the reasons mentioned above. But before you start ranting about how evil the media is, ask yourself this question: What came first, the chicken or the egg?

In this case: What came first, the reader/fan who doesn't care about women's basketball or the newspaper that doesn't care about women's basketball?

You say you don't read it because they don't write it. They say they don't write it because you don't read it. Something has got to give.

At the risk of getting so high up on my soapbox that I can't find my way down, I will say one last thing.

Ellis has accomplished something spectacular and deserves all the credit in the world. McNeal will get his when he breaks the men's record. But for now, prove me wrong: Make the trek all the way to the Al Saturday, continue to read our women's basketball stories, and hell, if you see Ms. Ellis on the way to class (she is a student after all) give her those congratulations.