Last year, the Marquette women’s basketball team finished fifth in the conference, was best in the Big East in rebounding and was second best in scoring offense. However, much of that was due to veteran coach Terri Mitchell, seniors Katherine Plouffe and Katie Young and sophomore Brooklyn Pumroy, none of whom are with the team this season.

Instead, the Golden Eagles will rely on first-year coach Carolyn Kieger, a Marquette alumna, and seniors Apiew Ojulu and Arlesia Morse. Morse is a Preseason All-Big East team selection at guard and was third on the team in scoring last season, averaging 11.5 points per game. Ojulu was third on the team in rebounding with five per game. Ojulu and Morse are two of four seniors on a team that has five freshmen, including 5-foot-9 guard JeTaun Rouse, McDonald’s All-American nominee in high school before a season-ending injury cut her year short with the Golden Eagles. Kieger knows that without a bonafide star on the team, she will need contributions from everyone.

“It’s definitely gonna be a different style of play,” Kieger said. “We won’t have that go-to back to the basket player… but we’re gonna do it with speed, athleticism and defense is gonna be a lot different. We’re gonna create havoc on that end to create more points for us offensively.”

At this point in the season, Kieger points to rebounding and reducing turnovers as two aspects where she would like to see improvement. Rebounding was a huge strength for Marquette last season, while the team had an assist-to-turnover ratio of less than one and the second-most turnovers in the conference. However, Kieger understands her team will have turnovers early on, as it is just part of the learning curve of the offense she wants to implement.

“I’m trying to get them to play faster than they ever have in their (lives), so there’s gonna be that period where they’re kind of getting used to each other and get used to the speed,” Kieger said. “Turnovers… were something that I knew was gonna be something we had to fix early on.”

With DePaul being unanimously selected to win the Big East, every other team is trying to play catch-up, including Marquette. The Golden Eagles were selected to finish seventh in the conference, citing the loss of key players and having a new coach trying to rebuild. Kieger wants her team to take this season practice-by-practice and just get better every day, but she does have larger aspirations down the road.

“Clearly, I want to win a Big East title,” Kieger said. “But that’s something that we’re not overlooking and we’re not talking about that. We’re talking about one game, one practice at a time.”