When Marquette women’s basketball tips-off the 2024-25 season Thursday night at UCF, it will mark the start of a new era for the program under Cara Consuegra.
But, it will not actually be the first Golden Eagles’ game that Consuegra spent as the head coach.
Everyone by now knows that Consuegra served as an assistant coach at Marquette from 2004-11 — what less people know is that for one half in 2011 against an undefeated West Virginia team ranked 6th in the country, Consuegra not only assumed the role of gaffer, but walked away having handed the Musketeers’ their first defeat of the season.
She did so because program legend Terri Mitchell, the head coach at the time, was involved in a freak accident that rendered her unable to run the squad — leaving Consuegra with the keys to the squad for the remainder of the match.
Yes, you read that right.
Minutes after randomly losing its head coach to a once-in-a-lifetime coincidence, Marquette mustered enough strength and showed enough mettle to take down the previously indomitable West Virginia. Not to mention it did it by double-digits, 69-54.
“I can’t take credit (for the win),” Consuegra said before the season. “After she went out, we went on, I’d have to look it up, like a 15-0 run, or something like that. Our kids were fired up.”
It was all going well for Mitchell until early in the second half, when a deflected ball flew out of bounds and nailed her in the left temple.
“She had a severe concussion,” Consuegra said. “It was the wildest thing I’ve ever seen. I mean, that ball hit her just right in the temple. ”
Mitchell attempted to continue coaching, but that plan only lasted a few minutes before she eventually left and went back to the training room. Then Consuegra helped pull off the upset of the season.
Now she wasn’t listed as the team’s head coach, so the win doesn’t count on her resume, but that doesn’t change what the scoreboard read at the buzzer — or the role she played in making it look that way.
“Unofficially 1-0,” she joked.
Let’s see if she can make that record officially official Thursday night.
This article was written by Jack Albright. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @JackAlbrightMU.
