Green Street | Getting to know Marquette & Eastern Illinois

Sep. 11—The Seminoles — coming off another NCAA tournament appearance — return all three of their top scorers from last season’s 23-11 team

With the 2024-25 season tipping off in about two months, the Illini’s nonconference schedule has now been fully released with an 11-game slate on tap for Shauna Green’s third Illinois team. We’ll preview each of those opponents. Today, we’ll take a look at Marquette and Eastern Illinois.

➜ . Marquette’s roster underwent a full reset this offseason with the 5-foot-9 guard from Kansas City, Mo., one of seven transfers for the Golden Eagles — who defeated Illinois last November, 71-67, in Milwaukee — ahead of the 2024-25 season on a 12-player roster. Mason, a Southern Illinois transfer, averaged 14.0 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.7 steals per game as a sophomore last season for the Salukis.

➜ by reaching the NCAA tournament after posting the best start in program history (12-0) and vaulting into the AP Top 25. A 95-64 loss at Connecticut on New Year’s Eve saw that undefeated start end. Marquette went 11-9 in the final three months of the season after that perfect start, including a 67-55 first-round loss to 7-seed Mississippi in South Bend, Ind., of the NCAA tournament with the Golden Eagles entering the Big Dance as a No. 10 seed.

➜ maintaining the level of play from the era. Duffy left for Virginia Tech with stepping in. Consuegra is a former Marquette assistant coach from 2004-11 and was 225-169 in 13 seasons at Charlotte. The best season for the 49ers under Consuegra came in 2021-22 when Charlotte went 22-10 and qualified for the NCAAs.

➜ that Illinois is playing Marquette within the first week of the season could be an advantage for and Co. with the Illini bringing back a veteran team that’s played together for three years now and the Golden Eagles basically featuring an entirely new team.

➜ . The 6-3 forward wasn’t only reliable (one of just two EIU players to start all 33 games last season) but productive in averaging a double-double of 17.8 points and 11.9 rebounds as a junior last winter. That led to the Wisconsin native becoming the first player in school history to win Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year honors with McGlone’s 26 double-doubles ranking second in the NCAA.

➜ not as expected. After a 21-win season the year prior, the Panthers finished 15-18 last winter and 11-7 in Ohio Valley play. Then came the bizarre decision from EIU coach to leave Charleston to return to Bryan College in Tennessee to lead the NAIA women’s basketball program. The former Illini coach Bollant was 96-111 during his seven-season tenure with the Panthers.

➜ EIU has only three winning seasons in the last 11, and all three happened with Bollant as coach. Getting back to competing in the OVC is now the task of , who was promoted from within the EIU program after Bollant’s departure with McGlothan an assistant coach for the Panthers the last two seasons.

➜ Illinois is one of four high-major opponents EIU will face in nonconference play, as McGlothan’s team will also play at Minnesota (Nov. 20), at Kansas State (Dec. 3) and at Iowa State (Dec. 15).