Since we already have the Marquette men’s basketball non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season, it’s only a matter of time before we get the MU women’s basketball non-con slate as well. In the meantime, the team has teased us with one of the road games on the board for this coming fall. On Monday, Marquette announced that head coach Cara Consuegra will be taking her team to Springfield, Missouri, for the front end of a home-and-home series with Missouri State. That game is scheduled for Friday, November 13th, which is towards the end of the second week of the season. The other end of the set will be a game between the Golden Eagles and the Bears at the McGuire Center at some point in November or December of 2027.
Now, at first glance, you might be saying to yourself: Hey, wait, Marquette plays in the Big East and at least tries to present itself as a high major program. Why are they visiting Missouri State — a non-power conference opponent — much less making a big deal about announcing a home-and-home set with the Bears?
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I can answer the first part pretty simply: Cara Consuegra has shown a willingness to take her team anywhere already. Year One of the Consuegra era had Marquette on the road against Bowling Green before returning that contest in Milwaukee this past season. The Falcons were in the top 180 in the BartTorvik.com rankings in both years, so that was a pretty solid entry on the slate in both instances, it just didn’t have an announcement attached to it like this.
So why announce this one? Because Missouri State has been in the NCAA field five times in the last 10 tournaments, and it would have been six in the last 11 if the 2020 event hadn’t been canceled. The Bears were 26-4 at the time and ranked in the AP poll on March 2nd, their 12th week in the poll that season. Because Missouri State has a stronger history of postseason performance than Marquette, making 18 total appearances in the NCAA tournament to just 15 for the Golden Eagles. Because Missouri State actually has two Final Four banners hanging in their arena. Is the most recent one from 2001? Mind your business, because Marquette hasn’t even made it to a Sweet 16.
Last year was Beth Cunningham’s first season coaching in Conference USA after Missouri State moved because they were taking their football team to the FBS level, and she promptly won the conference tournament and then won a First Four game to advance to the 64 team bracket. It was her fourth straight 20+ win season in charge of the Bears, and even though it was the worst BartTorvik.com ranking of the six seasons listed in the archive, Missouri State was only at #128. Not too bad in a league where the best team was ranked at #89.
Missouri State brings back their top three scorers from last season, led by 17.4 per game from 5’9” guard Kaemyn Bekemeier. I would imagine that there’s a pretty solid chance that Bekemeier will be the CUSA Preseason Player of the Year, and beyond that, those same three top scorers are the top three rebounders on last year’s squad, led by 8.2 per game from — you guessed it — Kaemyn Bekemeier.
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If Missouri State holds to their historical form, this is going to be a better road game for Marquette’s NCAA tournament hopes than most of Big East play. It’s a little bit of a risk for Cara Consuegra, but it’s a risk that has some payoff for the Golden Eagles as long as the Bears hold up their end of the deal no matter what the result in Springfield actually is in November.
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