Marquette, UW-Green Bay Women’s Teams Gear Up For NCAA Games

Two of Wisconsin’s women’s basketball teams are headed into the first round of the 2017 NCAA basketball tournament.

No. 8 seed University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will play first, with their Friday game against No. 9 seed Purdue University in Notre Dame, Indian. The game will mark UW-Green Bay’s seventeenth appearance in the tournament.

Teams such as the Phoenix that consistently play well don’t always get the praise they deserve, said Lance Allan, sports anchor for WTMJ-TV.

“The players are only there four, five years tops, but yet they keep on winning and winning and winning,” Allan said. “It’s just a culture they’ve built at UW-Green Bay, to their credit, that they come in there, they know what the goal is, they know what the plan is, and they execute it.”

Marquette University’s Golden Eagles will hit the court Saturday against No. 12 seed Quinnipiac University at the University of Miami. The Golden Eagles are entering the tournament with the highest seed placement in their program’s history. The team secured the No. 5 spot after winning the Big East Championship for the first time ever March 7.

Allan said the team’s coach, Carolyn Kieger, has been key to their success.

“Under Carolyn Keiger they’ve been building for the future, and this year it maybe came even a little bit quicker than what they thought,” Allan said. “They have a group of sophomores that are incredible.”

Marquette will play Quinnipiac at 12:30 p.m. central time Saturday. The game can be watched on ESPN2.

Green Bay will play Purdue at 4 p.m. central time Friday. The game can be watched on ESPN2.