BIG EAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

March 8, 2025

Cara Consuegra

Mohegan Sun Arena

Marquette Golden Eagles

Postgame Media Conference

Villanova 73, Marquette 66

THE MODERATOR: Joined by Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra. We'll take an opening statement from Coach and then go to questions.

CARA CONSUEGRA: I thought Villanova played really well. They deserved to win. I think Denise is a great coach. I'm disappointed obviously on our end. I think the thing we have to remember is we're a very inexperienced team. None of our kids have played in this type of stage ever, and I think the moment got us.

We didn't play well. I told them, this is a learning lesson for us to understand that playoff basketball requires your best. And we didn't have our best today on either end of the floor.

I thought we had some individuals, Skylar Forbes, Halle Vice, Charia Smith, they came to play. I'm very proud of them, but it requires a team effort, and we were not the better team today.

But the most important thing is we have to learn from it as we grow, and we grow this program. And we've got to be better in our next opportunity.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach.

Q. This being your first year and your first conference tournament, what has this conference, Marquette University, and most of all, the team bond that you formed, meant to you throughout the year?

CARA CONSUEGRA: Yeah, it's been an incredible year, and I told our kids that in the locker room too. Our year is not over. We'll get a chance to play in postseason.

So this shouldn't take away from the year that we had. The 20 wins is great. The postseason accolades are great. But you're right, the bond that this team has formed and the way that we've been able to come together and the love and care that we have for each other is above all of that.

So it's been a very enjoyable year. I love this team. I'm grateful for this team, and we're not going to allow this disappointment to take away from that.

Q. I wonder if you could speak a little bit more about the season Skylar has had, All Big East First Team. Can you talk about her growth over the season? What's impressed you about her?

CARA CONSUEGRA: Skylar has been phenomenal, as you know. For us it's been really fun and rewarding to watch her grow. I think it's been a combination of a lot of things. I think, number one, Skylar really wants to be great. She wants to be pushed. She wants to be coached hard. She takes feedback really well, and she works extremely hard.

I've told this story many times. This summer most of our workouts were early morning, sometimes 7:00 a.m., sometimes 6:00 a.m. The first person in the gym every day is Skylar Forbes. 5:00 a.m., 6:00 a.m., she's on the gun, getting up shots. She's relentless in her drive to get better.

And when you combine that with a kid that's really coachable and has allowed this coaching staff to come in and challenge her, I think that's a big reason also for her growth.

Q. Your team was picked tenth in the preseason. What was it about this particular group that allowed you guys to have the success that you have had all year?

CARA CONSUEGRA: They believed. We said from the beginning in our first team meeting, we were not going to rebuild. We were going to build. And there's a difference. Rebuilding assumes you don't have it, where building is putting our pieces together in a positive way moving forward. Our kids believed that from day one.

Certainly we've had ups and downs and had to go through some hard things, but our kids never wavered in their belief in each other, their belief in us as coaches, and their belief in what we could do. That's made it really special.

Q. Another follow-up question. I was hoping to ask Skylar this one, but I'll ask you. I know she played in Canada with Jasmine Bascoe on the other side of the court. I wonder if you have any insight into that relationship, how it's evolved, and how it's translated to the college game?

CARA CONSUEGRA: I wish I could answer that question. I don't. I know they're familiar with each other and have a friendship, but that's the most that I know. Sorry, I can't comment on that.

Q. How is Lee Volker doing, and, two, what has she meant to the process that you just described?

CARA CONSUEGRA: Yeah, I don't have an update on Lee, unfortunately. Obviously we'll get her evaluated when we get back to campus and determine the extent of her injury. But Lee as a senior and probably one of our most experienced players has been amazing for us this year. I think she's meant a lot to our team.

I've talked about Lee a lot in terms of her skill set and what she's able to bring to us, you know, from different levels. She can score. She can play-make. She can rebound. But I think what Lee brings is a calmness in terms of the way she leads, from her voice, her reminders.

This year we would -- early in the season we would purposely pick a drill every day in practice that was really, really difficult, and we would put our team in really hard situations. It was a ten-minute drill and we would switch it up. We did it because we knew this team was really young, and they had to learn how to do hard things.

Every time we did one of those drills -- and it was always hard and they very rarely succeeded -- Lee was always the one, Hey, we got this, let's reset, let's go again. Very even-keeled. I think that was where it kind of set the standard for the type of leader that she could be for us, and our kids learned to look at her in those types of situations.

I also think it brought her confidence to know that she could be a leader for us and she could help this team continue to grow.