It's time to continue our 2026-27 season preview for Marquette women's basketball!
We're moving forward with our look at head coach Cara Consuegra's roster for this year. We've already rummaged around in what to expect from Halle Vice , and peeked under the hood at who else is returning from last year's roster . Go give those a click to get caught up on things if you haven't already, and heck, wander around in our entire season preview package if you haven't done that, too.
Today we're looking at the five transfers on the Marquette roster right now. There's four that have made their way to Milwaukee from a Division 1 team and one from the junior college ranks. We'll go through them in order of Division 1 experience, although that's obviously not going to be sorted by post-high school experience, if that makes sense.
Anyway, off we go, starting off with the player on the roster who already has some experience playing in the Big East…..
MacKenzie Givens comes to Marquette after two seasons at Xavier. This is literally leaving a hometown team for her, so that seems like kind of a big deal. She played just 139 total minutes as a freshman for the Musketeers as they went 7-24 under the direction of Billi Chambers, but Givens was a most-of-the-time starter for Xavier this past season. She got the nod in 24 of her 29 appearances, missing a road trip to Providence in early February. She was coming off the bench to start the season but then was in the first five the rest of the way after that. Givens was Xavier's #2 scorer at 11.7 points per game, and she chipped in 4.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals as well.
BartTorvik.com has Givens as the most productive player on Xavier's roster last season, rating the best both in terms of how efficient she was in her usage and points above average. She was also the only Musketeer with an offensive rating north of 90, and she was waaaaay up there at 106.6. Her Hoop Stats has her in the top 500 in the country in offensive rating and top 400 in turnover rate. In other words: If you were going to swipe one person off a roster that went 11-19 overall and 4-16 in the Big East, you could do a lot worse than Givens.
In terms of immediate obvious fit for Marquette, at worst Givens is a reliable backcourt option. I wouldn't be shocked to see her start on opening night at either the 2 or the 3, depending on how head coach Cara Consuegra considers the talents of Jordan Meulemans relative to the positions on the floor. If Givens can keep developing her three-point shot — she hit less than 32% last season — that will pay dividends for the Golden Eagles. With Halle Vice being the only player that has an obvious set role, the sky's the limit for what Givens could contribute. The only question we have to ask is: If she was capable of a lot more, why didn't we see it at Xavier? Or is that just a Musketeers bad/Billi Chambers bad problem?
Finally, this November, we will get to see Kayl Petersen debut in a Marquette uniform. She was originally set to join the Golden Eagles in the fall of 2024, but the coaching change led her to follow Megan Duffy to Virginia Tech. That worked out decently well for Petersen in Year 1, averaging just under 16 minutes a game mostly off the bench and adding 4.2 points and 2.9 rebounds as the Hokies went 19-13, but missed the NCAA tournament.
Year #2, not so hot for Petersen, as she played in all but one game, but her minutes fell to just under 11 per game. She was a little less productive in general as a result, perhaps as a result of not quite getting in rhythm in her reduced role. VaTech went 23-10 last year and got to the NCAA tournament, so it's hard to judge Duffy's roster management here…. but you can see why Petersen perhaps went looking for an option with a little bit more playing time available to her.
At 6'1", perhaps Petersen doesn't immediately showcase as an obvious productive force inside, but the fact of the matter is that she has a career rebounding rate of 8.8 per 40 minutes, and she was north of 10 per 40 minutes this past season. Her Hoop Stats ranks her top 500 in the country on the glass on both ends of the floor, and she was just barely outside the top 250 in the country in defensive win shares per 40 minutes last season. If all she does is body people inside and clean the glass, that's okay by me. If she's going to pull in nearly four offensive rebounds per 40 minutes of action like she did last year, Petersen's going to have to do better than shooting 43% on two-pointers, though.
The thing we have to unlock about Yu Han Lin when it comes to figuring out what she can bring to Marquette this season is answering the question as to why she started in seven of Middle Tennessee's first 11 games, then not at all the rest of the season. Then as a secondary question, we have to figure out why Lin played at least 14 minutes in all seven games that she started and averaged over 23 minutes in those games … but then just over 11 minutes in her 26 games off the bench. That includes 14 games where she played single digit minutes, and 10 games where she played less than five minutes. That includes single digit outings in each of MTSU's last six games of the year.
I think all of that explains why she's not at Middle Tennessee any more, it's just not particularly encouraging for what it means for her ability to play at Marquette in the Big East. Middle Tennessee went 17-16 last season with an 11-7 record in Conference USA. Head coach Rick Insell is far from a goof, last year broke a run of four straight 26+ win seasons, and he's gotten to at least 20 wins in 18 of his seasons with the Blue Raiders dating back to 2005-06. He's been to the NCAA tournament 12 times with MTSU, but there's something about Lin that said "okay, gotta play her" and then something that said "oh, no, can't play her at all" even while the season wasn't bending towards a more typical season for him.
As a starter, Yu Han Lin averaged 9.0 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game last season. She was great inside the arc, shooting 58% on twos, but she shot 1-for-16 from behind the three-point line. Off the bench, she averaged just 3.5 points plus an assist and a rebound per game. She was suddenly not good inside the arc at just 40%, but suddenly she found a shooting touch, going 9-for-25, which is 36% which is absolutely fine by me. From a deeper analytical level, she had a tremendous assist rate according to Her Hoop Stats , ranking #314 in the country. That's great, especially as Marquette clearly needs a point guard. However, her nearly 28% turnover rate was somewhere in the bottom third of the entire country, maybe worse since not every player on every team would have had the minutes to qualify for the rankings.
Is that why Lin couldn't play regularly for the Blue Raiders? Her 34 turnovers in her first 11 games with Middle Tennessee? And if that is the problem, what's going to change about how she plays when she goes from Conference USA to the Big East to stop that problem from reoccurring… or even getting worse?
Brooklyn Hall gets to be Not Last in this list because she spent half a season on a Division 1 roster last year. She was a spring semester enrollee at South Florida last January, but then she hit the transfer portal since USF elected to not keep on their interim head coach after Jose Fernandez left to coach the Dallas Wings in the WNBA. One Marquette hire of Sheila Boykin as an assistant coach later, and Hall is a Golden Eagle now instead of a Bull.
Here's how USF described Hall when she signed with them last November:
Hall is the No. 2 Forward in the state of Ohio and the No. 5 player overall according to Prep Girls Hoops. She is a consensus four-star recruit according to ESPN, is ranked No. 64 nationally in the All-Star Girls Report (ASGR) Top 350 with a 95 rating, and carries a 91-scout grade from ESPN. Recognized among Ohio's top prospects by Prep Girls Hoops, Hall brings a rare blend of size, skill, and versatility to the Bulls' frontcourt.
"Brooklyn is a dynamic, skilled wing who can play inside or out," said Head Coach Woods-Baxter. "She has great instincts, rebounds with purpose, and shoots the ball at a high level. Her versatility and competitiveness make her a perfect fit for our system."
Hall starred for Western Reserve Academy during the 2024–25 season, averaging 18.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.0 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game. She also led the state of Ohio in free throws made (156) — ranking No. 1 in Ohio and No. 71 nationally.
Her well-rounded game and leadership helped establish Western Reserve Academy as one of the most competitive programs in the region. At the same time, she continued to rise in national rankings as one of the most complete forwards in the Class of 2026.
Here's the quote from Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra when Hall's transfer became official :
"Brooklyn is a complete two‑way player who impacts winning on both ends of the floor," said Marquette head coach Cara Consuegra. "Brooklyn scores at all three levels, can stretch the defense from the perimeter, attack the rim with strength and body control, and create space in the mid‑range. In transition, she plays with purpose and pace and can push the ball coast-to-coast to generate offense. Defensively, she brings length, versatility, and a relentless mindset, consistently taking on top matchups and disrupting plays. With a high motor and competitive edge, Brooklyn's toughness and effort will elevate the team beyond the box score."
So here's the deal:
Marquette has essentially just two returning players. We can safely assume that Givens and Petersen will have a notable role on this team. That's four women I feel comfortable assigning a known role to here. We gotta get to eight somehow to have an actual useable college basketball rotation, so why not the four-star prospect who miiiiiight even be as good as a top 75 prospect who spent a semester in practices with a Division 1 program? Man, this would be a lot easier to figure out if Marquette had played a public exhibition.
Noelle Anthon spent the last two seasons at Hutchinson Community College, where she broke through as a sophomore. She averaged 10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.1 assists per game as the squad went 29-7 and got to the junior college quarterfinals. Anthon was definitely not the problem as Hutchinson did not advance to the semifinals, going for eight points, 10 rebounds, two assists, a block, and two steals without a turnover in that game.
Here's what Cara Consuegra said about her:
"Noelle brings a true inside out presence to our program," said Marquette Head Coach Cara Consuegra. "She consistently establishes deep position, finishes quickly and efficiently with either hand, and impacts the game both at the rim and on the perimeter. Her ability to stretch the floor as a pick-and-pop shooter, combined with running the floor hard and competing on both ends, fits how we want to play. Noelle also brings energy, competitiveness, and a commitment to relationships and doing things the right way, which will positively impact our team culture."
As I've laid out, Marquette needs a collection of women doing a collection of jobs on the court this season if they want to be successful. I don't know if her junior college production translates to high quality success in the Big East, but I'm fine with rolling Anthon out there and finding out early on in this season. Halle Vice can't be doing everything for Marquette, and if Anthon can take some responsibilities off Vice's plate — that description from Consuegra sounds an awful lot like Vice, if you ask me — then that's a good thing, even if it's just for 10 minutes a game.
