Blockton hits the books and basket to fuel Marquette's rise
MILWAUKEE (AP) �� Allazia Blockton decided to play basketball at Marquette three years ago in part to be a role model in her hometown.
Along the way, the junior has become one of the best guards in the country, playing for an emerging power in the Big East.
The Golden Eagles are headed to their second straight NCAA Tournament under fourth-year coach Carolyn Kieger. They won the conference tournament last season; they won the regular-season title this season.
Next step: getting the school's first NCAA tourney victory since 2011. The eighth-seeded Golden Eagles play the No. 9 seed Dayton on Friday in Louisville, Kentucky.
Marquette has made back-to-back NCAA tourneys for the first time since a four-year run ended 2000.
"I feel really good about where we're at," Kieger said about the program's trajectory. "Now obviously as a competitor I want to keep pushing the envelope and raising the mark ... I want to be a team that stays on top, not just one and done."
Kieger has built a program with some Milwaukee flair, starting with Blockton. She is just the seventh player in league history to win league player of the year and scholar-athlete of the year awards in the same season.
"When I was younger my family wasn't really a big basketball family, or big college family. I was the first one in my family to really go to a big college, so it's always been a dream of mine," Blockton said.
Kieger returned to her alma mater after graduating in 2006 as a four-year starter at point guard.
Amani Wilborn, who averaged a team-high 18 points for Marquette in the Big East Tournament, also grew up in Milwaukee. She has played with Blockton since they were in fifth grade.
In high school, they happened to be on the same recruiting trip twice to see other schools when Blockton had an idea.
"Hey, what do you think about Marquette? Do you want to stay home?" Blockton said in recounting her message to her childhood friend. "We basically said, 'If you go, I will go.'"
They're part of all-junior starting five in which no player scores less than 11.5 points a game.
"We know each other's tendencies," Wilborn said about Blockton. The communication is as simple as giving a nod or glance when the other player is coming off a screen to give a signal of the next move.
Blockton, a 6-foot guard, leads the way with a Big East-best 18.5 points a game. Blockton was also the first junior to win the academic award since Connecticut's Maya Moore in 2009-10.
While Blockton may not often get a full night's sleep as she juggles a busy schedule, "I like to take a lot of naps," she said with a smile.
She is driven set an example in her hometown.
"I think (there are) not really enough positives in the community," Blockton said. "For them to see I actually made it out of it, and I'm actually doing great in college - just the little kids who were in my spot, to say 'I can do this, I can make it.' So it's really been a blessing for me to be able to do that for the community."
