Jordan Meulemans got exactly what she wanted when she entered the NCAA transfer portal after three seasons with the Butler women’s basketball team.
“Honestly, I was looking for Marquette to contact me,” Meulemans said. “I always wanted to go to Marquette. I grew up watching the teams before us and the culture of winning. You look up at the banners and they’re always in the postseason.”
It didn’t take long for the MU coaching staff to contact the De Pere native because Meulemans’ shooting ability is exactly what head coach Cara Consuegra was looking for in a transfer.
“We had heard really great things about her from the Butler staff,” Consuegra said. “Because we had spoken to one of their assistant coaches.
“Knew she was a winner in high school. Knew she came from a winning program that taught defense as well. Watched a lot of film on her. Loved that, in my opinion, she’s not just a shooter but she defends at a really high level.
“And then, quite frankly, once I talked to her, it took about 10 minutes and I knew I wanted her. She’s a great culture kid. She’s a good person, high character, cares about the team, was looking for a positive culture. So everything she was looking for added up for what we’re doing here.”
Meulemans committed on her visit to MU, knowing that her family needed to make only a short drive to Milwaukee to catch all her home games.
The 6-foot guard returns to her home state to be a big X-factor in Consuegra’s second season at the school.
Jordan Meulemans tore ACL at Butler last season
There was one complicating factor: Meulemans tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee in October 2024 during a practice at Butler. She redshirted last season, so she will have two years of eligibility with the Golden Eagles.
There was no other damage to her knee.
“It’s a very clean recovery,” Meulemans said. “You know exactly what you need to do.”
Consuegra and MU’s training staff developed a plan for Meulemans. She’s still not cleared for full contact, so she drops out of certain drills in practice. The hopes are that she will have no restrictions in a few weeks.
“I’m so excited,” she said. “I haven’t played full in a long time and it’s a long time coming. One, you have an injury like this, you don’t know what’s taken away from you until it is. Definitely didn’t know something I loved could be taken away this fast.”
Cara Consuegra loves Meulemans’ three-point shooting
Meulemans seems like the missing piece for MU, which shot just 30.4% on three-pointers last season.
“If you watch how people defended us last year, they just sat people in the paint,” Consuegra said. “You’ve got great playmakers like Jaidynn Mason and Kennedi Perkins and even Liv Porter, and they got to the paint and were met by three people.
“And so we knew that to do what we want to do, we have to have people to stretch the floor.”
As a sophomore at Butler, Meulemans ranked fourth in the Big East by knocking down 42.5% of her shots from beyond the arc. She’s always been a bucket-getter, dating to her school-record 1,874 points at De Pere High School.
“We feel pretty confident that when she’s in the game, that’s one less help defender that’s going to be in the paint,” Consuegra said. “The other thing is that Skyler (Forbes), in Big East play, got doubled every time she touched the ball.
“We got one of the best kids in the Big East having to navigate against two or three people. We’re trying to put Skyler in the best position to be successful and we got to make sure that we have people they can’t help off of.”
Marquette returns entire roster from last season
Consuegra knew that Meulemans wouldn’t need much of an adjustment period after playing two seasons at a Big East school.
“She still has to learn us, but she’s really intelligent,” Consuegra said. “She has high IQ. She understands the college level, so all of those things help shrink that gap.”
The Golden Eagles are the only NCAA team to return its entire roster from last season, getting waivers for fifth seasons from Lee Volker and Abbey Cracknell.
Meulemans joins freshmen J.J. Barnes and Kam Herring as newcomers. They’ve blended in seamlessly.
“I think this is one of 15 teams that didn’t have a transfer out,” Meulemans said. “Which is crazy.
“That made me a little nervous, like, how am I going to fit in with a team that’s already jelled and meshed together. But they brought me in. Coach Cara and the coaches told me exactly where I’d fit, how I’d help the team win. And that just really grew my confidence.”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jordan Meulemans could be Marquette’s X-factor as sharpshooter
