Samantha Williams joins Lady Cards staff, Monique Reid invited to USA tryouts

CARDINAL COUPLE TUESDAY:

-Samantha Williams joins Cardinal staff

-Reid selected to try out for USA Women's

Hoops World University team.

-GO Louisville Cards?

Former Duke University assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Samantha Williams is the newest addition to Jeff Walz's Lady Cardinal basketball staff. Williams is a Louisville native, having played her high school hoops at Manual and graduating in 1992. She was named to several All-American and top 25 teams. She replaces Bethann Ord, who is now the head coach at Weber State. Walz commented on the hire:

"We are elated to have someone from Louisville with a resume that embodies success join our staff. Samantha Williams brings us a wealth of experience in recruiting and on court instruction. This is a blockbuster hire that brings with it a measure of national exposure and affirms that Louisville is a destination of prestige and honor. Her addition to the staff bolsters our already strong presence across the country and confirms my belief that this is one of the best up and coming programs in the country. I know the fan base here in Louisville will enjoy having one of their own return to help us pursue our ultimate goal of a national championship."

Williams had been at Duke for four years under Joanne P. McCallie as the recruiting coordinator. She followed McCallie to Duke from Michigan State and McCallie recruited her to play her college basketball at Auburn when McCallie was an assistant there. Williams also spent several years as an assistant for Doug Bruno at DePaul. She was influential in getting the #1 class in women's college basketball to Duke last year.

Why the departure from Duke to the "Ville"? The Duke camp is staying pretty quiet about her leaving and Williams offered no reason for the change in scenery. Duke women's basketball has suffered some previous seasons where they've not matched the success of fellow ACC schools North Carolina and Maryland, though...and an insider to the Duke WBB program has hinted that the relationship between McCallie and Williams had become 'contentious' recently. Williams is excited to be headed to Louisville. She talked about her hire:

" I'm honored and excited about joining Coach Walz's staff at Louisville. Having grown up in Louisville, I've been able to witness the development and growth of the program. Coach Walz is one of the brightest basketball minds in the game and with the commitment to women's basketball by the administration, the future continues to be very bright. After being able to spend some time with Coach Walz and his staff recently, I am looking forward to joining their family atmosphere and was impressed with the closeness of the program. I'm also excited to be back coaching in the BIG EAST...arguably the toughest conference in the nation."

We hinted at this move several days ago here at CARDINAL COUPLE. The more information we received about the potential hire, the more we became convinced that is was going to happen. Long time Cardinal fan Jonathan Drury expressed his feelings to us about the possibilities of Samantha joining the staff: 

"This is hardly a lateral transfer. She's got the chance to be coaching in an arena that is the second in attendance in women's college basketball. She's recruiting for a team that is in the best conference in the nation. Look, we all know how hard Walz has worked over the last four years...bringing in all the talent that he has...Reid, the Schimmels, Hammond, Tay...it goes on and on. Now, you've got twice the recruiting strength! All the Cards need to do now is get to a level where they're competing with Connecticut, DePaul and Notre Dame each year for the BIG EAST title...because success, in the end, is the biggest recruiting tool of all." 

This is the first coaching hire Walz has made since bringing in the original staff of Stephanie Norman, Michelle Clark-Heard and Bethann Ord. Looks like he stepped up to the line and got nothing but net....
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Louisville's MONIQUE REID is one of thirty five invited to the USA Basketball Women's World University Games Team Trials. She'll compete in the try-outs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO May 22-25.

Reid will be in some pretty lofty company out in the west. A few of her competitors...

-From the BIG EAST: Skylar Diggins, Devereaux Peters, Natalie Novosel (Notre Dame). Keisha Hampton (DePaul). Sugar Rodgers (Georgetown). April Sykes (Rutgers). 1/5th. of the competitiors from the BIG EAST. WE like that!

-Stanford has the Ogwumike sisters attending and Texas A&M has three participants...Kelsey Bone, Sydney Carter and Tyra White. Louisville Iroquois graduate and current UK star A'dia Mathies also received an invite.

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Recently, we've received several e-mails about an aggregate website called GO LOUISVILLE CARDS. Seems that articles we have been doing and sharing with other websites are finding their way on this site...but we have no idea who the site manager/owner is or what their e-mail address is. This site does not contact or consult with us on ANY UofL women's sports news...but will run things we write "second hand." A good example is the article we did for Charlie Springer's UofL Card Game site about Bria Smith.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman starred in
the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"
One of the classic lines from the film was the recurring
phrase.."Who are those guys?" We're wondering
the same here at CARDINAL COUPLE about
GO LOUISVILLE CARDS...

We have no clue about site but are disdainful about the apparent lack of coverage on UofL Women's Sports by Go Louisville Cards....as well as ignoring the fan voice for UofL women's sports..Therefore, here at CARDINAL COUPLE... we would advise our readers to refrain from visiting until WE can find out more about this site and their reluctance to acknowledge US. Other sites that use information we distribute and publish are good about giving credit where credit is due. These folks aren't.

If we are granted more information about this site...we'll make a determination and decision on whether to include on our "Sites we Recommend" Until then, be advised that WE are not directly responsible for any CARDINAL COUPLE related items that are seen on this site. They've been snatched. We understand all about aggregate sites...we get posted on them all the time...but they do acknowledge us. And, it isn't about the "hits" or the "click thru's". We're doing just fine in those categories, thank you...

Whoever runs this mystery site can contact us in our comments section here (they don't have a comments section on their site) or by e-mailing us at cardinalcouple@insightbb.com Don't make us send Tommy Boy out on a fact-finding mission. Or, as CARDINAL COUPLE Special Correspondent David Watson quips:

"Those who can't write...aggregate."
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