Fla. State, FAMU await Lady Cards

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Lady Cards in Florida for two

-Football Cards in Florida also

-Directions need to change in BIG EAST re-alignment?

Nothing better than heading to Florida for a few days after Thanksgiving, right? For the Lady Cards, another early season test against a ranked opponent might detract a bit from the sun and fun in the Sunshine state.

The Seminoles (3-2) are #24 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll. They've been playing a challenging schedule so far...with losses to SEC schools Arkansas and Florida and a win over Georgia State in their last outing at home. Home has been good to FSU when it comes to facing the Lady Cards...they've defeated Louisville the last five times UofL has visited and they lead the overall series 12-10 against the Lady Cards. 

Last meeting between the two schools was in the Tom Collen era...when they matched up in 2004 at the Lady Griz Classic in Missoula, Montana. FSU beat Louisville 69-54. 

After the Fla. State game, the Cards stay in Tallahassee to face Florida A&M. The Rattleretts are 1-2 on the season and play Nebraska tonight. The Lady Cards and FAMU have never met before.

-Hats off to Bria Smith for her theft capabilities. The freshman has 17 steals in five games. Only Sara Nord (21) and Angel McCoughtry (19) have started a season with more and both of them accomplished the pilfering as seniors.

-Becky Burke is 13-13 this year on free throws and 168-196 in her career. The .875 % puts her #1 in Cardinal history so far...narrowly ahead of Kristin Maddox (.852), who played at UofL from 1992-96.  

-When Louisville held Xavier to 12 first half points, it tied the record for second-least opponent points in a first half. The Cards held Houston Baptist to 8 last year in a 100-34 win. They also held Coastal Carolina to 12 in 1996.

-Shawnta Dyer set career marks with seven points and 10 rebounds against Xavier.

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Although the Football Cards are already bowl eligible, they're on a mission in Florida also...to record a first ever win against the South Florida Bulls in Tampa and stay alive for a shot at the BIG EAST title and BCS Bowl bid.

Remarkable accomplishments this year by Charlie Strong and his crew. The Cards were picked in the pre-season to finish seventh out of the eight teams that play football in the BIG EAST.

They stand a good chance today if USF quarterback B.J. Daniels can't play because of a bad shoulder. Daniels injured the should last week against Miami in a game USF lost 6-3. His playing status is a game-time decision, from what we've been reading...

Although football at 11 a.m. isn't exactly something WE get excited about...(3:30 has been and will always be our favorite kick-off time)...today's game holds a lot of implications for the near future of Cardinal football and we'll be watching and hoping Louisville can pull off a first-ever feat in Tampa.

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CARDINAL COUPLE reader Jason (Louisville, KY) sent us an interesting re-alignment proposal for BIG EAST football. He thinks the conference should go in a north-south direction instead of east-west. His proposed alignment is below...

NORTH DIVISION

Connecticut
Rutgers
Villanova
Temple
Marshall
Massachusetts (or Army or Navy)

SOUTH DIVISION

Louisville
Cincinnati
South Florida
Central Florida
East Carolina
Memphis

One of the things about his idea we like is short travel distances to away games. Trips to Texas and out west aren't something we're looking forward to if the BIG EAST includes schools out there.

It's the BIG EAST, so anything could happen...but we not so sure that football should be driving the train for all the other sports that Louisville participates in as a member of the BIG EAST. Television and the $$$ they throw around has ruined the landscape of college football, in our opinion, and it's time for the athletic directors and Universities to start dictating the terms to the networks, instead of vice-versa.


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