Governors looking for respect Tuesday vs. Louisville

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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Noon tipoff for Tuesday WBB game

-Whatever happen to?

-Rapid Redux wins 24th. race in a row

Even though the November political races have been over for several weeks, a
particular group of Governors will visit the KFC YUM! Center campaigning for a signature victory. We're not talking about Steve Beshear, John Kasich or Mitch Daniels - these governors are the Austin Peay women's basketball team and they're 2-0 on the young season.

Handley gets it done
handily...

Led by Whtney Hanley, a 5'8" senior guard from Mt. Washington, KY. (Bullitt East H.S.), Austin Peay handled Southern Illinois in their season home opener 76-70 and then went on the road and overcame a 20+ point first half deficit to down Lipscomb on the road 61-58.

Handley is averaging 24.5 points per game, 39.5 minutes a contest and shooting .457 from the hardwood. She's deadly from the foul stripe (13-15) and goes to the boards also...14 rebounds in two games...with 12 of those on the defensive end of the court. Nicole Olszewski, a 5'7" sophomore guard, is also in double figure with 11.5 p.p.g. and has a team high eight steals.

(From the Lady Cards Facebook page...)

Smallish in nature (only two players 6'0" or taller) Austin Peay has been getting it done with accurate shooting (41% on the season), aggressive defense (26 steals) and has forced their opponents into an average of 22 turnovers per game. Their tallest player, 6'3" freshman Kaitlyn Hall, has only logged one minute of playing time so far this year.

Louisville will probably get the services of Monique Reid Tuesday...according to Walz...for 10-15 minutes and Louisville will most likely try to take advantage of the superior height advantage against the OVC opponent.

If you go...be prepared for around 6000 or so grade school kids from around the Louisville area...a basketball field trip for them on their final day of classes before the Thanksgiving break. Let's see how loud they get compared to the regular Lady Cards home crowd...

WHAT WE'D LIKE TO SEE TUESDAY:

-The Cards get off to a fast start, like they did against Xavier on Sunday. The starting line up of Shoni Schimmel, Cierra Warren, Sara Hammond, Bria Smith and Becky Burke against Xavier gave Louisville height, defensive aggressiveness, quickness and inside punch.

Mo rejoining Becky today on court?

-Good bench play. If Walz elects to bring "Mo" in off the bench, we'd like to see her get the ball inside and often. Jude Schimmel will be counted on to apply solid defense, create shots for her teammates and Shawnta Dyer and Sherrone Vails rebounds and blocks. 

-Cierra Warren dominance. She's looked awfully good so far prowling the post for the Lady Cards this season and with a decided height advantage, odds are she'll be filling up the stat lines against the Governors. 

Other stuff...

-Louisville is 6-0 lifetime against A.P.U. and last met the Governors on Nov. 17th., 2008...a 72-42 win for the Cards. A heralded freshman by the name of Monique Reid led Louisville in scoring in the contest with 17 points and Angel McCoughtry added 15. Notable quote from "Mo"  after that game:

"It doesn't matter how many points I get, with Coach Walz...defense gets you playing time."

-Carrie Daniels, head Lady Governor coach, is in her 6th. year at A.P.U. and has a record of 63-95. Her team finished 15-18 last year...12-6 in OVC play...and Austin Peay is her first head coaching job.

-The Governors played previous UofL opponent EKU twice last year, defeating them by 10 in Clarksville and losing by 6 in Richmond.

-The official web site for Austin Peay sports is http://www.letsgopeay.com/ and a favorite chant of the A.P.U. fans is "Let's Go Peay!" (Sounds like...never mind...you know where I'm going with this.)

-No current Lady Cards players hail from Tennessee, where Austin Peay is located. Can you guess which current Lady Cards hometown is closest to Clarksville, TN. - where the Austin Peay campus is? (Answer below).

-In four games this year, the Lady Cards have had four players foul out - one per game. They are Cierra Warren, Sara Hammond, Asia Taylor and Antonita Slaughter. 

-Legendary rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix was stationed in Fort Campbell, KY. (near Clarksville) and met future band member Billy Cox at the base's recreation center. They formed a group named The Casuals that played gigs on and off base - including frat parties at APU. Both moved to Clarksville after Hendrix was discharged from the Army in 1962 and it was there that Hendrix claimed he learned to play the guitar with his teeth.

-Austin Peay is one of two schools the Lady Cards will play from Tennessee this season. The other is Tennessee-Martin. Strangely enough, both games are at noon.

(answer to question...it is Shelby Harper, from Scottsville, KY. which is about a 90 minute drive from Clarksville.)

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Nikki Burton played for the Lady Cards from 2009-11 but a hip and other injuries kept her off the court for extended periods of time and made it necessary for her to take some time off, heal and re-evaluate her game. Glad to report that she's back on the court and doing some good things at DII Wingate University, in Rock Hill, S.C.

She was named the South Atlantic Conference women's basketball Player of the Week. Burton scored 25 points and made nine-of-11 field goals, including three threes, in a 84-59 win over Winston-Salem State Friday night in the Queen City Classic. She followed up the performance with a 23 point effort the next night against Johnson C. Smith University in a close 73-72 loss.

The Bulldogs open their home schedule against UNC Pembroke tonight and travel to Lincoln Memorial University Wednesday. Although she's not battling the Notre Dame's and UConn's of women's college basketball anymore...WE'RE glad to see #22 back out there, shaking them off with the cross-over and tickling the nets.

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RAPID REDUX set a North American horse racing record last night with his 24th consecutive win...beating three opponents by 4 1/2 lengths in the eighth race at Mountaineer Park. With the win, the condition book darling passed Zenyatta's record.

24 in a row is impressive, no doubt, but the horses he's beaten hardly measure up to the competition and quality that Zenyatta put away during her time on the track.

We say...put Rapid Redux to the test by entering him against some quality horses. They could have brought him to Churchill or Keeneland this fall to really put the streak to a challenge...but the owners prefer to take him to obscure and out of the way places like Mountaineer.

For a comparison, picture the Lady Cards playing 24 straight games against the likes of Lindsey Wilson, Bellarmine, Campbellsville and Fordham. Easy to win when the foe is less talented....
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