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TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
(Columnist Sandy Walker grabs the hamper and yells out "last call" as she descends the steps to do her weekly load of CARDINAL COUPLE laundry. She takes us through the spin, rinse and fluff cycles and reminds you to empty your pockets...anything left will either be cleaned, go into her pocket or fed to Bill the Goat)
TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
(Columnist Sandy Walker grabs the hamper and yells out "last call" as she descends the steps to do her weekly load of CARDINAL COUPLE laundry. She takes us through the spin, rinse and fluff cycles and reminds you to empty your pockets...anything left will either be cleaned, go into her pocket or fed to Bill the Goat)
THE LONDON PARALYMPICS 2012!
The London Paralympics are nearing their end. Videos from members of the 2012 U.S. Paralympic Team are available on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/usparalympics. Note: Oksana Masters of Louisville, KY and Rob Jones of Lovettsville, VA took bronze in the first ever Paralympic medal in the trunk and arms mixed double sculls event for Team USA. You can also check out http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bonnie-st-john/london-paralympics-2012_b_1866584.html? where a former medal winner, Bonnie St. John, has recapped some of the results. For more information and results visit www.usparalympics.org .
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BASKETBALL SCHEDULE
Anyone who follows the Louisville Women’s basketball knows that the long anticipated 2012-2013 schedule is now published. A quick scan made it immediately obvious that it will be much easier to be an actual attendee of home games. Gone are the barrage of mid-day work week games and the weekend actually features some of the games which are more of a broad fan based interest. It is great to have a local team where nine of the games are of such interest that they will be nationally televised.
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HOW IT WAS
One reader is taking us back to Ursuline Academy in the 1950 's. Girls play was conducted from a court which was marked on a room in a campus building basement with beams that hung down across the ceiling. Those whose shots had arches found themselves ducking as the balls rebounding back at them. One quickly learned to create a home court flat shot but game strategy primarily focused on shooting layups which worked great as long as you followed through by targeting the end of court walls open doorway instead of the water cooler which sat to the left of the basket.
Readers Submitted Comments of How It Was Stories
Anonymous wrote: We had a deal set up years ago with a popular drive-in restaurant where they would pay our referees with gift certificates to their restaurant. Not sure how "legal" this is/was, so I'm not naming the restaurant. It was a popular place, though and referees would always request to work our games at home in basketball because of the set up. And, we seldom got very many "bad" calls. Somewhere in Wisconsin
And from Skinny Pete: I played my high school basketball in a small western Kentucky town where the gymnasium was not large enough to have a full length basketball court. We had no center court line, just two lines on the court that were the distance of what half court was on a regulation court. This was confusing to "big city opponents" and we used it to our advantage quite frequently for ten second calls and "over and back" with our press.
We also had a second floor bleacher area that hung over the sidelines out of bounds areas and our students would sit in this area and harass opposing players who would attempt shots from the corners of the court. Imagine 75-100 screaming kids directly over you when taking a corner jumper from the sidelines. Not too many went in.
Consolidation eventually closed our school, but we had a pretty good home record because of our gym and the smallness of it. The town really showed up for these games and I remember one time our mayor actually ran out onto the court to argue a call made by the refs. He got tossed from the gym! Those old brick walls could really magnify the sound and it was a tough place to play for visitors not used to it.
We also had a second floor bleacher area that hung over the sidelines out of bounds areas and our students would sit in this area and harass opposing players who would attempt shots from the corners of the court. Imagine 75-100 screaming kids directly over you when taking a corner jumper from the sidelines. Not too many went in.
Consolidation eventually closed our school, but we had a pretty good home record because of our gym and the smallness of it. The town really showed up for these games and I remember one time our mayor actually ran out onto the court to argue a call made by the refs. He got tossed from the gym! Those old brick walls could really magnify the sound and it was a tough place to play for visitors not used to it.
UL Football History Whose Contributor Shall Be Nameless Unless They Volunteer.
I remember the days of going through the northwest corner gate at Cardinal Stadium dragging coolers, buckets of chicken and anything else we could think of and getting in by just flashing our student ID. We would take the fraternity bell and ring it in the end zone after Cardinal scores and we'd just drive the pickup truck in, park a few yards behind the end zone and tailgate right there. We had a player from Memphis once score a touchdown in front of us, toss US the ball instead of to the referee and he asked us for a beer and piece of chicken.
(Sure...I'll volunteer it. Ol' Paulie himself and I remember some of those days still.)
(Sure...I'll volunteer it. Ol' Paulie himself and I remember some of those days still.)
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WEEKLY EVENTS
Overall the women had a powerful week. Total count shows field hockey with two wins and one loss, soccer balanced out at 1 win of 2 matches while volleyball hit the perfecta with not only two wins with no losses but were also the winners of the Big East/Big Ten Challenge.
Golf is participating yesterday and today in the Ptarmigan Ram Classic in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The VolleyCards have now beat No. 10 Kentucky, No. 11 Purdue and No. 20 Illinois.
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| Candice Wiley |
For those of you who are able to recover from the weekend games, there is always Women’s Golf being played at the Cardinal Club on Monday.
The golf team completed 36 holes Monday in the Ram Classic hosted by Colorado State. They are in third place...Emily Haas with a 144 and Katie Petrino with 146. Both are in the top ten.
The golf team completed 36 holes Monday in the Ram Classic hosted by Colorado State. They are in third place...Emily Haas with a 144 and Katie Petrino with 146. Both are in the top ten.
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SOCCER
Women’s soccer ( 12th ranked)against Notre Dame is set for Friday at 4:00 ET and is being shown on ESPNU with UL bringing in a 5-1 record to the match. Last week Junior Angelika Uremovich scored twice to lead the 12th-ranked Louisville women's soccer team to a 3-1 victory over Toledo.
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| Angelika Uremovich |
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FIELD HOCKEY
The field hockey team defeated Ohio University 2-1 Saturday afternoon at the IU Field Hockey Complex in Bloomington, Ind. Senior goalkeeper Erin Conrad
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| Erin Conrad |
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VOLLEYBALL
The Cards jumped to #12 in the polls after the weekend wins over Illinois and Purdue. Nice job, ladies!
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BASKETBALL PRACTICE START DATES
First date of practice guidelines for women has been adjusted which allow teams to start preseason practice 40 days ahead of their season opener. U of L’s first game is set for November 9 against Texas A & M at the YUM! Center so the first allowed date of practice counts back to around September 30. Teams are limited to 30 practices during the extended time frame.
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BASKETBALL THIS AND THAT!
UL women are reported to be 3 deep at almost every position which will feed perfectly into Jeff’s upbeat and up tempo style of play. As one gets slightly winded there is another to step into her place which makes for exciting and crowd inspiring entertainment. As an old and broken down former player... there is nothing that provides an extra unknown internal spark than the opponents turnover which developed into a score from your teammates defensive pressure and extra effort. While we read that others want to try again this year to play the “up pace pressure ball” which was discarded early during last season as ineffective – Louisville has been successfully playing this exciting style of ball for a few years now. This team is already going to be terribly exciting and competitive this year but RECRUITS PLEASE TAKE NOTE: If next year we can continue our upbeat style of play while adding some additional height in the front court with a great point/wing guard rotation in the back, we will be totally unstoppable.
Imani Wright and Brianna Ruiz were on campus last weekend. Saniya Chong, Alexandria Harris, Emmonie Henderson and Mercedes Russell are reportedly still anticipated with
Sara Hammond has tweeted that she has returned to her 00 high school playing number.
It’s a day late but it appears that yesterday was Angel’s birthday. Better late than never on the shout-outs. Happy Birthday Angel!
(Excellent work from Sandy today! The prospect of such talent hitting the Louisville campus and combining with the existing talent makes for a very exciting time for Cardinal basketball fans. One bit of sad news to report...softball pitcher Chelsea Leonard's injury to her knee in the Michigan game will keep her sidelined for the softball season...she'll continue to serve as possibly a student mgr. or assistant )
(Excellent work from Sandy today! The prospect of such talent hitting the Louisville campus and combining with the existing talent makes for a very exciting time for Cardinal basketball fans. One bit of sad news to report...softball pitcher Chelsea Leonard's injury to her knee in the Michigan game will keep her sidelined for the softball season...she'll continue to serve as possibly a student mgr. or assistant )
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It's about time the UL volleyball team got the ranking and recognition they deserve. They showed over the weekend just how overrated Big 10 volleyball is.
ReplyDeleteNet Worth
Or how under rated we were. It is great to have so many successful women's team at UL and the fans to suport them
DeleteLocal women's sports fans seem to always have an event available.
I tend to agree with the idea that we were underrated. Big 10 volleyball *is*, by and large, quite good, and Purdue and Illinois are definitely both good teams.
DeletePaulie might remember this since it happened at Fern Creek. Fern Creek had a stuffed tiger on a platform and wheels that the cheerleaders would roll out to midcourt during timeouts when they did cheers.
ReplyDeleteOne night, the cheerleaders thought a timeout had been called and starting running out on the court with the tiger. There was no time out and a player on the other team was backpedaling down the court, didn't see the tiger and tumbled into him.
Can't recall exactly but I think Fern Creek was charged with a technical foul.
Do they still roll that tiger out there?
-Matt from Mt. Washington
True story.
DeleteI got to ride that Tiger out to half court a couple of times with the cheerleaders when I was a little boy. Somewhere in the deep recesses of CARDINAL COUPLE archives, there is a standard 8mm film that my mom made of me on board.
I didn't see the Tiger last year at any of the girls' basketball games at Fern Creek. Maybe he was on safari?
Paulie
Makes no difference when a girl visits. Russell will end up with the Vols because they are the better program, tradition-rich in history, have a better coach and more fans than Louisville.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you about tradition. However, the Lady Cards have been rising for sometime now. I have nothing but respect for UT womens basketball, they are a standard in the sport. Both programs have an incredible amount of fans where womens basketball is concerned. One would have to realize UT is in a down cycle. I look forward to playing them again. As for Coach Walz, I wouldn't trade him for any coach. He is getting ready to hit his stride. I'll respect the young ladies decision either way. GoCards!
DeleteWe don't know yet how Holly will fare as a head coach. Even though most give her credit for doing most of the coaching on last year's Vols team, I am sure that Pat was in on the consulting, strategies and preparation. There is a proven track record of success in Jeff's career. He's not known as one of the best young coaches in women's basketball because of some Madison Avenue advertising campaign. The rubber meets the road. And as Robb said, UT is in a downward cycle. Louisville is on the rise and we'd certainly like to see Mercedes Russell contribute to the continued growth, excitement and popularity of Cardinal women's basketball.
DeleteAn interesting dilemma. If it were horse racing, you could compare it to a jockey's decision on whether to ride a solid performing veteran horse that's been a bit off form lately or a young, spirited horse that improves each time on the track.
I think I know who Edgar Prado or Julian Leparoux would choose.
Paulie
Can anybody name a team that, over the past three years, has underperformed more relative to its level of talent than has Tennessee?
Delete--PDX Phil
I think that any team that makes it to the final 16 is doing pretty good. Parity among the teams means a greater achievement is needed to get to the same place each year.
DeleteUL fans would do well to focus on our own teams successes and accomplishments rather than on the difficulties others are having. We have the facilities, coaching and university administrative staff, growing fan base and an improving quality of player that will attract those we seek.
Today's recruits are more savy than in the past due to the electronic information available and there also are more of them with higher level skills due
to expanded opportunities when young.
I feel confident that the players we need will be able see what they need to see when they come for our school visits. If not, then I wish them good luck elsewhere.
I personally do not have access to the same level of inside information that others appear to have so I think I will just wait out events to see how it all works out with Mercedes and the others visiting our school I would be proud to have any or all of them.
DeleteGo Cards!
Sandy W
Does anyone know if Mercedes has given a timetable on when she will announce?
ReplyDeleteThis summer I saw where she said she wanted to announce before her high school season began.
DeleteA very good sign she is visiting us last.
ReplyDelete