Friday Cardinal Couple -- Words from Watson

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

( Former CARDINAL COUPLE columnist and now occasional contributor DAVID WATSON offered to let Paulie sleep off his turkey slug and is our writer for the Friday edition of CARDINAL COUPLE. )


I hope CARDINAL COUPLE readers one and all are having a great Thanksgiving weekend. As someone said once -- if you aren't having fun, you aren't trying hard enough.

The family is off fighting crowds at Black Friday deals, so I contacted the hibernating Paulie and offered to do a write. I think he said, "Sure, go ahead." but it was hard to tell. He was in between snores. Doesn't everyone get up at 4 a.m. on Black Friday?  

I will talk about the Lady Cards today. I still use the term for the UofL women's basketball team. Wednesday night, I was listening to the game and started interchanging it with "Lazy Cards". They won, though, so I retract it.

Is there any thing wrong with calling Louisville women's basketball the Lady Cards? I think Paulie did a poll on this a few years ago and came up with the following results:

43% said they didn't have a problem with it
32% were offended.
18% didn't care. They were at the wrong site.
5%  put "Go Big Blue" in the 'other' category

My youngest daughter thinks it's a demeaning term. She asked:

"Do they refer to the men's team as the 'Gentleman Cards? I think that adjective is un-needed. You're my parent, do you want to be called teenager daddy? Dad works just fine, doesn't it?"

She's got a point.

I was at Notre Dame for years. The team there are called the "Fighting Irish". It doesn't mean they are constantly involved in brawls, fracases and fisticuffs. They were sometimes a battling bunch, but boxing and MMA weren't D1 Sports back then. And, should Irish always be associated with fighting?

So, does it matter? Should "Redskins" be "Red Storm" or "Pigmented outer layered climatic disturbance"? My Cleveland Indians and our fan base refers to their Major League Baseball team as the "tribe" at times. I refer to them as perpetual cellar dwellers.

I think we're just becoming a too-politically correct society. Pretty soon, we'll be forced to call bears "woodland animals with hibernation-oriented traits and sharp claws".

That'll go over well in Soldier Field.

Moving on...

I am excited about the annual matchup between Louisville and Kentucky in women's basketball Sunday. Louisville needs to get a "W" since they've lost the last two and we can't have Kentucky professing superiority in anything.

I think the Cards (that aren't men) have a good chance to go to Lexington and bring back a win. 8-0 would be a great way to start the season. I'll be the first bird to go out on the limb here at the Couple.

UofL 63 - UK 61.

Finally, an associate of mine who is just beginning to get into women's basketball after years of poo-pooing it asked me the other day if Louisville's coach Jeff Walz is a target of other high profile schools to take over their reigns. I told him that Walz had indicated he will coach the Cards until he is retired, fired (or the zombie apocalypse takes over the world.) I added the zombie apocalypse part. My son has me hooked on The Walking Dead TV show.) 

Even if The Walking Dead type apocalypse ever happened, my guess is you'd find Walz in the Cardinal Arena gym in his zombie state. Carrying a clipboard and still in his checkered shirt. Watching Shoni shoot.

My Thanksgiving holiday wish for you readers this morning is that you be thankful for the team that graces the Denny Crum Court in the KFC YUM! Center. They are 7-0, have bucketfuls of talent and their approach to the season -- the "unfinished business" mission statement sums up where they want to be this season.

Cutting down the nets in Nashville.

The Huskies of Connecticut look to be unstoppable this season. Many said the same thing about the Baylor Bears last season.

Stopped.

Have a great rest of the holiday weekend and now -- it's off to raid the refrigerator for cold turkey, pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce.

The breakfast of champions.

-- David Watson --