MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE
- Stalled
- Volleyball starts against Marquette
DeNesha Stallworth's 15 second half points, CARDS cold shooting lead to loss in Lexington.
The Cards looked in control after 20 minutes...leading 36-27 and outrebounding UK 23-13 in the first half. Asia Taylor had 10 points for Jeff Walz's squad and the Cards were shooting 50% against a tight UK defensive effort.
Enter Stallworth and Jennifer O'Neill for the Wildcats. A combined 1 point between the two in the first half ended up with the duo totaling 27 in the final stanza and UK took advantage of 14 whistles against Louisville to take the lead for good when Bernisha Pinkett nailed a three with 10:45 remaining to grab the advantage at 46-45. Pinkett would sink another trey and UK had turned the tables...up 51-45 with 9:32 left in the contest. 
Yet, the Cards fought back and after Nita Slaughter and Sara Hammond scored to narrow the Cats advantage to 64-62 with 2:08 left...it looked to be a fight to the finish.
A questionable foul on Sara Hammond sent her to the bench with five infractions just 13 seconds later. From that point on, the Cats went on a 5-0 run to seal the win. Shoni got a putback with five seconds left to make the final 69-64. Shoni had 17 to lead Louisville in scoring...15 in the second half. Sara Hammond ended with 12 in 23 minutes and Asia Taylor completed the Cards in double figures with 10...all in the first half. 24 fouls and 24 turnovers. 22 made field goals.
A disappointing loss. Fuel for the fire for those who claim the Cards have no legit "big" inside. Louisville had no answer for Stallworth inside in the second half. It's not the end of the world. Louisville takes to the Denny Crum Court Tuesday to face Missouri State for a 7 p.m. tip.
Hopefully without referees Michael Price, Mark Zentz and Maj Forsberg in attendance.
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THE FINAL WORD
Jeff Walz described it best in the post-game presser when he said the Cards gave this one away. Actually, he used a different term, but he asked the media to use discretion...so I am.
UofL was up 14 in the first half. Up nine at half. UK wanted it more today and they got it. It's one game, one loss but losing to your in-state rival always stings.
Hopefully it was a loss that will lead to a finish like the Cards had last year. I'll take wins over Baylor and the Vols over a loss to UK anyday.
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The NCAA had their Volleyball tournament selection show Sunday evening an Louisville will travel to Champaign, IL and face Marquette in opening action. Jeff McAdams will have more on this, in comment and article form, later this week. Below is the UofL SID release:
The NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Committee announced today the 64-team field for the 2013 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Championship and the University of Louisville will face Marquette in the first round of the tournament Friday at 5:30 ET in Champaign, Ill. The winner will advance to play the winner of the No. 13 seed Illinois versus Morehead State match.
“This puts us in a familiar spot,” said U of L head coach Anne Kordes. “We played Marquette three times last year and we have a lot of respect for the team and their coaching staff. It is a tough first round matchup but it helps that we have played in Champaign so it is a familiar area. The whole point of playing a tough schedule and winning the conference is to get a good matchup in the tournament. We are fired up and ready to go.”
Thirty-two conferences were awarded automatic qualification, and the remaining 32 slots were filled with at-large selections to complete the bracket. Louisville earned the automatic qualifier after sweeping The American Athletic Conference.
The match with Marquette will be a rematch of the 2012 BIG EAST Conference Tournament Championship with the Cards prevailing 25-19, 25-23, 26-24. U of L also beat the Golden Eagles 3-0 at home and 3-1 in Milwaukee during the regular season. This year, Marquette is currently ranked No. 24. U of L has a 24-8 series edge on the Golden Eagles.
The top 16 teams were seeded nationally and placed within four regions. The teams tabbed as the top four seeds were No. 1 University of Texas at Austin; No. 2 Pennsylvania State University; No. 3 University of Washington; and No. 4 University of Missouri, Columbia.
Per the established bracketing principles the top 16 seeds were provided the opportunity to host. In addition, first- and second-round conference matchups were avoided and team pairings were determined by geographical proximity.
The Pacific-12 Conference led all conferences with nine teams. The Big Ten Conference and Southeastern Conference were next with eight teams in the tournament. Two teams, Penn State and Stanford have earned bids to all 32 championships. Four teams are making their initial appearances in the tournament: Alabama State University, Duquesne University, Hampton University and Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis.
In the 32-year history of the championship, 10 schools have been crowned champion, seven of which are in this year’s bracket, including defending champion, Texas.
Past winners making the field are Stanford (1992, 94, 96, 97, 2001, 04), University of Hawaii, Manoa (1982, 83, 87), University of Nebraska, Lincoln (1995, 2000, and 06), University of Southern California (1981, 2002, 03), Penn State (1999, 2007, 08, 09 and 10), Texas (1988, 2012) and Washington (2005).
First- and second-round matches will be played at 16 campus sites. Teams winning both matches will move on to regional play December 13 and 14. The pre-determined regional sites are Lexington, Kentucky; Los Angeles, California; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Champaign, Illinois. All regional semifinal games will be shown on ESPN3. Regional final games will air on ESPNU.
The regional winners will advance to the semifinals and final hosted by Washington and at KeyArena in Seattle, Washington, on December 19 and 21. Both national semifinal games as well as the championship game will be broadcast by ESPN2.
-paulie
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I wouldn't say the CATS wanted it more. They have a better bench than we do and are loaded with guards who can shoot from the outside and create their own looks. We have good guards but the ball handling is not good. We always play rather bad against the physical/pressure teams anyway. Megan had a stellar game vs UK last season but didn't see the floor in this one which left me scratching my head.
ReplyDeleteI think we should have played the 2nd half like the first but this game is a win if we can make lay-ups and gimmes. We missed about 10 in the 2nd half. The officials also called an incredibly tight game in the 2nd half favouring UK. I don't understand how they can only be called for 4 fouls in the final 20 minutes.
UK also looked like they had won the NC when it was over. You would never have saw a reaction like that from us.
ReplyDeleteI Hate Losing. Especially to KY. That said winning streaks are kinda like buying a new car. When you first pick up that new car you baby it, park it at the edge of the parking lot at the mall and love it because it's so amazing and beautiful and has that new car smell. Inevitably some idiot gives you a door ding at the store or you back into a lamp post and Poof...it just doesn't seem like a new car anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that it's still pretty much the same car as it always was but you just see it differently now. Our Cards are still the same team and the truth is we've already dodged several early season bullets in our OT wins. Turnovers were bound to catch up with us sometime if we didn't fix the problem. Just wish it hadn't been in this game.
So now the honeymoon is over and the Cards can really focus on getting better throughout the rest of the season. Of course the problem is that there is so little strong competition out there it's going to be hard to get really tested with a few obvious exceptions.
We're going to have to put together a group of guards that can handle athletic teams better and since we're going to small on the block for the rest of the year our (semi) bigs need to figure out how to stay out of foul trouble. I don't want to sound like I'm complaining but I'd like to see a break down on the foul calls first vs second half. Seemed really lopsided to me. That said they beat us fair and square.
Had a great coach back in the day who always said you learn much more about yourself, your game and your team when you lose than when you win. He was 100% right. Hopefully we'll learn the right lessons from this one and move forward in a positive way.
Go Cards!
If anything, the Cards have seen how good they can be. UK was frustrated and frazzled after the first half. And, women's college basketball referees are horrible. Not to be a whiner and say that the refs stole this one from UofL, the Cards did basically handed it over to Kentucky, but they were awful. In both halves. On both teams. In a physical game like this one, how does UK only get whistled for five total fouls in the final 20 minutes?
ReplyDeleteStill, Taylor hit it on the head when she said that you just learn from this one and get better. The Cards will. Bring on Missouri State.
Curtis Franklin
I watched the game on Fox Sports South. Could Gary Gupton and the chippie beside him after their heads any further up UK's a$$?
ReplyDeleteClassic Guptonisms:
"UK has cut the lead to under single digits"
"Shoni plays a very callous style of basketball"
"The Cats trail by one at the half"
"Matthew Mitchell always dressed so GQ."
WTF? Really? Not only is Guppie a spot-on "look-alike" for Alfred E. Newman from MAD magazine, but they have morphed Newman's lack of intelligence into him.
I never realized that in order to be a UK network sports broadcaster, you had to undergo a lobotomy and be neutered. Between him and the squealing UK P.A. announcer I was hearing in the background, it makes me wonder if the main requirement for joining UK sports media is the ability to spell 'moron' successfully?
-the real Joe Hill-
You're killing me here, Joe. Gupton is true blue, no doubt. They picked him up when WHAS sent him packing and I guess you do what you have to in order to thrive and survive.
DeleteI don't know the man very well, so I can't comment much on him. I do remember him giving up his seat to Sonja in the UK media room so she could sit down and eat a couple of years ago before the UK v UofL basketball game, so I'll give him that.
Can't say as I go out of my way to listen to him, though...but that's pretty much true with all UK sports. I expect his mama loves him and he did have a pretty snappy purple sweater on Sunday...maybe GQ is catching.
Paulie
Christmas came early to Lexington. Go find UofL a Stallworth, Jeff.
DeleteBlue Lou
We played scared....didnt take care of the ball and let them beat us into submission. Why do we not have a point guard?? No one wants to take control of the point?? I love Jude Schimmel but she gets rattled to easy and is not a elite point guard. Granted no one else on the team has her tenacity but COME on. Even with the refs against us, the announcers against us and the fans...we still could have won this dang game even shooting 27%????. I love my CARDS more than anything, been a season ticket holder since Angel was a freshman. COACH WALZ get us a true point guard! And take the mittens off the girls hands so they can take care of the ball.
ReplyDelete12 of Louisville's 24 turnovers came at the hands of Bria and Jude. UK's pressure on UofL's guard play in the second half was tenacious. A tough loss but the season continues. As John L. Smith used to say, "Tear off the rear view mirror and keep driving."
DeletePaulie
ARE YOU GUYS KIDDING ME!!!!! We need to get a group of guards to handle pressure?????? REALLY???? Did you ppl forget what this group did last year??? What more do they need to prove? This was a good game outside the refs, both sides had bad calls, Jude missed about 4 pt blank layups that rattled out, had she made those and we won, you guys would RAVE about her. This was a battle of two very good TOP 10 teams that almost went down to the wire. REMEMBER THAT 2012-13 RUN!!! ONE OF THE BEST IN SPORTS HISTORY!!!! ..............SPOILED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ---Umatilla23
ReplyDeleteBull. Everyone loves Jude and you know it. Her stat lines over the past two games have been atrocious. It is what it is. This isn't last year, it's this year. If last year matters so much we'll just FedEx the trophy to Storrs and call it a season. Frankly Tia has been struggling mightily at the guard spot recently also.
DeleteAny objective observer knows that high turnover levels, missed free throws, missed layups from our best guards doesn't cut it. They just need to do better or Walz needs to find a different guard combination that clicks.
Agree with you completely, BurnBrother, but I will also add that Walz continues to make terrible substitution decisions. (He's a great coach in other areas -don't get me wrong.) Bria picks up her third early in the second half and he puts in Jude, who had a terrible first half, and he has Shoni bringing the ball up the court b/c Jude can't do it without getting her pocket picked. Alternatives at that were to put in Gibbs or Walton or Dyer, any of which would have been better than Jude under the particular circumstances of that game.
Delete--PDX Phil
Agree that we need better guard play but many of the turnovers yesterday were unforced, contrary to what the Gupper said ("Louisville looks worn down"). Many of the to's came from too much dribbling and poor passing, had nothing to do with UK's defense. Nothing against their defense, it's great but we've played better against better defense. Looks like they have got a case of the yips when it comes to playing UK.
DeleteIt was a game that basically could have gone either way with 2 minutes left. I'll still stand by the observation that losing Hammond to fouls was huge. And ,it was a pretty poor call on Sara. Stallworth hit three free throws after that and we could only muster 2 points...which came with five seconds left.
ReplyDeletePaulie
Of course i like jude. They battle Kentucky AT their house and dang near pulled it off. Theyve played some tough teams THIS year, 2 of those games Jude made key plays. Had Kentucky lost they would be all over their players and all the negative forgotten. Barely lose to Top 10 team and all hell breaks loose. Great game, agree Paulie Hammond was huge loss. What did you all expect an undeafeated season? Clueless...
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect all hell hasn't broken loose. Some observations were made about areas that clearly need to improve. Walz is the one that said they "pissed the game away" not any commenters here. I doubt very much that had the Cards somehow pulled the win out Walz would have forgotten the 24 turnovers nor would have fans that understand the game.
DeleteAs far as cluelessness we can get away from opinion and focus on facts. From a pure basketball standpoint anytime your top two guards coming off the bench go a combined for 2 for 14 shooting with 6 turnovers, 3 steals and 2 assists it's probably going to have a negative outcome. Check out KY bench scoring for the game.
Folks can wish whatever they want about the Cards but ball handling against really athletic guards was a problem against KY and was a problem late last year against Baylor and UConn also. This idea that stating the obvious is somehow disloyal or clueless is a head scratcher.
All positive forgotten***
ReplyDelete