CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE
We report on the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports here. Thanks for checking us out! Click the picture of Louie to hear the latest Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast!!

Friday, January 24, 2014

Friday Cardinal Couple -- Catching Up on...



FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- Catching up on....Myisha Hines-Allen

- To dine or not to dine?


Myisha Hines-Allen is one of the five players that Jeff Walz has inked for the 2014 class of Louisville WBB. She's currently ranked #34 in the nation by ESPNW and has the highest ranking of the quintuplets headed to the 'Ville.

Rankings on the other four:

#36  Sydney Brackemyer  6'0"  wing   Clinton Massie HS  (OH)
#43  Mariya Moore           6'0"   wing     Salesian HS  (CA)
#78  Arica Carter             5'8"   guard  Long Beach Poly (CA) 
#99  Arianna Freeman      5'11" wing   Paul VI HS  (VA)


So what has "MHA" been up to her senior year? Great things, it appears. Her Montclair team gained a tough win against Lodi Christian a couple of nights ago and MHA tallied 18 points in the 51-44 victory.

The points came in bunches...with eight in the first quarter and ten in the deciding fourth quarter when Montclair pulled away. Here's what her high school coach Bianca Brown said about MHA's effort.

" Myisha is a huge closer for us. In the first half it was like she was hesitant. She wasn't keeping her eyes open the whole time and missed some layups. In the second half she hit some jump shots, which was key for us to get our momentum going."

Myisha's take on the game mirrored Coach's comments:

" I think I played a little more aggressive in the fourth quarter. That...and the refs started calling more fouls. I think that was a part of it, and as a team we all got more aggressive." 

Her stat line for the contest:

18 points, 4 steals, 5 assists, 5 rebounds and 8 made free throws. That last stat should give Cards WBB fans reason to celebrate. Coach Walz likes players who sink the free ones.

Montclair is 9-2 on the season and MHA's numbers are impressive. She's scored 239 points in those 12 games...an average of almost 20 points per contest. She's also grabbed 111 rebounds...putting her at a little over 9 per outing. She's also dished out 78 assists...which nears 7 per game.

Coach Brown is also proud of Mysiha and her teammates defensive efforts this season...another aspect that fits with Coach Walz's preference for "all around' players.

Hines-Allen looks like she could be a good one for the Cards. With Gibbs, Slaughter, Shoni and Taylor leaving after this season...good shooters and rebounders will be welcome. MHA appears to have both qualities.


(We'll have updates on the other four Cards recruits as the season progresses.)

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To Dine or not to Dine...that is the question. It is banquet time for several UofL women's sports programs over the next couple of weekends. First up, the Softball banquet...Jan 25th., at the Brown and Williamson Club in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium. This one has the earmarks of being a good one. Monica Abbott is the guest speaker...an incredible pitcher during her time at Tennessee.

We won't be able to go, however...due to a prior committment. And, that's a shame. We had a wonderful time at the 2012 & 2013 affairs. This is a good one to hit, Cardinal fans. You'll also see other UofL women's sports stars attending. Several women's basketball stars will mostly likely be in attendance. They have a great silent auction section set up. After the past two years of hotel banquet room venues, the Softball team is having the event in a UofL owned facility.

The following Saturday night...both Volleyball and Lacrosse have banquets...at the same time...in the same venue (PJCS)...but in different areas. Volleyball will be in the Brown and Williamson Club. Lacrosse will be in the PNC Plaza. Therein lies the decision...which way do we go?

CARDINAL COUPLE is a non-profit entity. The monies we receive from donors get funded directly back into our coverage of women's sports at UofL. Last year cost me roughly $500 in out-of-pocket expenses. Nothing that a good day at the race track wouldn't cover...I consider it an investment in a hobby I enjoy. In past years, Volleyball has "comp-ed" us a couple of tickets in return for doing pre and post columns about the event.

That doesn't seem to be the case this time around. Inquiries about coverage yielded a return e-mail with a registration form. At $40 a ticket. For us to do the coverage, promotional articles and review here at the site...are we wrong in expecting a couple of seats "on the house"? Other sports willingly do the exchange with us. Although we haven't asked, we guess Lacrosse might have us as their guests as well.

Mis-communication betwen us and the Volleyball program? Maybe...but the e-mail sent by us was pretty specific. We got a form-letter reply.

So maybe it's time to do the Lacrosse affair this year. Would they want the coverage in exchange for a couple of seats? We'll see.

It's no secret that our columnist Jeff McAdams is our lead on Volleyball coverage here at CARDINAL COUPLE. He is the man for the job. Travels to away games and has close contacts with several of the movers and shakers in the program. It's a sport he loves to watch and he serves the team well. The rest of us here also report on Volleyball when it's our turn to write and report.

$80 bucks. It's (4) ink printer cartridges. It's (3) months of studio engineer fees for our weekly radio. It's (2) tanks of gas to get me on campus for coach interviews. It's mostly out-of-pocket, too...since our donations have dried up since before Christmas.

We realize that the banquet events for all (3) sports are fund-raising activities. And, we're not looking for handouts and free meals. It's just business.

Decisions, decisions.
 
-paulie

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13 comments:

  1. Hines-Allen sounds like she has the ability to take over games. How would you describe her style of play? Like Nita? Or Giibs?

    One thing worries me about this group of five and it is that there is no big player. Plenty of wings but how many of them can you play at one time?

    Curtis Franklin

    ReplyDelete
  2. Here is the take on Hines-Allen (from Kevin Meachum's article about her on her signing day)
    A gifted wing player with a high level of skill around the rim and an improving jump shot, Hines-Allen led the Mounties in scoring (22.6 points per game) and rebounding (9.6 per game) as a junior. Physically, Hines-Allen is quick and powerful as a runner with excellent leaping ability - a natural fit in Louisville's up-tempo style of play, she told The Times. "They play fast and they like to run," said Hines-Allen, who listed Georgia Tech, West Virginia and Ohio State as her other top choices. "That's similar to how I like to play. It really drew me in."

    ReplyDelete
  3. nobody asked me but paulie i say screw volleyball and hang out the lacrosse peeps u and your writers do a good job on all womens sports in coverage and volleyball at uofl is overrated and underperforming

    nicko

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd have to disagree, Nicko. Volleyball has performed well at Louisville since Anne Kordes' arrival. And the best is yet to come. When you lose talent like Rucker, Lola, James... a rebuilding season is evident. The Cards have two fantastic outside hitters, Katie George and many other talented underclasswomen (is that a word?) They'll miss the graduates from this year's team as well...but as our columnist Jeff McAdams is quick to surmise...2014 and 2015 should be banner years...especially 2015.

      The ACC will present many more challenges than the AAC did...where the Cards were undefeated.

      We like to say here..."Trust In Tom". WE'll add another adage...

      "Anne has a plan."

      Paulie.

      Delete
  4. About the " To dine or not to dine" segment. It should be pointed out that Jeff purchases his tickets every year and attends faithfully. The inference about "comp" coverage refers to Sonja and I. All of us are members of the SideOut Club.

    Thanks for the e-mails about that.

    Paulie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You should go and pay for the Lacrosse dinner, Paulie. Take Sonja. Lacrosse is not nearly as big as volleyball. Lacrosse probably needs that support more.

      the real Joe Hill

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    2. Thanks for the input, Joe. The major difference here, I guess...it that Volleyball's is a wrap up and Lacrosse's is a look-ahead. We've never attended a Lacrosse dining event. Could be fun. I'll be on campus around 11:30 this morning to conduct interviews for the Saturday radio show with Coach Walz (who would probably buy me lunch if I asked) and then Coach Young ( who I wouldn't mind going to lunch with).

      But it's not about the food. Or the freebie. If anything, it's a query about the reversal in Volleyball's prior offerings to us.

      It's a banquet. The food isn't going to be five star quality at either. It's a Saturday night out with Sonja. It's also an article opportunity and...truth be told...won't receive as much attention (no matterwhich way we go) as a basketball article.

      Our readers like to read women's basketball news first and foremost. We try to cover ALL UofL women's sports...probably don't give some of them the coverage we should, but we could go to a "all WBB, all the time" format and probably see an increase in hits.

      We choose not to do that. We like softball, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, field hockey, swimming, tennis, golf and the other UofL women's athletic programs.

      Maybe I should just stay home saturday night on Feb 1st, order pizza and write an article about Shoni. LOL

      Paulie

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  5. sound like to me they wanting u to pay and cover. mean they dont appreciae what u do. yeah paulie come over and write an article bout me and give me 80 dollars.

    WBB#1 fan

    ReplyDelete
  6. I only come here for your basketball coverage which is really good. That said it's pretty clear that you folks are fully committed to all U of L women's sports in spite of their general lack of popularity with the public. It also looks to me like you've been doing it for years. It seems pretty crazy to me that you folks aren't getting comped to the annual banquets for all of the sports you report on and cover so well. It also seems to me that folks at the upper level of the U of L athletics hierarchy would feel the same if they were aware of it. Hopefully Jurich or Walz are following this blog and can positively impact that situation.

    I don't know if anyone is interested but "Off The Rez", the film documentary about the Shimmels just became available for purchase yesterday on iTunes for about thirteen bucks. I've always wanted to watch it but was never able to catch it the few times it was network broadcast. I went ahead and bought it and I've got to say I thought it was really well done. To be clear I don't have any business or financial interest in this film but can't recommend it highly enough to anyone interested in the Shimmel family backstory.

    I sometimes lose track of the fact you folks are doing this blog gratis. Sending some bucks via PayPal this morning. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for contributing to CARDINAL COUPLE! Your donation goes to helping us cover UofL Women's Sports and we appreciate it. It seems every time our "wheels squeak" here at CC, someone from UofL attempts to throw some grease on them. They volleyball article drew a response later that morning and we were assured we would be on the comp list by the director of volleyball operations.

      We declined.

      I received an offer from the lacrosse folks to attend their banquet and cover it on a comp status.

      WE accepted.

      For the most part, the women's coaches at UofL are most accomadating and enjoy what we provide free to our readers and listeners. We enjoy covering their programs. These coaches also have very good sports information directors who help keep us in the loop.

      Nevertheless there are a couple who exhibit an aura of arrogant superiority to us when we ask. We won't name names here...we just deal with it and try to remember that all people aren't cut from the same cloth.

      Thanks again for helping us "keep on keeping on."

      Paulie

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    2. No Problem. Over the past couple days I've been thinking about the funding of your blog activities. Was wondering if it would be legal, ethical and / or OK with U of L to do some simple things to assure you folks at least break even financially on your efforts.

      Here's the idea...Would it be possible for you to have some sort of "auction" of autographed U of L women's sports items to fund your activities? The last thing I'd want to do is to anything to reflect negatively upon women's sports or the University. That said, although I had to go to EBay to do it, I bought the Sports Illustrated that has the Shoni / Jude "Umatilla Thrillas" piece. If they could autograph it you might be able to auction it off (even if just to your blog readers) and use the proceeds to help fund your blog support of U of L women's sports. Just an idea. If you think it makes sense I'd be happy to donate my SI to the cause. Maybe you could get Walz and Jurich to sign it too if it passes the legal and political correctness tests. Based upon what you've said it wouldn't take many bucks to get you guys to break even on your efforts.

      Something to think about. You shouldn't be going into the ditch financially to do what you're doing.

      Delete
    3. We do have some additional fundraising ideas we are kicking around for 2014 that will make Cardinal Couple a break-even proposition. Any profits that we might show for 2014 will be used to increase and further our efforts here.

      I also have that SI edition about Shoni and Jude. Let's both keep our copies...

      We are looking at a possible CARDINAL COUPLE polo shirt or t-shirt deal with a local vendor. Trying to negotitate a scenario where the cost wouldn't be too high for buyers and still create a small profit for this entity that would help cover costs.

      There are other opportunites that have been presented to us as well.

      The mission here is to keep the site advertisement free and function as an independent source for the coverage of UofL women's athletics....on a break-even basis. 2013 was a year where we actually crept closest to that break-even status. If things go the way we think they might, we hope to acheive a 2014 finish where the income matches the expenditures.

      Even if it doesn't...we feel that keeping the site free of "premium information for a fee" and "corporate advertising sponsorship": is the main priority when it comes to the daily operation of the site.

      Our readership continues to grow monthly. We'll soon be part of a very exciting "low FM" signal in our radio endeavors with Crescent Hill that will help spread the word of what we do here. ISonja and I feel we have two excellent columnists and co-hosts in Jeff and Jenny and wouldn't mind adding one additional voice to this already excellent crew...but it would have to be under the same terms and conditions that we currently work under. For love of sport. Gratis contributory status. A person that would fit into the excellent chemistry the four of us have established.

      David Watson has expressed an interest to return to and become more involved in writing. The offer to return to part-time contributions still stands for a couple of former columnists we have had here. Sonja has pretty much retired from actual columns but still remains a advisory source for articles I write...as well as handling the administraitve aspects of the site and radio show.

      We're not trying to re-invent the wheel. We just want to keep it rolling smoothly...and avoid blowouts.

      Paulie

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    4. FWIW, auctioning a copy of the SI issue with signatures from Shoni and Jude would almost certainly run afoul of the NCAA regs. Basically having an exchange of money of anything with a student-athlete's signature on it is a no-no as that would be making money off the likeness of a student-athlete which would run afoul of the NCAA's totally arbitrary and hypocritical "amateurism" guidelines.

      Cool idea, but it just wouldn't fly.

      Delete

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