CARDS LOOK TO ADVANCE TO SWEET SIXTEEN WITH TUSSLE IN TAMPA TONIGHT
The squads met twice last year...Louisville winning by 20 in the KFC YUM! Center and again in the AAC Tournament in Uncasville, CT. by four.
Louisville knows all about guard Courtney Williams. She leads USF with 20.1 ppg a game, in steals (56) and assists. She was All AAC first team and will be tough to stop. Same goes for paint powerhouse Alisia Jenkins, who averages a double-double with 13.0 ppg and 11.5 grabs.
The Cards may have the advantage in youth. Head coach Jose Fernandez has seen his fill of Sara, Jude, Bria, Shawnta', Sherrone, Megan, and "E" over the last several years. What may catch him unaware is the freshman powerhouse duo of Mariya Moore and Myisha Hines-Allen. At this stage, though...you go out and play your game and hope that it's better than the opponents. The Cards had little trouble in ousting BYU. USF had a slightly tougher time caging the LSU Tigers...winning 73-64. Any guesses who led USF in that one?
It'll tip at 9 p.m. EDT. Expect Bulls fans to show up with a strong contingent in the SunDome. Hope that they leave disappointed that their season is over. And pray that youth is served tonight as the Cards look to punch their dance card to Albany.
Enjoy the spring, MM.
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CARDS DEFEAT UNC TO STAY ATOP ACC
Louisville Softball improved to 8-1 in the ACC with a 6-4 win over UNC yesterday at Ulmer Stadium. The Cards...trailing 3-2... turned the game around in the fourth inning with five hits producing four runs. Big for UofL in the inning was a two-RBI single by Kelsi Jones and the same for Maryssa Becker. Becker came on in relief of Shelby McCombs and pitched five innings to get the win...keeping the Cards on top of the ACC standings.
paulie
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Beisdes Jenkins inside the Bulls don't have much more to offer in the paint. Weber is 6'5" but one of those 6'5" centers that is "tall and that's about all". THe Bulls like to run when they can but the Cards should be able to negate that.
ReplyDeleteI see Louisville going ballistic in the paint again and winning by double digits. USF did play UConn fairly close in the ACC Tournament but Geno went to the bench a lot in that one.
The weather great down here. I talked to several Cards fans Saturday before the game and there was a decent contingent from the UofL SW Florida Alumni Assoc. on hand.
The Real Joe Hill
Weber had a nice defensive game tonight
DeleteStringfield and Taylor are two guards that could do a little damage to Louisville if left unchecked. They had a big game against UConn and are quick, quick, quick.
ReplyDeleteGo Cards!
Blue Lou
I am very wary of USF. They forced UCon to play (3) starters the entire 40 minutes in the AAC Conference loss. They are quick, as quick as UK. Hopefully, the Cards have their track shoes on and can keep Jenkins off the boards.
ReplyDeleteA great time of year! Looking forward to see if Princeton can extend the unbeaten streak against the best opponent they've seen this year in Maryland. Brenda's team tough again this year, even without Alyssa Thomas.
Curtis Franklin
"For recreational purposes only"...the online wagering sites have the game as a pick 'em.
ReplyDeleteCards need to take care of the basketball, make a few threes, pound the paint and make free throws. It will be a war. I'm a big fan of what Jose Fernandez has built at USF.
Lots of numbers from the UK-Dayton game yesterday (99-94, 90% UD free throw shooting, etc.) but to me the most compelling one was the attendance - 3,320. Are you kidding me??? What does that say to MM and his players about the vaunted BBN fan support? Guess there's a gender gap.
The numbers are surprising for attendance. There was no conflict with "40-0, 40-0" playing...they played Saturday...maybe it was the price of tickets, maybe the students are spring break....maybe the 5,000 members of the Azia Bishop Fan Club stayed home because they heard she was sitting this one out.
DeleteI'll share (name withheld) parts of a very interesting e-mail I got from a pretty big backer of the program:
" The time has come for UK to go in a different direction in their head coach. The Cats should be contending for the SEC WBB title each year and a Finak Four team."
Interesting...
Paulie
LOL. Is there a Calipari type in WBB? The Cats fanbase is spoiled by MBB success and the crooked dealings of World Wide Wes and Teflon John.
DeleteHire Epps' dad. He's a rough looking dude that probably has "connections".
South Florida by 10. Too much quickness and Courtney Williams will have a huge game.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to post your prayers here...I'm sure your priest, pastor or rabbi will give you an audience.
DeleteWe have beat tons of teams with superior quickness -- UNC, Miami, Syracuse, Wake Forest... Do I need to go on? Have a little faith!
DeleteLouisville is 26-4 against them. The Russian Rocket is gone. All systems clear for a launch from Tampa to Albany for Louisville WBB! I do expect a close game.
DeletePaulie
The seven USF losses have come to Kentucky, Maryland, St. John's, East Carolina (huh?) and three times to "UCrown". I think that they will be quite ready for anything Louisville can toss at them. This is the best game of the night, matchhup wise
DeleteCan Princeton school Maryland? THis should be a fun one to watch also.
Nick O.
How about a shoutout to Louisville softball? Tops in the ACC? Good work, Sandy Pearsall and Softball Cards!
ReplyDeleteThe Real Joe Hill
Shoutout! Florida State and NC State will be tough tests...but, so far...the young pitching arms are holding up and the Cards are getting offense even with Brittany Duncan on the shelf with a bad thumb. We see ya Hit-and-Pitch Cards!
DeletePaulie
Shelby McCombs (freshman) and Maryssa Becker (sophomore) are both doing well in the circle, though they both occasionally have some stumbles. Coach Pearsall is really looking for consistency from them, and they are starting to settle in and make it happen a little.
DeleteThe offense is also starting to get fired up a bit more, though I think there still isn't the sort of consistency that they would like.
I must admit, though, the conference record so far is better than I expected, we'll see how it holds up as we progress. It's great to be on top, but sometimes hard to stay there.
Well, to be fair, KY has been placed in the UCONN region 3 of the last 4 years I believe. Uconn knocked them out 2 of the times. Hard to get to the FF when you have to play uconn in your region. Of course, Dayton being the most recent one to do it.
ReplyDeleteI think as a U of L fan, we avoided the Uconn region a lot since we were conference foes. Will be interesting to see how we get matched up in the future. Only one way to control that, and that is to get a 1 seed.
Or get the ACC to admit UConn to the league. Here's the rationale...at least from a WBB standpoint:
DeleteThe AAC is a very weak conference in WBB now. Beside USF, who is there to even remotely challenge the Geno Huskies? This will eventually affect (we hope) Geno's recruiting base....especially when ACC school point to their scheduling compared to Geno's. SOS, RPI...all that comes into play.
OF course there are a lot of other sports that UConn would have to participate in. MBB...no problem. Kevin Ollie is a great coach. In football, they'd be bottom tier in the ACC.
Paulie
One addition to ACC would bring 16 total teams: BC, Clemson, FSU, Miami, Lou, Pitt, NC, NC State, Duke, Wake, Virginia, Va. Tech, Syracuse, Ga. Tech, Notre Dame and the new school. UConn could be a fit. WVU would make more sense from a geographical point.
DeleteTwo eight deep divisions. The issue is that the ACC isn't looking to expand right now. Would that change if a Penn State or Rutgers were looking to jump ship to a more regionally sound alignment? And, is the money there for any university to consider leaving their currently conference alignment (BIG 10, BIG 12) to go ACC? Is Maryland having second thoughts now?
Excellent point. I didn't know UConn beat KY twice in the tournament in past years. Same thing would have happened to us if we faced UConn in an earlier round instead of the finals. We didn't come within 30 points either time.
DeleteAnd I am the guy who said four years ago that Jude couldn't play at this level. Shows what I know.
ReplyDeleteJUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Points C. Williams 25 J. Schimmel 13
DeleteRebounds C. Williams 7 J. Schimmel 6
Assists S. Stringfield 5 J. Schimmel 5
Steals S. Stringfield 3 J. Schimmel 2
Blocks K. Weber 4 S. Hammond 5
It was a beautiful thing to watch. Pretty cool that she saved the best clutch performance of her U of L career to carry us into the Sweet Sixteen. I don't know if you caught it, but after Hammond got her fourth foul Sara started to yell at Hines-Allen due to a missed assignment and Jude grabbed her by the chin, looked into her eyes and told her to knock it off. Never seen her that assertive before. The last ten minutes of that game was a good as Jude has ever played for us. I'm still smiling.
DeleteThat was totally awesome.
DeleteMariya Moore is dirty as they come. She picked up another technical foul tonight with a cheapshot to the head of a USF player on a backswing after she was fouled on a rebound. It could have cost Louisville the game since it was a 4 point swing instead of us getting the ball USF sank two free throws, got the ball in bounds and scored another two points. Disgusted with her.
ReplyDeleteFully Agree with that assessment.
ReplyDelete