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Saturday, August 5, 2017

Durr to Represent USA -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Final U-23 Roster Set


Because of our daily post format here at Cardinal Couple, we may not always be the first to bring you major news. You may also see the information presented in a daily post reflected in a previous day's comment. Such will be the case today. However, we do our best to bring you the news about Louisville women's sports that is most pertinent to you. We have our own opinions and viewpoints about those sports and we try to provide an honest and personal commentary. I have said before that I do not have as much inside knowledge about some of the topics that grace these pages, but I do what I can. With that said, let's talk about some international basketball.

The women's U-23 team roster was determined yesterday after the "gold and bronze medal matches." I'm not completely sure why they deemed the mini tournament important enough to award medals instead of just playing the game (it was just an exhibition tryout format after all), but that is neither here nor there. You can read more about all of the players and coaches' reactions at the USA Basketball website here, but the team is as follows:

Ariel Atkins - Texas
Monique Billings - UCLA
Kalani Brown - Baylor
Jordin Canada - UCLA
Asia Durr - Louisville
Sabrina Ionescu - Oregon
Brittany McPhee - Stanford
Kelsey Mitchell - Ohio State
Jamie Nared - Tennessee
Arike Ogunbowale - Notre Dame
Mercedes Russell - Tennessee 
A'ja Wilson - South Carolina

I'm not going to lie to you all this morning and pretend that I know who most of these girls are. They're names that I've heard of course, especially those that are on teams Louisville played last season, but I am not as "tuned in" to NCAA WBB as you may be accustomed to or as you may yourself be. I am proud of Asia Durr for making the team and having the opportunity to represent her school and country. She is an amazing player and, by all accounts, a wonderful person. Louisville is lucky to have her and I am excited for what she can bring this season. To say I am disappointed that Myisha Hines-Allen didn't make the team wouldn't really be the right word. That would imply fault of some kind, and it's tough to do that in this situation. Even though some of the players were at the trials for the exhibition and were ineligible to be picked, the selection committee still had the tough task of whittling approximately 30 of the best women's college basketball players in America down to just 12 for the roster. It would have been great to see Myisha suit up alongside Asia and Coach Jeff Walz but it was not meant to be.

All of these girls that were invited had a wonderful opportunity to get better over the past week. They played with and against some of the best of their peers and will be able to carry that experience forever. I think that the opportunity to play in all-star situations like this not only make a player better from a pure improvement standpoint, but I also think it makes players better teammates. Being able to come together in such a short time and perform as a team while learning new rules and styles of play is a testament to the mental fortitude that many of these players have. Those that were selected to go to Japan will have the opportunity to get even better, as well as experience a land rich with culture that many of them may never have otherwise gotten the chance to experience. I say congratulations to those that made it and good luck to the team in Japan.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour


We're back on the mics today as we are (almost) every Saturday. We'll talk about women's basketball trials, the upcoming seasons that are rapidly approaching at this point, have a wonderful chat with former Card, Candyce Bingham, and I'll try to beat Jeff at a quiz of some kind. I'm determined to beat him at some point. Check out today's episode of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour on WCHQ 100.9 FM, the WCHQ app or on their website at this link. In addition to the live show, you can always catch the recorded version on the website about a day after airing. Tune it at 11AM for more joy and excitement of UofL women's sports!

Until next time, Go Cards!
-CH-

3 comments:

  1. I can't believe that Erin Boley did not make the team but as Case said congratulations to all that did. I did watch the choppy feed yesterday on-line and from what I saw she was fantastic. I didn't think Myisha played all that great in the Gold game and it seemed like Mariya Moore barely got off the bench.

    Asia Durr tore it up in the Bronze game. I think I saw she had 13 points in a 22-9 win for her team. Congrats to "Durr"able!

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Durr, by all accounts, led team 4 to that Bronze win. They were playing 3-on-3 with each basket counting just 1 point. Durr went 13-15 from the floor, 3 for 3 from three-land and had 13 points.

      Durr-iffic! Congrats #25

      Paulie

      Delete
  2. The selections had some surprises for me. Didn't know much about Brittany McPhee. Taking two Vols gals? Taking two UCLA girls? Taking for PAC 12 girls? At least they had the sense NOT to name the UConn kids or Greenwell to the squad and then have to go about selecting alternates for them. Good luck Walz! Looks like they've given you an interesting squad.

    Curtis "WTF? No Myisha?" Franklin

    ReplyDelete

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