Louisville women's basketball faces Syracuse today! Sunday Cardinal Couple

WBB vs Syracuse

The Women's Basketball Squad is in Syracuse today preparing for a matchup against the Orange, and one of the most colorful basketball coaches in the business.  We, here at Cardinal Couple, don't hide our admiration for the style and panache of Quentin Hillsman, but there is a basketball game to be played.  We've also made light of the cavernous Carrier Dome, where the women also play in Syracuse, being "packed" with an attendance of less than 200 people.  A quick perusal of a few of the box score sheets from this season didn't turn up any games with attendance of less than 1,000, and the Pitt game had over 8,000 in attendance.

So, while we do have some fun when we talk about "The Big Ol' Funky Q" (yes, that's an homage to a decades past promo from WQMF, the radio station here in Louisville), and the attendance woes at the Carrier Dome, let's give the program some credit.  They're starting to draw a bit of a crowd, and they've got a few decent wins in their results this year.  They're 17-6 overall, though they are only 5-5 in conference.  Some decent non-conference wins over good, but not powerhouse teams like Wisconsin, and Vandy, and in conference a 76-69 win over Florida State is worthy of praise.  They've taken some losses against some very good teams, mostly in the strong ACC conference slate, and they've got all the wins they should've against the also-ran teams that they've played.  All in all, I think it's time to start giving the Orange some props for putting together a solid, if not world-beating, program.

Louisville will be looking to continue the rebuilding of a win streak, getting back out to 4 wins with a victory today.  There's not enough games left in the season and post-season to get back to the 20-win streak that they had to start the season, so that record is not in real jeopardy, barring winning a National Championship and extending the win streak into next season.  If that happens, however, the focus will almost assuredly be on the Championship win, not the win streak, though perhaps we'll return to the topic in November.  Regardless, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Today's game could be a field day for our bigs as Syracuse doesn't have a great deal of experience with bigs in the paint.  While 5 players on the squad are taller than 6 feet, 4 of them are freshmen.  Q has apparently realized that he needs some height on the squad.  The Syracuse squad is also quite an international affair, with a pair of players from France, a Canadian, an Aussie, and a Latvian.

Let's hope the women's team today has a bit more success than we saw from the men yesterday. Regardless of the outcome, the "Q" show should be a Oscar winning performance and worth catching.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

It was another good day in the studio for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour because Jared was at the bank...no wait, despite Jared being at the bank turning 20s into 10s and 5s..."despite" was what I meant to say there.

In Jared's place, Paulie, Case, and myself were joined against by Mike Gilpatrick from River City Cards.  A whirlwind hour discussing the big relevant topics in Cardinals athletics, including maneuverings and departures among the upper management of the Athletic Department.  If you missed it, well, shame on you, but you can check the rebroadcast and "jump around" on the Soundcloud at:

https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20180203.

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JMcA