WBB and Lacrosse Win for Paulie... Softball Hits the Road... FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women’s Basketball Closes in on Conference Championship

One game.  That is all that stands between Louisville women’s basketball and their first ACC regular season championship.  After their 51-39 victory over Virginia the only team left on the schedule is Pittsburgh.

The Cavaliers/Wahoos (your choice of nickname) gave the Cards all they could handle.  It turned into a defensive battle as neither team could find an offensive spark.

“Nite-Nite” played the most minutes on the team despite having a minor injury.  Her 13 points also led the team.  Jaz Jones (10 points) was the only other Cardinal in double-figures.  Doo-Blay had a quiet night compared to normal.  She finished with seven points, eight rebounds, and team-highs with four steals and three assists.

The Cards capitalized from the free throw line, connecting on nine of their 10 attempts.  Everything else on the stat sheet was rather subpar.  51 points is quite a bit below average.  The 15 turnovers are higher than the dozen Coach Walz allows per game.  The eight assists were on the lower side this season.

J-A-R-E-D Report

J- jump shots: 19-for-50 (38%) is not terrible.  Many early shots would not fall.  Asia had some trouble even hitting rim tonight.  Sam did not make a shot and Myisha shot poorly on her deep two’s.  4-for-14 (28.6%) Behind the three-point arc was not impressive.  Nothing higher than a lowercase “j” can be awarded.

A- assists: Eight assists will frustrate coaches.  Part of the low number of assists goes back to the poor shooting percentage but the Cards had nearly twice as many turnovers as assists.  The guards contributed to only half of the assists count.  Better passes and better shots will get that number up, but it sits at a lowercase “a” for this game.

R- rebounds: Louisville got outrebounded 37-33.  In my book it is unacceptable to get outrebounded.  The poor shooting percentages by both teams left the door wide open to haul in rebounds.  Coach Walz’s squad had no players in the double-digits on boards- a rarity.  No letter can be awarded here.

E- effort: Things just seemed slow.  Communication was bad.  Passing was bad.  Shooting was bad.  Rebounding was bad.  But the defense looked good.  Full court pressure caused problems for the Cavaliers.  Effort was not 100% but they hustled on the defensive side of things so a lowercase “e” is given.

D- defense: Virginia managed 39 points in the entire game, an average of less than 10 points per quarter.  Louisville’s defense surrendered six points in the second quarter and eight in the fourth.  Walz administered a full court press for a majority of the game and disrupted Virginia’s struggling offense, resulting in 21 turnovers.  Holding an opponent to such a low number can almost always guarantee a win.  Capital “D” without a doubt.

“j-a-_-e-D.”  Yikes.  It’s a win but at this point in the season I expected better.

POST GAME WALZ: JEFF WALZ AFTER BEATING VIRGINIA

POST GAME PLAYERS: ASIA DURR AND ARICA CARTER POST GAME VIRGINIA


EDITOR NOTE: 

I have just returned from the Friday UofL WBB presser that had Myisha Hines-Allen and Jeff Walz.

Here are the links for listening:

MYISHA

JEFF WALZ

Lacrosse Blows by Butler

In their second road contest of the season the lacrosse team claimed a win at Butler 20-4.  After falling to Denver pretty badly last weekend the Cards rallied and responded to coaching. .

Caroline Blalock and Alex McNicholas had four goals each.  For McNicholas it was her first scores of the year.  Tessa Chad pulled off a hat trick.

Nine different players scored on the day, one shy of the 10 from the regular season opener.  The past two games relied heavily on two or three scorers, but this game showed the depth on offense.  Having several players with the ability to score makes the life of opposing coaches difficult.  Gameplanning against an entire team of scorers is no easy task.

Lexie Ball allowed four goals while recording nine saves to claim the win.  After seeing a combined 15 minutes in two games in the 2017 season Ball has stepped up to the plate this year.

The sticks move to 3-1 on the year.  They get to return home to the LLS to host Coastal Carolina on Saturday at noon.  The folks from the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour will rush over as fast as they can following the conclusion of the weekly radio show.

Softball Visits Orlando Again

The Louisville softball team returns to Orlando for the D-9 Citrus Classic 1.  They have two games today: Lehigh at 10 AM and South Carolina at 12:30 PM.

Unlike the previous mini-tournament in Raleigh this one features different opponents each game.  Morgan State, South Alabama, and Harvard are also on the schedule this weekend.

Megan Hensley and Danielle Watson have been the main pitchers in the circle, although Kyra Snyder has seen some playing time as well.  Caitlin Ferguson and Alison “Mike” Szydlowski lead the team in batting average, both having high success on offense early on.

I hope to see more home runs and RBI’s this weekend.  Jenna Jordan is on top with two homers while Nicole Pufahl and Hensley both have one on the year.  The baserunners have been there.  Now it is time to bring them all home.

The Cards have their home opener on Thursday.  If you have not been to a game yet come check them out and join the cheering section.  We sometimes get free peanuts and M&Ms.

It sounds like Pauline had a pretty good 21^st birthday yesterday.  WBB and Lax won and he got to go to bed knowing softball starts this morning.  Make sure to send him some belated birthday wishes if you have not yet!

Enjoy your Friday and weekend!  Be sure to tune in Saturday morning to hear Paulie, Case, special guest Paige Sherrard, and myself in the studio.  Worldwide will be back with us next week.

Go Cards!

Jared