Basketball vs UNC - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Basketball vs North Carolina

After a "bye week" where they didn't play on Thursday, the Cards are back in action at the KFC Yum! Center at noon today with a tilt vs 11th ranked North Carolina.

UNC is currently riding an eight game winning streak, after losing their first three games straight in conference play.  Add on a non-conference slate ending loss to Michigan to make that a four game losing streak before finding their way in conference.  The only other loss they've taken this year is to Indiana who is proving to be quite a good team this year.  They've got non-conference wins over Oregon and Iowa State with the Cyclones currently ranked 12th, and the Ducks receiving votes.

The Tarheels did have a tough conference opening, with the three losses being against Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Miami, all top-half teams.  They started the conference winning against Notre Dame, and also picked up wins over NC State and Duke.

OK, so this is a pretty good team, let's see how they do it.  Mostly, they've got four players averaging over 10 points per game.  Deja Kelly with 16, Kennedy Todd-Williams with 14.1, Alyssa Ustby with 13.6, and Eva Hodgson with 10.2.

Kelly and Todd-Williams tend to get a lot of attention on this squad, but Ustby has the overall stat line that most impresses me.  She leads the team in steals with 44, more than anyone on UofL's squad.  She also, as a tall guard, leads the team in rebounding with 196, and 62 of those are on the offensive boards, again, outpacing anyone on Louisville's squad in both numbers.  About the only thing she's not much of a threat at is three point shooting.

So UNC is a very fine team, but this is the Atlantic Chaos Conference this year, so anything is possible.  We think Jeff Walz may stick with the new starting lineup, putting Kasa Robinson, Norika Konno, and Nyla Harris on the floor for the tip, which seemed to work well against Syracuse.

We also do expect to see Morgan Jones on the floor after her ankle sprain at Syracuse.  Despite looking scary at the time, it seems there was not serious damage done.  Certainly the bye week was timed well for her recovery.

Today is the annual "Pink Game/Play4Kay" game, to support research and work to help more people survive breast cancer.  The game honors those who have survived breast cancer, including a half-time recognition, but also honors Kay Yow, who was the long-time NC State head coach alongside Jim Valvano for whom the JimmyV Foundation is named.  The Kay Yow Fund is maintained by the JimmyV Foundation to specifically support breast cancer research in the overall cancer research mission of the organization.

The game is on ESPN2 today, with a noon tip-off, and of course, Nick and Cortnee have the radio call on 93.9FM.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

"Just" a trio on the CCRHP yesterday.  Case was recovering from travel, and Daryl was, hopefully, recovering from a water leak from an upstairs unit, leaving you with Jared, Paulie, and myself.

After our usual catchup and chat, Jared tackled the the schedule which includes the beginning of spring sports!  Mostly the discussion centered around basketball, and without a Thursday game, we gave a lot of attention to the Syracuse game, and discussion about today's upcoming game.

Check it out, as always, at anchor.fm or your favorite podcast directory:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/A-Basketball-break-and-Imminent-Spring-Sports-e1uf3j0

-- JMcA