Louisville Women's Track and Field Receives Honors -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 

FORREST NAMED ACC INDOOR TRACK AND FIELD SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR.

Ah, the lick to have the writing assignment today here at Cardinal Couple, when there are no UofL women's athletics results to report, and not wanting to steal our other writers' headlines for laater this week. 

Louisville women's track and field probably doesn't get enough coverage here. Let's talk about some of the great academic honorrs they received from the ACC. 

Later on today, Dana Evans will hold a presser about the WNBA Draft. Some Cardinal Volleyball fans (including our own Jeff McAdams) are on their way to Omaha for the NCAA Tournament. Lacrosse has a huge weekend of matches against Syracuse coming up and Softball entertains Duke, while womens' soccer brings in Wake Forest. 

As we transition out of Louisville WBB and move forward in our spring sports coverage, let's use today to take a look at Louisville women's track and field

Makenli Forrest, a redshirt junior out of the Woodwaard Academy in Ellenwood, GA has received the ACC Track and Fieldd Scholar Athlete of the Year honors. She has maintained a 3.6 GPA during her time at Louisville -- and was also named  the ACC Field performer of the year for 2021. Her major is Exercise Science.

What is it that she does so well?  Makenli participates in throws for Louisville and her areas of specialty are the weight throw and the shot put.  She claimed the gold medal title in the weight throw at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships back on March 11th. He toss of 23.26 meters also broke the Louisville record of 22.76, set by D'Ana McCarty back in 2010. Forrest's toss was the best of any in the 2021 season. 

Louisville has had a long history of top throwers in Women's Track and Field. In addition to McCarty, remember Emmonnie Henderson? She set many records at Louisville from 2013-18 for the Cards in the shot and discus field events. She also played a little basketball at Louisville, as well. 

The NCAA record was set back in 2007, with a toss of 25.56. 

In addition to Forrest, several other Louisville women's track and field student-athletes earned All-Academic honors: 

-- Haley Hudson  (Williamstown, KY) This thrower was naked to the NCAA All-American Second Team and had made the Louisville Athletic Director's Honor Roll 11 times, the Dean's List seven times and is a six-time Red and Black Scholar. 

-- Gabriela Leon (Grand Rapids, MI) A Cardinal pole vaulter, Gabriela is a two time ACC Academic team selection and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll seven times and four times to the Dean's List and Red and Black Scholar list. 

-- Purity Sanga (Kapsabet, Kenya) Purity is a distance runner and transferred to Louisville from Tennessee Tech last season. She earned Athletic Director's Honor Roll and Red and Black Scholar honors as well. She earned a bronze medal in the ACC 5000m run

-- Auriane Viola (Schiltigheim, France) earned all-conference second team honors with a career-best mark in the pole vault to finish fifth in the ACC Championships. The marketing major is a two-time Red & Black Scholar and Dean's List honoree and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll three times.

-- Aliyah Welter (Monticello, Ill.) earned 2021 NCAA All-American second team honors in pole vault. The junior tied a school record with a vault of 4.32m (14-2) to place second in the 2021 ACC Indoor Championships, earning first team all-conference honors. The exercise science/sport administration major and two-time Dean's Scholar honoree, has been named to the Athletic Director's honor roll five times and is a three-time Red & Black Scholar.

Congratulations to these stellar UofL student athletes and their coaches. !!

paulie

Track, WBB and The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Track and Field

Still around...still winning. 

Quirky fact: If you've ever looked at the list of sports at http://www.gocards.com and wondered how UofL comes up with 23 sports in which they compete in, the answer is Track and Field.  No, Track is not considered a separate sport to Field, but in the NCAA worldview, Indoor Track and Field is considered a separate sports from Outdoor Track and Field.

This weekend was the UK Invitational for Indoor Track and Field.  Friday saw throwing events, and yesterday saw a broader slate of events across the spectrum of the sport.

Louisville saw a little success on Friday, with Makenli Forrest and Carson Cassell finishing in 6th and 8th places, respectively, in the weight throw.

In action yesterday, we immediately have to issue a correction to something that was said yesterday on the radio show...

Emmonnie Henderson, who we mistakenly said had graduated, won the shot put with a throw of
16.35 meters.  Meanwhile, over at the high jump, Javen Reeves, and Jerin Allen finished 1st and 2nd with jumps of 2.15 meters...which to my mind seems like a tie, but somehow Reeves was awarded 1st place and Allen 2nd.  I can only surmise what the tie-breaker is in this case...perhaps the number of jumps required to clear the height?  If anyone has info on how this works, I'd love to know.

Alexis Gibbons and Teague Peck both picked up 2nd place finishes.  Gibbons in the long jump with a distance of 5.93 meters, and Peck in the 400 meter run crossing the line in 48.31 seconds.

Marcus Jegede and Devin Valentine picked up 3rd place finishes in the long jump and triple jump.  Jegede leaped 7.28 meters, while Valentine took a couple of extra hops and reached 15.15 meters.

Congratulations to all of the Cardinals, both men and women, that represented the University well down in Lexington.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

The studio was down a couple of contributors yesterday, with Case bowing out of the radio show due to illness causing vocal issues, while the studio dog, Punkin, wasn't able to join us either.  We soldiered on, despite not getting our requisite dose of pooch pettings, and I think had a pretty good show.  Paulie, myself, and JC "no periods" Sullivan, got the opening sections completely out of order, but did eventually get everything accomplish, and then had a great discussion about the UofL Women's Basketball team, continuing to bask in the glow of Thursday's win over Notre Dame.  We did a quick rundown of new coaching announcements in Lacrosse, Volleyball, and Women's Golf, and we spent a little bit of time breaking down the recent effort to educate CardNation on Twitter not to call the women's sporting teams at UofL the "Lady Cards".  Listen through to the end to catch the latest update from UofL's success in the Manager Games...yes, that's a thing, and yes, UofL is doing quite well.

You should be able to find the recording, when it shows up, at https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20180113.

--
JMcA

Emmonnie Throws, Cardinal Arena Grows -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Emmonnie Henderson Finishes 10th

Emmonnie Henderson competed at the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, CA yesterday afternoon.

Henderson finished in 10th place, with a throw of 17.02 meters (55' 10 1/4").  The USA Track & Field Championships is not a college event, meaning athletes can compete even after they finished their college careers.  Among college athletes at the event, E finished a quite respectable 3rd.

We've spoken about Emmonnie's "5th year" of eligibility in the past, mostly on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, in talking about Emmonnie's past experiences with the basketball team.  No one really thinks that "E" will make a return to the hardwood, but we overlooked some facts in "E"'s history on the Track & Field side of things.

It's important to note that the NCAA considers Indoor Track & Field to be a separate sport from Outdoor Track & Field.  Indoor is a fall sport, while Outdoor is a spring sport.  "E" didn't start competing with Dale Cowper's T&F squad until spring of her freshman year.  The takeaway from that is that, while her 4 years of eligibility for Outdoor Track & Field is complete, she has only competed for 3 years in the Indoor side of things.  She is also only 4 years through her total 5 years of all sports NCAA eligibility.  This means we still have a fall Indoor Track & Field season where we will continue to get to cheer "E" on as a Cardinal.

Throw 'em far, "E".

Cardinal Arena Expansion

The UofL Volleyball and Women's Basketball organizations are swapping locations.  Volleyball, which has had their offices and practice facilities in the "Little Yum" facility are in the process of moving to the SAC building up next to Brandeis/Cardinal Avenue on Floyd St, while the Women's Basketball program will be moving south down Floyd Street to take up their residence, along with Men's Basketball and Lacrosse, in the "Little Yum" center.

Cardinal Arena has been getting a needed face lift in the process.  The Volleyball program has been posting pictures and short video clips of the work.  The recent pics have started to show how there will be some small amount of extra seating added to the arena, so I thought I would share them with you here.

I'm looking forward to a spruced up arena, just be sure, if you're sitting in any of these end-zone seats, to be alert (because the world needs more lerts...but seriously, keep alert...there are too many homeless lerts already...I'll be here all week, don't forget to tip your waitstaff).


RADIO DAZE

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour aired another successful broadcast Saturday. Jared Anderson joined Paulie, Worldwide and Case in studio to talk baseball, basketball, track and field and other Cardinal Sports.

The guys also attempted the highly regarded Worldwide Quiz, moderated by Paulie. Yesterday's test was on mascots. As tough as it was, the crew came through in fine fashion...Jared and Worldwide tested out at 80% and Case scored a 70%. They retain their eligibility for next week.

For Euphonium references, the Lord Jeff sequence, revelations on why coaches get tossed from games and a couple of sophomoric Indiana jokes...click the link to hear the rebroadcast:

LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 6/24/17

-- JMcA

Omaha Bound

Baseball Punches The First Ticket to Omaha

I hope Peyton Manning wasn't in town yesterday, because he would've been one very confused person with so many people talking about Omaha.

The Baseball team punched their ticket to Omaha, with the 6-2 win over Kentucky.  Brendan McKay with 6 2/3 innings in the win, with Sam Bordner coming in for relief.  The scoring was didn't come in overwhelming waves, but rather slow, but steady progress throughout the game.  OK, well, it did get started with a bang, with Drew Ellis ripping a solo shot, scoring a touch-em-all in his 2nd straight game, in the top of the 2nd inning.  (Due to NCAA rules, Louisville, despite being the host school, was the "away" team in this game.)  The Cards put up another in the 5th, when Logan Taylor collected a walk to get on base, advanced to 3rd on a Colby Fitch single out to right, and tagged for the score on a Devin Mann sacrifice out to right center.  Kentucky would claw one back in the bottom of the 5th.

In the 6th, and Drew Ellis comes back to up to bat.  Again?  Sure, why not.  Solo shot to left, that I thought might've gotten caught by the firefighters on the overpass 500 ft beyond left field.  Devin Hairston picked up a walk and scored on a Josh Stower triple down the left field line making it 4-1.  The Cards would load the bases up again, but a double play at 1st and home got the BatCats out of the inning.

UK would get one more back in the bottom of the 7th, but UofL would come back and put 2 more up on the board in the 8th.  Tyler Fitzgerald walked, and scored on a Logan Taylor double.  Taylor would then score on a Colby Fitch single to right center.  That gets you to the final 6-2 score, and it was just a matter of getting through another inning and a half before the dogpile and celebration.

Huge credit to Kentucky as they played extremely well this season, and have a huge potential in front of them.  This was their first trip to a Super Regional, but it certainly won't be their last.

E Ends in 14th

We spoke, yesterday, on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour about Emmonnie Henderson's last hurrah as a Cardinal Thrower on the Track and Field Team.  After climbing to a 2nd place finish in shot put on Friday, "E" would end up in 14th in the disc throw yesterday.  That may be a little bit of a disappointing finish, but it's truly an amazing accomplishment for Henderson to have advanced this far in her throwing career.  We hope she can continue her training, maybe find a few sponsorships to help her along, and perhaps make a 2020 Tokyo Olympics appearance.

She does have another year of overall eligibility left in athletics, but we don't expect to see her back out on the hardwood again.

The Summer Slump Has Arrived

Case, Julie "JC" Sullivan, and myself were in the radio studio again yesterday.  It's always great to JC with us, and it's particularly great to have folks that can carry on a great conversation as we head into the summer slump with so little on the schedule to talk about.  We digressed a bit, but we did get some good discussions in about Cardinal Baseball; Track and Field, including the latest UofL NCAA Championship, Edwin Kibichiy's win in the 3000m steeplechase (like hurdles, but with traps!).  We also got to hear a little about Case's adventures in Tough Muddering (that's a word, now), including some electroshock therapy?  You'll have to check it out, for all the gory muddy details.

-- JMcA

Who's Turning Left This Weekend?

Emmonnie Henderson Takes 2nd

Emmonnie Henderson's outdoor shot put career with the Cardinals is over, but she went out with a bang...well, maybe a thud of a heavy metal weight landing in grass, but the thud was a long way away!

With her best ever throw, at 17.92 meters (59 feet 9 1/2 inches), she took second place at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Eugene Oregon.  That finish also earns her a first team All American honors, and a spot in the UofL history books with the best ever women's finish at the NCAA Championships.

Many of the Cardinal faithful, of course, remember Henderson's contributions on the hardwood as part of Coach Walz's basketball squad.  She does still have a year of overall NCAA athletics, should she wish to return to Walz's squad and patrol the paint some more, but I suspect that is not in the plans.

We here at Cardinal Couple, will certainly continue to watch E's career, and hope for a continued arc of success and perhaps an appearance in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo?

Congratulations and good luck, E!

Baseball

It's time for some more left turns around the basepaths for the UofL Baseball squad.

Kade McClure will take the mound just hours from the time of this writing, with the Cardinals Ace, Brendan McKay being held for his normal rest, likely for tomorrow's game.  There's been a lot of tongue wagging in the sports media about Dan McDonnell's decision to go with McClure for the first game, rather than the staff ace, although UK has made basically the same decision, to give the extra day of rest to their ace and high altitude weatherman, Sean Hjelle.  At 6'11", I'm sure he never hears the end of the "How's the weather up there?" comments.

Perhaps the biggest matchup in the NCAA Super Regionals, the Cards and Cats were inexplicably given a noon start time by the worldwide leader in sports layoffs.  Tickets have been sold out for this one, both chairbacks and berm space.  If you want to see this one in person, perhaps you can join the Louisville Firefighters out on the overpass beyond left field.  Give them a hat-tip for their selfless work and efforts, they certainly deserve it.  This one is televised on ESPN2, or you can enjoy the aural delight of Sean Moth on 93.9FM.

Belmont

We do have some more horses turning left this weekend in a major event.  With the possibility of a triple crown already off the table for the year, the Belmont does lose a little bit of it's luster, but the Belmont is always a well-done event.

Anyone that has followed Cardinal Couple over the years, and particularly listened to the radio shows, knows of my epic lack of horse handicapping skills.  Head over to Paulie's site for his Belmont picks.

Hippy Hippy Shake

Finally, best wishes to Paulie as he undergoes a hip replacement and will be spending a little bit of time on the IR list.  I know we were all looking forward to an anesthesia powered Paulie article, but it's not to be.  Let's hope Sonja at least gets some audio recordings for posterity.

Good luck to Paulie, and let's hope he's not stuck with a hip that makes him always turn left.  Rest up, recover, and come out and show us that Hippy Hippy Shake.

-- JMcA

Memorial Day -- Emmonnie Henderson -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

From all of us at Cardinal Couple...a brief Memorial Day Tribute. 


For those who gave their lives while serving our country...
We honor you.

To my Uncle Martin Busch, who died at Pearl Harbor .
I honor you. 

To my childhood buddy Ricky Hawkins, who died in VietNam
Your family and I honor you. 


To all who have served...putting their lives on hold to defend
our country and keep us safe from harm and free.

We honor you. 


To my father, father-in-law, uncles and cousins who pledged
to serve with duty and honor and protected our way of life.

We will never forget. 




HENDERSON QUALIFIES TWICE FOR NCAA

By now, the trip to Eugene, OR. is probably a pretty familiar
journey for UofL shot-putter and discus tosser Emmonnie Henderson. 


On Saturday, "E" qualified for the NCAA Championships for the
third straight year in the shot put...coming in second at the NCAA 
Eastern Regionals with a toss of 17.93 in Lexington, KY.  The day
before...she secured an additional berth in the NCAA Finals with a 
seventh place finish in the discus. She's one of six Cardinal athletes
that qualified to go to Eugene and the only one who qualified in two
events. 


She made a tough decision several years ago...and it appears to be
the right one. Coming to Louisville in 2013 as a basketball player in
addition to being a track and field star...she split time between the
two sports her first two years. Known as a fierce rebounder with inside
scoring skills...she made the AAC All-Freshman team her first year and
acheived her first double-double he sophomore year. 

She had a dream, though...and it was to represent the USA in the 2016 Olympics in field events. She knew that to try and make the squad,
it would require more than just a partial season of training and efforts.

The decision to leave basketball was a tough one...but Coach Walz encouraged her to pursue that dream and she sadly left the team after the
2014-15 season. 

Emmonnie fell a bit short of getting to Rio in 2016 but the drive and  determination to become one of the best in the world at the shot and discus did not die. She's back on the big stage again this upcoming weekend with one last collegiate chance to ascend to the medals platform. 

Give it a couple of last tosses, "E". Do your best...you've already cemented
your status as the best ever at Louisville in the events. Go show the NCAA
now...


CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

In case you missed the Saturday broadcast of The Cardinal Couple Radio
Hour on WCHQ 100.9...go to the link below. Had us a good time, we did and the Worldwide Quiz is back for the summer. 

THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 5/27/17


paulie
xxxxx

Cards Fall to Noles, Henderson Qualifies -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Still Stumped by Florida State

After defeating Notre Dame on Thursday in a game that meant literally nothing to the outcome of the ACC tournament, Louisville fell to Florida State for the third straight game (over two weekends). Florida State jumped ahead early with two runs in the first and never yielded that lead. Louisville closed the gap to 2-1 and 4-2 at different points in the game, but were unable to get themselves going for much more. The final score was 6-2. Regardless of Thursday's outcome against Notre Dame, Louisville had to beat Florida State to advance to the semifinals because the Noles beat the Irish earlier in the week. Such is the nature of pool play, but I certainly don't like it. Perhaps the reason the Seminoles kept their mojo against the Cards is because they never actually left Louisville. Rather than fly back to Tallahassee after last weekend's series in Jim Patterson Stadium, Florida State's baseball team has been shacked up in the Seelbach Hotel waiting for the ACC Tournament to start. Savvy move, if you ask me. Keeping your team on the road can help them keep an edge they might lose if they head home. 

Despite the loss, Louisville still has an RPI of 5. RPI is usually the best indicator of how teams will be ranked by the selection committee, so there is a good-to-great chance that the Cards will earn one of the top 8 seeds. These top 8 host until the CWS (provided that they win), and Louisville has hosted super regional series in the last two years. Let's hope that they don't send us a California team if we do it again. The Cards will find out their fate soon enough. The NCAA Baseball Selection show starts at noon on Monday and will air on ESPN2. 

Emmonnie Henderson Moves On

Henderson threw discus yesterday better than everyone but 6 other people at the event. That was my
fun way of saying she placed 7th. Fortunately for her, 7th is good enough to advance out of the East Preliminary Event and move to the NCAA Track and Field Championships. This is her third straight year qualifying for the final event. She joins Holly Hankenson and Trevor Troutman, who qualified on Thursday. Also moving on are Martice Moore and Edwin Kibichiy who qualified in the Men's 400m Hurdles and the Men's 3000m Steeplechase respectively. Kibichiy placed first in his event. The Cards will hope to add to their qualifying total as the event wraps up today.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Returns

The guys will be back on the air today, likely replacing me with some sort of impostor. By the time you're reading this, I'll be headed north to watch fast cars drive around a circle a couple hundred times. Please think about me fondly and hope that the rain goes away. Tune into 100.9FM or the WCHQ app at 11AM to catch Paulie, Worldwide, and Mystery Player 3 talk about the joy and excitement of Louisville Women's sports.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

PS: Happy Memorial Day weekend. Take time to enjoy those around you and remember those we've lost. Celebrate their lives and sacrifices. Stay safe in your travels and revelries. 

McKay leads the way in Baseball 10-4 win...Henderson throws today in NCAA Regionals -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

GRAND SLAM PUTS THE WHAM ON IRISH

The topic of conversation...when it comes to Louisville junior pitcher Brendan McKay...inevitably turns to whether he'll be both a pitcher and hitter when he goes to the major leagues. Or will he perform both duties? Yesterday, at Louisville Slugger Field, he showed once again that he's perfectly capable of performing both duties with aplomb...delivering a grand slam home run and pitching six innings of three run, eight strikeout ball from the hill in #4 Louisville's 10-3 pool play win over Notre Dame.  

McKay's blast to right field in the third inning plated a bag full of Cards. With two outs, Logan Taylor walked, Josh Stowers beat out an infield single and Devin Hairston took a pitch off the wrist to set the stage for McKay's fence clearer on the first pitch from Irish hurler Michael Hearne. It was McKay's second career grand slam and second home run of the game for UofL...Drew Ellis bagging a solo shot to left-center in the second inning. 

The Irish nibbled away at the 5-0 Cardinal lead with two runs in the third and a run in the fifth to get within two. McKay, scheduled to pitch six innings, gave way to freshman Adam Elliott in the sixth...who put the Irish away scoreless in the seventh and eighth. Another freshman, Shay Smiddy, completed the contest by keeping Notre Dame at bay in the bottom of the ninth. 

The Cards increased the lead to 7-3 in the seventh when Hairston provided a two out, two RBI single that scored Logan and Stowers. Three additional runs crossed the plate in the top of the ninth...keyed by a Stowers double and two sacrifice flies. 

The Cards, 1-0 in pool play, face nemesis Florida State today at 3 p.m. to try and clinch the semifinal berth for Saturday. Game time is 3 p.m. I watched part of it yesterday on Fox Sports South...and the announcers weren't too bad. You can hear Cardinal renaissance man Sean Moth provide the radio call on 93.9 FM...I tuned in for a couple of innings and never cease to be amazed on how smoothly and how easily he relays of all kinds of information during a broadcast.

The pool play concept is an interesting twist to a conference championship. One would also like to see ACC softball adhere to this type of format. Right now, with 11 schools participating in the sports, it would need a bit of tweaking...but Clemson is picking up the sport by 2020 and that's the number of squads that play in the ACC baseball championships. 


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NCAA EAST REGION TRACK CONTINUES TODAY

Six UofL women's track athletes participated in the NCAA East Regional preliminaries Thursday...but none qualified for the NCAA Championships. 

Morgan Zacharias finished the best of the six...getting 14th. in the pole vault. In the women's hammer, Cyerra Cassell finished 36th and Dolly Nyemah was 39th. Gwen Shaw recorded a 33rd place finish in the 400 meter hurdles. Bre'Yana Wash (26th) and Alexis Gibbons (28th) competed in the long jump.

Emmonnie Henderson will compete in the discus around 2 p.m. today. She has qualified for the NCAA Championships the last two years in the shot put and discus. THe women's shot put events will be held Saturday around 6 p.m. 

Still trying to find a broadcast possibility on these. I'll come back in and update the article if I do. 


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LOSING THEIR GRIP A BIT? 

We've talked here quite a bit about the ACC's dominance in several women's sports...primarily lacrosse, field hockey and soccer. So it does comes as a bit of a surprise the only one ACC school (Boston College) has advanced to the Final Four of the ACC women's lacrosse championships. 

The Eagles will face Navy in the second semifinal game today. Starting it off will be Penn State vs. Maryland. 

So...how did the six ACC schools that made the NCAA WLAX Championships do? 

Louisville and Notre Dame were eliminated in the first round. UNC and Virginia made it to the second round...where UNC defeated Virginia...but the Tar Heels lost to Navy in the quarterfinals.   

Syracuse advanced to the second round and lost to Boston College..who bested USC in the quarterfinals to get to the semis. 

A changing of the guard with two B1G schools in the final four? Maryland, of course, was ACC for years before jumping to the B1G. 

There is still the East Coast dominance present...to be sure...with two schools from Maryland in the final four and Boston College on the right coast. Penn State a bit further away from the Atlantic...but Pennsylvania a hotbed of talent for lacrosse...along with Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey. 


Best of luck to the Eagles, soar high and take the title! 







paulie
xxxxx

ACC Spring Meetings -- What's Going On?...Another leaves Rocky Top -- Wednesday Cardinal Couple

The coaches and muckity-mucks of the ACC have descended upon beautiful Amelia Island in Florida...located on the northeast coast of Florida and one of the Sea Islands...and the Ritz-Carelton for the annual spring meetings. As expcted, football and basketball is drawing most of the print and publicity. 

Roy Williams doesn't much care for this yearly con-fab and said he's leaving after day one. Football wants to tinker with the red-shirt rule. They'll also discuss the football collaborative reply rule they experimented with last year. 

The two big items to be discussed would appear to be HB2 and the future of THe ACC Network. 

HB2 is a law passed in North Carolina which, in short, mandates that transgenders must use the bathroom associated with the gender listed on their birth certificate. This bill has made the NCAA, ACC and NBA come out with the stance that their intentions were to avoid having athletic events in the state because of the discriminatory language in the bill. 

We saw the ACC women's basketball tournament moved to Conway, SC. The ACC Baseball Tournament will take place next week in Louisville, KY. The ACC is located in Greensboro. The ACC Softball and Lacrosse Tournaments remained in North Carolina. 

OK, enough potty talk...

The ACC Network is sure to be a hot topic items as well...especially in the wake of ESPN terminating around 100 people earlier this month. The key here, of course, is scheduling. The 2019 launch is still a "go", though...regardless of what bathroom the cameraman or color analyst chooses to use. 

You want to be able to present the games on your network that people want to watch. Not only in conference scheduling but also in the non-conference matchups. In all sports. 

We're not wearing blinkers or blinders here. We realize that football and men's basketball are the cash cows in any conference. Especially in the ACC. But, what about softball, lacrosse...field hockey and volleyball? Will the ACC Network do a better job than what we are seeing so far on the ACC Network Extra?

Let's go back a week. What was I able to watch on the ACC Network Extra that I was interested in? I was "blocked out" from the ACC Softball Tournament...but found it on Fox Sports South. The first round of the NCAA Lacrosse Tournament, which featured six ACC teams wasn't available on the ACC Network Extra and was a pay for view event for Louisville fans...unless you accessed it through your cell phone or tablet instead of your laptop or computer. 

I got to see the ACC women's rowing championships. Those are fun for me...but the commentators were "sweet, sunny Jesse, hog-calling awful". ACC Track and Field was available for watching as well. I missed most of that, but did catch Emmonnie Henderson's winning shot put throw. 

Louisville is sinking ACC mandated money into to improvements, upgrades and new broadcast and communications facilities on campus. Maybe they could also put bathrooms (transgender, single access unisex and/or traditional) in Ulmer Stadium and at the Louisville Lacrosse Field. Field Hockey's Trager Stadium has them...and a nearby McDonald's if you're on the other side of the stadium from the seating. Lynn Stadium and Jim Patterson have restrooms also. 

(Sorry, I keep drifting back to the bathroom in this article. At my age, it becomes important. One of the first things I do when I go to an opponent's arena, stadium of facility is make sure I know "if the loo is close to you")

And, is this ACC Network going to be something else I have to purchase and inflate my already eye-popping monthly cable, phone and internet provider's bill? I've watched the SEC Network and BIG Ten Networks. I'm impressed with a lot lot of programming on each venue. Can the ACC match or better this? Will ESPN have another round of pink slip delivery before 2019? Will they offer the current very good local ACC Network Extra announcers (like Don Russell, Daryl Foust, Christian Payne, Patty Norton, Sean Moth...etc..) a chance to call games on the ACC Network (sans Extra)?

So, at least they have convened at a pretty nice resort. $600 a night. We run Cardinal Couple on a tightly controlled budget of $1500 a year. Guess I'd be checking out after the second day. Walz and Pitino should have great weather to get in a little golf. Maybe they'll find a outdoor hoops court where Rick can show off his new no-look pass skills and play Jeff in a rousing game of "21". Jeff could show off his half-court shot. How about a pickup game of Walz, Pitino and Justine Sowry against Notre Dame's Brian Kelly, Mike Brey and Muffet McGraw? 

Women's sports will be largely ignored this week. Season tickets will probably go up slightly to cover the cost of bringing "all the boys to the convention" and wining and dining them for about a week. I doubt there will be a investigation/probe into how all 13 SEC softball teams made the NCA Tournament and Louisville didn't. And, most importantly...

Just how are the bathrooms at the Ritz-Carlton designated? Did everyone bring your birth certificates? 



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TE'A COOPER LEAVES ROCKY TOP

The sophomore guard is leaving the Vols after sitting out a season. 

Cooper's decision is unusual, considering she missed last season after undergoing knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament. She suffered the injury during the summer following her freshman season. 

The 5-foot-8 point guard averaged 8.6 points, 2.1 assists and 1.2 steals while playing in 36 games during the 2015-16 season. She started 15 games.

Cooper's decision comes less than a month after fellow guard Alexa Middleton announced she was transferring to go "somewhere to reach the goals I have set."

Tennessee, which had just nine available players last season, now is down to 11 players for next season. The latest attrition, along with Jordan Reynolds' graduation, has left the Lady Vols low on point guard experience for next season.

"Not another one, Holly?" 

Incoming freshmen Evina Westbrook and Anastasia Hayes both are point guards. One or both could end up starting, depending on how UT deploys its returnees.


Any Louisville interest here? 

September 2013: Cooper reopened her recruitment after giving a verbal to North Carolina as an eighth-grader. She is still considering UNC but also has 10 other schools on her list. In no order they are: Tennessee, Duke, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Florida State, South Carolina, Louisville, Kentucky, Rutgers and Pittsburgh.

paulie
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E Throws Big in Louisville Invitational....Softball Tonight...Basketball Musings -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

HENDERSON BEATS HER SCHOOL MARK IN SHOT

Emmonnie Henderson broke her recent record setting mark in the shot put...again...over the weekend in the Louisville Invitational. Last week, in the Alabama relays, she set a personal and meet record...as well as a school record with a toss of 17.50 meters (57-5:00 in feet). Saturday, she threw for 17.98 meters (59 feet). 

Henderson also won the discus throw with a hurl of 51.26m (168-02 feet). Her throw was 18 feet further than the closest competitor. 

Overall, the cardinal women's finished second in the event...scoring 165 points. Purdue won with 195. Louisville's women also fared well in the 3000 meter steeplechase...where Claire Noser won for the Cards. The 4X100 meter relay team (Kelsey Heyward, Bre'Yana Wash, Alexis Gibbons, Raven Grant) came in second and set a new school record with a time of 45.22. Bailey Davis took the 5,000 meter run for UofL, also. 

Next up, he Cards will host the Lenny Lyles/Clark Wood Invitational on April 28-29th at Cardinal Park.


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SOFTBALL HOSTS LIPSCOMB TODAY

Louisville Softball kicks off an eight-game home-stand tonight with a 5 p.m. contest against Lipscomb at Ulmer Stadium. Louisville (25-13) comes into the contest after sweeping Virginia Tech over the weekend in a three-game series in Blacksburg. 

The Cards step out of the ACC where they are currently 9-4 and in third place behind Florida State and North Carolina. 

Hot at the plate for Louisville is Nicole Pufahl.  "Poof" is batting .395 and has seven home runs and 37 RBI's. The speedy junior center-fielder from Moorpark, CA has also reached base via a hit or walk in her last dozen games. Seven Cardinals are hitting over .300 going into the Lipscomb contest. 

Maryssa Becker (19-7) continues to do work in the circle. She's complied an ERA of 2.13 and leads the ACC in innings pitched with 167.2.

The Cards faced Lipscomb (31-13) last year in Nashville. In a double-header, Louisville fell 2-1 in the first game but won the nightcap 7-1. 

Tonight's contest will be shown on the ACC Network Extra. They've haven't an
nounced the in-booth crew yet, but we're hoping for our pals Daryl Foust and Don Russell. Louisville also faces Western Kentucky tomorrow night at 6 p.m.


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WBB at LOUIE AWARDS

-- WBB has had several visitors recently to check out the campus. Ronnie Nwora and Mykasa Robinson have been spotted on the grounds. Two up and coming high schoolers that would be great "gets" for Jeff Walz. Put 'em in the basket and proceed to checkout, Coach! 

-- No transfers in or out of the WBB programs as of Tuesday morning. Unfounded rumors continue to swirl about who has and has not been seen on campus. We're taking this thing down to DefCon 3. When they announce, if they announce...we'll cover it. 

-- A nice turnout of Louisville WBB players at the annual Louie awards last night. 

Several WBB players received honors, as well as many other participants in all the Cardinal sports. List below: 

adidas High Performance Athlete of the Year
Male: Lamar Jackson (football)
Female: Mallory Comeford (swimming and diving)

Louisville First Award
Brendan McKay (baseball)

Inspiration Award
Rachel Pease (cross country)

Record-Breaking Performance
Olivia Cason (women's golf)

Breakthrough Athlete of the Year
Male: Will Smith (baseball)
Female: Sidney Melton (softball)

Comeback Player of the Year
Asia Durr (women's basketball)

Best Championship Performance
Individual: Mallory Comerford (swimming and diving)
Team: Men's Golf (NCAA Championship)

Moment of the Year
Mohamed Thiaw (men's soccer; game-winner versus No. 1 Notre Dame)

Play of the Year
Lamar Jackson (football; the leap over a Syracuse defense)

Best Team Win of the Year
Male: Football (vs. Florida State)
Female: Lacrosse (vs. Notre Dame)

Top Team Finish
Male: Men's Soccer (NSCAA national ranking: No. 6)
Female: Swimming and Diving (CSCAA national ranking: No. 8)

CardsCARE Individual
Male: Daniel Fecteau (swimming and diving)
Female: Lauren Kelly (lacrosse)

Cardinal Dames CardsCARE Team
Male: Football
Female: Soccer

Cardinal Cup
Women's Rowing

Cunningham Family Leadership Award
Male: Tim Kubel (soccer)

Central Cardinal Club Leadership Award
Female: Maryssa Becker (softball)

Outstanding Senior Spirit Award
Pep Band: Shelby Rich
Cheer: Anjelica Cirone
Ladybirds: Lauren Dale

Highest Senior GPA Award
Lotta Kahlert (field hockey)
Claire Noser (women's track and field)

Freshman of the Year
Male: Christopher Morin-Kougoucheff (tennis)
Female: Minout Mink (field hockey), Dorcas Wasike (cross country)

Sophomore of the Year
Male: Brendan McKay (baseball), Donovan Mitchell (basketball)
Female: Ayeisha McFerran (field hockey)

Junior of the Year
Male: Corey Ray (baseball)
Female: Myisha Hines-Allen (basketball)

Ed Kallay Senior of the Year
Male: Robin Sciot-Siegrist (golf), Grigory Tarasevich (swimming and diving)
Female: Kaylin Morissette (lacrosse)

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