Sunday Cardinal Couple - Rivalry Day

Rivalry

Merrian-Webster defines "rival" as "one of two or more striving to reach or obtain something that only one can possess".

On first glance, that doesn't seem to capture everything that is a rivalry.  But when you stop and think about it, it is the core of the concept.  Only one team can hold bragging rights for the state of Kentucky in women's basketball.  In a series like UofL and UK, someone is a winner, and someone is a loser in the game, only one can be that winner.

But what makes a rivalry different than any other competition, as all of the above holds true for any series between two teams.

Frquently, there is a geographical component.  Most of the great rivalries (at least at the college sports level) are between teams that are relatively near each other.  Duke vs UNC, Pitt vs WVU, Ohio State vs Michigan; all of these schools are relatively close to each other geographically.

OK, that's interesting and all, but that certainly can't explain the phenomenon.

What I think may be one of the most important factors is relatively equality between the teams.  As
much as there's a tendency to trash talk a rival, and brag about how much better your team is than the rival's team...ultimately, most rivals have a relatively balanced competitive landscape, and tend to be from relatively similar school.  When you look at UofL and UK, you end up seeing a lot of similarities.  The schools are in the ballpark of the same size (UK is a bit larger, but not radically so), they're located in the two largest cities in the state (Louisville is definitely larger than Lexington, but they're both mid-sized cities in the overall scheme of things), they have a broadly similar set of academic programs available (yes, each school has programs unique to itself, but there are many degree programs in the same fields at both schools).

Rivaly, it seems, is largely about similarity, competitiveness, and equality...at least broadly.

I mentioned this on the Cardinal Couple Radio Show yesterday.  Rivalry games aren't fun when they're blowouts all the time.

So, when you're on that message board, or poised over the "Publish" button on that comment box, maybe take a second and think about the broader picture.

The trash talking and posturing can be fun (though I personally find I tend to tire of it fairly quickly), but maybe think about whether you really want a blowout of a game and the other team to be totally humiliated.  You probably don't, in reality.  It's OK not to admit that on that message board, or comment thread, but do keep it in the back of your mind, and consider, even if just for a moment, that the folks on the other side of that rhetorical Maginot Line, assuming they think it through like this, probably feel the same way.

The Deets

Gameday is here.  Louisville vs Kentucky.  Arguably, one of the greatest overall basketball rivalries of all time, comes to Louisville today.  2pm is the tip and for you out of towners, it is available on the ACC Network Extra.  If you're in town, well, it's still available on the ESPN streaming setup, but really, there's no excuse for not getting down to the KFC Yum! Center today.

 It is a Red Out, so wear red (and, yes, we accept that "The Guv" will be in blue today, that's fair.).  It is the annual Pack The House Promotion as well.  Today is also a Toy Drive for Family Scholar House, a fantastic organization that strives to break the cycle of poverty and support single-parents working to get a college education through housing and so many other programs that celebrate and support both the parent and the children's work in their education.

You can get a $4 ticket for admission either by showing your Kroger Plus Card for the Pack the House promotion, or by bringing a toy for Family Scholar House.  At this point, you're probably going to be sitting in the upper deck as more than 11,000 tickets have already been sold (as of the latest I heard yesterday), but the atmosphere should be electric, and the basketball should be amazing between two Top 20 and undefeated, teams.

We started a "name the winner and score" prediction revelation yesterday on the radio. On the Cards winning side of the ledger, Paulie sees it 78-73, Daryl 79-63, Jared 84-78 and Worldwide Jeff McAdams 86-83. We've also had people weigh in on the score verbally. Sonya went 55-49 UofL and Paulie's pal Hollywood says 100-79 UofL. Via comments on the site here, we've had Joe Hill 67-58 Cards, K.Starks 82-64 Cards, "The Guv" 77-61 UK and an e-mail from "someone who is well familiar with the UofL WBB squad" who went 77-67 Cards.

You can weigh in also in the comments section. We'll send you either a Panera or Famous Dave's Gift Card if you pick the winning team and are closest to the final score.

Fire away!

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Daryl joined Paulie, Jared, and I in the studio yesterday for the weekly Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, and a fun time was had by all.  We had a great hour-long discussion about the African Pygmy-Kingfisher.  I learned that they are a monogamous breed of birds whose habitat is pretty much all of African with the exception of the Sahara.  They burrow, or inhabit the abandoned burrows of other animals....

Wait, that's not right.

We had a great discussion about the upcoming rivalry basketball game of course.  Jared, Paulie, and Daryl previewed the UK team and what we should expect from this game.  I fiddled with knobs and buttons and forgot to double-check that the audio stream was coming across on Facebook Live at the beginning...sorry for that.

You can check the replay, including the pantomimed intros, at:
https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/1131364903710958/

Daryl is deciding on permanent walk-up music, so if you have suggestions for her, throw them in the comments.

-- 

JMcA

Sharing Swimming and Softball Success this Sunday

It was a good day for the women of Cardinals athletics.  While none of the "Big 3" fall sports were in action for the women (volleyball, field hockey, and soccer), several other sports that we try to cover were in action.

Softball

To start with the one I can personally report on, Softball wrapped up their fall season yesterday with games against Kentucky and WKU.  It was a lengthy afternoon at Ulmer with 3 games on the schedule, as Kentucky and WKU tangled between the two UofL games.

The Cards started with the Wildcats at noon.  I arrived about the 4th inning for this one after finishing up the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour and grabbing a quick bite to each for lunch.

UK has some fantastic fielding prowess, but the Cards were able to get 3 up on the scoreboard while holding the Cats to just 2.

After the Cats and Hilltoppers tangled (Kentucky won, 2-1), the Cards took on Western Kentucky and dispatched them with relative ease, 3-0.

No stats sheets are available for these exhibition games, but some generalized thoughts and some observations on a handful of players that caught my eye.

The team played smart ball.  Throws were to the right places, they didn't make throws to try to get
outs that they had no chance of getting, they made smart hitting and running decisions.  Maddy Newman, a sophomore, has some serious wheels - look for stolen base stats, here.  Freshman Charley Butler won't be far behind.

Sidney Melton, the last member of the original Cardinal Couple All-Syd/Sid/Szyd team still playing at UofL will be super valuable to this team.  She was holding down the corner at 3rd, and may be one of the savviest base runners I've ever seen.  Combine with decent speed, and joining Maddy and Charley and I look for this team to rack up some serious stolen bases this year.

So. Many. Pitchers.  5 players on staff listed as pitchers, and all apparently are healthy at the moment.  Megan Hensley is expected to be the ace of the staff, but redshirt freshman Taylor Roby certainly acquitted herself fairly well in the circle yesterday as well.

Funke getting funky? 

Lastly Celene Funke covers area in the outfield well, but she also appears to be the heart and soul of this team.  If you've seen pictures of the Softball team goofing around, you've seen pictures of Celene Funke as she will quite reliably be in the middle of it, but more importantly, she celebrates her teammates successes, and is there to help and guide them in moments where they don't accomplish what they set out to do.  I'm only seeing the team dynamics from the outside, but she appears to be stepping into a major leadership role, and I can't think of a better candidate for it.  And she's only a Junior.

The main Softball season typically gets underway in February.  With weather patterns being what they are in Louisville, a typical schedule starts with about a month of road trips to the south and west before rolling back the tarp at Ulmer.

Worldwide asks Holly about the Softball Doubleheader at the link below:

https://youtu.be/kVPC6WHOb2w

Swimming and Diving

The Cards were in Dallas for the SMU Classic.  A bit of a funky format for this meet, with each team
only able to bring 8 swimmers and a single diver.  There are only two heats for each event, a Consolation heat and a Championship heat and each school can only enter one swimmer in each heat.

Louisville has placed second in this event by the slimmest of margins in the past two years, missing out on the top team spot by a single point in 2016, and by a mere half a point in 2017.

It was a major step forward for the Cards this year, winning the meet by a substantial margin, with a total of 358 points, with Southern Cal finishing 2nd with 312 points.

True to form, Mallory Comerford won every race she entered (each swimmer is limited to two single events and two relays as part of this format, if I understand it correctly).

A number of other names that we've heard before continue to do well and comprised most of the rest of the roster.  Alina Kendzior, Grace Oglesby, Casey Franz, Sophie Cattermole, Mariia Astashkina, Arina Openysheva, all return for the Cards, while freshman, Diana Dunn made the roster in her first season.  Molly Fears, also a name that has graced the pages of Cardinal Couple in the past, was the diving participant, and finished in 5th place.

Activity Today

In action today is Women's Golf down at UNC, and Field Hockey at Trager Stadium with a noon
start.

It's not a stellar day for Field Hockey with drizzly rain falling, but it is Senior Day for the squad.  They will be honoring the 4 seniors on the squad, Maria Gomez, Ayeisha McFerran, Katie Walsh, and Taylor Stone.

The foe for Senior Day will be a non-conference opponent, but an always challenging Miami (Ohio) (32nd in RPI).

The Cards are currently sitting 3rd in the ACC with a 2-3 conference record, with only one conference matchup, against Syracuse (1-3) to go.  They are mathematically eliminated finishing any better than 3rd, with Duke in 2nd at 4-1 after their narrowest of victories over the Cards Friday.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Only two of us knuckleheads were in-studio yesterday for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.  Paulie and I kicked it old school, and I wasn't much help as I spent the week in a casino-induced week-long work event news brown-out in Atlantic City.

It still was a good show nonetheless, Paulie even managed to work his way through the scheduling and twitter without mishaps.

A lot of great interviews to listen to and hear Paulie get flustered when talking to the WSOC seniors! 

Catch the replay on Facebook Live:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/695131550871037/

-- JMcA

Mother's Day and Graduation Celebration -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Mother's Day and Commencement

Today is Mother's Day.  Yesterday was UofL's Commencement.  These are really unconnected events, but they both are a reason for us to stop, take a step back, and do some reflection.

In the past, I have posted about the need to understand the diversity of what the role of "mother" is in our society.  Regardless of your thoughts on what constitutes "motherhood", it's good to take a step back and honor those who fill that role.

Today, we're celebrating Mother's Day, and in the attitude of celebration and honoring, it's a good time to celebrate the accomplishment of 3,000+ now-former UofL students.

Yesterday was UofL's commencement and more than 3,000 students crossed the stage, in various ceremonies, and all of them will be going on to hopefully bigger and better things.  For some, that will involve more education, while for others, it will involve venturing out into the "real" world.

Here at Cardinal Couple, we tend to focus on the women that compete for UofL varsity athletics, and
there were a number of those that were amongst those 3,000+.  We celebrate "Senior Day"'s and we tend to think of those student athletes "graduating" at that point, but it's far from the case academically.  Some student-athletes have more coursework to do, and this is particularly relevant when celebrating a Senior Day for, say, Volleyball, in November.  Those student athletes are still finishing out the fall semester, and a number of them will be enrolled in the spring semester classes as well.  Maggie DeJong, for example, participated in UofL's commencement yesterday after being honored by UofL Volleyball's Senior Day back in November.  (The other volleyball seniors, Tess Clark, Gabbie Wiley, and Colene Coussens, all graduated in December)  On the other hand, some student-athletes, whether through hard work, or having a year of red-shirting in their experience, may have already "graduated" with their undergraduate degree, and be working on a graduate program.

Tia Gibbs, that many of us remember from Women's Basketball, was granted a rare 6th year of eligibility by the NCAA due to injuries, and consequently was nearly finished with her Master's degree by the time she finished her last semester.

So congratulations to all of newly minted graduates of the University of Louisville, student-athlete and non alike.

Your achievements in your field of study are something that will remain with you as you go through life. You have "the paper", you have the knowledge. Go forth and make a difference in whatever your choosing is after college.

Track&Field and other

A quick catch up on athletics events...

Track&Field finished up the ACC Outdoor Championships.  The Men finished in 4th place, while the
Women closed out a 5th place finish.  These represent best ever finishes for the Track&Field teams in the ACC championships.

Baseball won game two of the weekend series against Pitt, 6-5.  Kelly Dickey pointed out that this is the 4th straight come-from-behind win for the Cardinals, which while technically true, does include a come-from-behind win over Cincinnati that they won 24-6, so that stat may not have the same sort of impact that you might normally think.

What will have more impact is that the Cards have climbed 23 spots in the RPI to #26 in less than 2 weeks.  With a few more wins, it's conceivable that UofL will climb into NCAA Regional hosting contention.

Rowing takes part in the ACC Championships today. As of this writing, the Cards were capturing seconds and thirds in their preliminary heats...always tough Virginia dominating everything in the boats so far.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Paulie using some of those "nickles changed into quarters" to
invest in his picks from Handicapping Heroes. The Orange Crush!

OK, now that we're done celebrating, we can bring you some bad news.  The knuckleheads were back on the air yesterday...

No, in all seriousness, even CCRH was able to celebrate some yesterday with the return of Case Hoskins to our midst.  Recovery from tearing his Achilles tendon continues, but he is able to get out and about some, wearing a boot on his foot, and we were happy to have him, and his insights, back in the studio.  Jared was, according to Paulie, "turning nickles into quarters", which really makes me want to go do my banking with Mr. Anderson.

If you missed the show yesterday, you can check it out at least what was able to be salvaged of it. The Gremlins living in the WCHQ Studios ate 42 minutes of the broadcast yesterday:

https://www.facebook.com/WCHQfm/videos/2031250936898179/

It was good fun, and covered a variety of material.  Do check it out.

--
JMcA

Four National Championships -- A Look Ahead to the Weekend -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cheer and Dance Add Hardware to the Trophy Case

Louisville may have lost an NCAA Championship recently, but they can add four national championships awarded by the NCA and NDA.  The cheerleaders and Ladybirds returned home from Daytona recently with plenty of hardware.

The Louisville large co-ed and all-girl groups won their respective divisions, with the large co-ed winning their 18th title.  This year was the 20th anniversary of all-girl beginning competitions in Daytona.  The small co-ed finished fourth, a bit lower than planned, but still an honorable mention and impressive result.

The Ladybirds competed in two genres: team and hip-hop.  Unsurprisingly, they won both, marking the third straight year they claimed the double-title.

In the Todd Sharp era the Louisville spirit groups have been dominant, constructing a dynasty that even UConn women's basketball would have a tough time matching up to.

Despite not being one of the official 21 Division 1 sports at UofL we want to extend a huge congratulations to the cheerleaders and Ladybirds.  While most of us have the option of missing out on a football or basketball game every once in a while the spirit groups are always in attendance and ready to put on a show.

Women's Soccer Schedule Change

Originally scheduled to have a home spring match tonight, the women's soccer team has had a schedule change.  Instead of playing at home they will now hit the road for a Friday night match.  The reasoning behind the last minute change is unknown, but presumed to be either weather or travel-related.

WBB Recognized at Baseball

Prior to the start of last night's Louisville baseball game there was a ceremonial first pitch.  In honor of their first ever ACC regular season championship and ACC tournament championship and their third Final Four appearance the women's basketball team was honored in front of the crowd of just north of 2,000.

Photo courtesy of Alexia Byrnes

Half of the team was in attendance with the other half including Jeff Walz MIA.  Myisha Hines-Allen and Jazmine Jones took to the mound to give us a glimpse of their best fastball.  Myisha's was a strike right down the middle while Jaz's throw was a two-hopper to the catcher's mitt.

The team is also rumored to be a part of the Pegasus Parade, but not as the Grand Marshall.

Saturday's Psychotic Schedule

WCHQ fm every Saturday 11-12

After enjoying another session of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour you can hit up Floyd Street for an unreal number of home events.  Due to the high number of events I find it easier to break down the schedule below:

10:00 - Track & Field Louisville Invitational, all day

12:00 - Lacrosse vs Virginia (Senior Day)

6:30 - Volleyball vs Butler Spring Game

7:00 - Men's Soccer vs Lindsey Wilson Spring Match


NOTE: Football has moved the Spring Game to Friday Night, 7:30 p.m. due to expected inclement weather on Saturday. 

All of these events are on Floyd Street and have free admission.  Bring your walking shoes and a snack because it's set to be a long day.  You can catch me with my camera at all of the events except for football.  If I'm passed out on the sidewalk before the day ends just leave me be and I'll be up and at 'em eventually.

The weather, as of now, looks like actual spring weather, with highs reaching almost 80 here in Louisville and a chance of rain Saturday night.



JOIN MYISHA! 

Myisha Hines-Allen wants you to come join her Thursday, April 12th from 7-10 p.m. for the WNBA Draft. She's making it a fundraiser for the Louisville Metro Parks Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation (AIR) program. AIR is a non-profit organization that provides a wide range of recreational activities for individuals with intellectual or physical disabilities and their families.  

The "watch" will be held at the Berrytown Recreation Center, located at 1300 Heafer Rd, in Louisville. Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children and students. 

Read all about it at the link below: 

Myisha Draft Day Fundraiser


A great day to help out an organization near and dear to her heart. A wonderful gesture from a woman who gave her all for Cardinal WBB for four years. We encourage you to attend or donate! 


HAVE YOU SEEN? 

We have a new column over on "The Right Side of the Site". It is TODAY'S LEXOPHILE. We'll change it up daily, with a different picture from our vast database. Today's entry is posted. It involves police at a daycare. Seems a three year old was "resisting a rest." 

We love "plays on words" 

If you got one, share it with us.

Leave it in the comments section or e-mail it to me directly at
cardinalcouple@twc.com 

AND...TODAY IS: 


Enjoy your Wednesday and Happy National Pets Day, Barbershop Quartet Day, and International "Louie Louie" Day.

I guess that means you'd be in perfect alignment if you grabbed your cat, went to join up with the gang and broke into the Kingsman's immortal song in four-part harmony. Let me know, I'll try and stop by and take pictures of it if you do.

LINK:

LOUIE, LOUIE

- Jared -