Tough Thursday ACC test for Louisville WBB -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

WBB CARDS TO FACE FSU IN TALLAHASSEE 

You knew the assortment of cupcakes and pastries the UofL WBB squad had been feeding on in ACC play had to end eventually. Only one of the Cards five wins has come against that is over .500 in conference play.  #4 Louisville faces Florida State tonight in the Donald L. Tucker arena in a game that will be televised on ESPN3 at 7 p.m. An arena that holds slightly over 12,000 will host two of the hottest teams in NCAA WBB. 

The 'Noles are averaging about 2700 per game for home contest...a number that will most likely swell with the advent of bringing in #4 in the nation. FSU happens to be a perfect 8-0 at home this season...owning quality wins over Florida and Duke in the "DLT". 


Sue Semrau's squad is also on a four game win streak and have won 13 out of their last 14. Sue's been there 18 years and has complied a 332-216 record. Sitting at 17-2 overall and 4-1 in ACC play...FSU is a team that averages 76.6 points per game while allowing just 55.6 to their opponents. They also hold a 44.2 to 30.6 rebounding edge per game. Very impressive stats for a squad that hasn't had an ACC Player of the Week or Freshman of the Week this season.

Losses have come to Washington (68-80) in Cancun and at Notre Dame (68-74). 

The 'Noles are a well-balanced squad that has nine players that average over 14 minutes a game. They've also been aided by two key transfers...Maegan Conwright (from UK) and Leticia Romero (from Kansas State). Romero, you might remember, showed an interest in and visited Louisville after leaving K-State. FSU has five players who average over 10 points per game. 


Adut Bulgak, a 6'4" junior center, leads the squad with 14.0 ppg and 10.3 rpg a game. Conwright, a 5'9" redshirt senior guard is good for 11.5 ppg a contest. Romero has been eligible for the last six games and has made an immediate impact at point guard...the 5'8" sophomore guard brings 11.2 ppg. Ivey Slaughter ( no relation to Nita) is a 6'1" sophomore forward with 11.1 ppg and 6.3 rpg numbers. 5'11" freshman forward Shakayla Thomas averages 10.5 ppg.
Brittany Brown, a 5'8" sophomore guard is a starter that also sees significant minutes. 

No easy task tonight for Jeff Walz's crew. Louisville will need to get off to a good start and try to go toe-to-toe with the strong rebounding Seminole paint dwellers. FSU in second in the ACC in rebounding offense and tops in ly rebounding defense. They trail only Duke in total rebounds on the season. They also average over six "threes" made per game. 

Walz has had since Sunday night to develop a game plan to win this one in Gatorland and four days of strategy for the mad scientist is like free gas at the pump...beneficial, never wasted,  always appreciated and "a win-win". 


Whether the strategy will be adhered to by the sometimes attention deficit disordered Cards remains to be seen. In any event, it should be a whale of a game to watch and would be arguably UofL's biggest win of the season on the road since defeating California in Berkeley.

Louisville has won the last two meetings with the Seminoles in a series that is tied at 12 games apiece. Last time the teams squared off, Louisville recorded a 69-59 overtime victory in the KFC Yum! Center. Jude Schimmel forced the extra session following a steal and uncontested layup with less than 30 seconds in regulation. Her sister Shoni had a game-high 21 points, and the Cardinals scored 29 points off of Florida State’s 26 turnovers.

We'll have a full recap of the action in the Friday edition of Cardinal Couple. 

paulie  

Wednesday Cardinal Couple -- The saga of Leticia Romero

WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE


- Romero, Romero...wherefore art thou going?

The journey of ex-Kansas State, freshman guard Leticia Romero is an interesting study in the wacky world of college student-athletes and transfers.

Consider this:

One day, "Leti" is sitting in the year-round beautiful climate of the Canary Islands. Several days later, she's braving a late Feburary midwestern snow-storm to meet with the coaches, staff and players of K-State....and then finding out their arrival back to Manhattan, Kansas has been delayed by the very storm she braved to get there.

Leticia Romero gets the top billing in this topsy-turvy story. After all, she is the player all the fuss is about. Other characters would include Deb Patterson, K-State head women's basketball coach for the Wildcats who got canned at the end of the 2013-14 season. Deb coached the program for 18 years...but a 11-19 record and 5-13 conference mark last year had Kansas State athletic director John Currie convinced that a change had to occur. Out went Deb and her staff. 

John Currie will play the role of the villian here.

Add Xavi Lopez, former collegiate and Spanish professional player who stepped in when the Romero family asked for guidance in helping Leticia get a college scholarship. It turned out well for Xavi, too...who got a graduate assistant job out of the deal. 

After the firing of Patterson and hiring of Jeff Mittie and a new staff...Leticia tried to adapt to the change in coaching. After a stellar season where the 5'8" guard led K-State in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals...she now found herself without the four people who helped her through that freshman season. Patterson, Lopez and assistant coaches Kamie Etheridge and Shalee Lehning.

Lehning was offered a chance to stay on by Mittie. She declined. Lopez felt his talks with Mittie didn't go so well so he left as well. Etheridge accepted the head coaching job at Northern Colorado a few weeks later. Guess who she hired as assistants? Deb Patterson and Shalee Lehning.

Leticia Romero decided to transfer. AD John Currie refused to grant her release.

Without the release, Romero could still leave but would not be eligible to get scholarship consideration at the new school she chose while she had to sit out the mandatory year. She couldn't swing the finances of a year at college alone. She was in a quandary. She considered legal action.

In America less than a year and suddenly...an orphan in the storm.

Then social media kicked in. Jay Bilas began tweeting about the injustice. Joshua Kinder of the Manhattan Mercury newspaper wrote:

"Perception is everything. And right now, K-State looks a

lot like a bully."

Longtime youth coach and national girls' basketball evaluator Mike Flynn expressed that he thought the decision on Romero was "infuriating" and that he intended to make sure recruits nationwide knew about it.

Currie backed off. The release was granted.

Why is this news? Guess who was spotted on the UofL Campus Monday?

Not Currie. Not Elvis. Not Deb Patterson.

Leticia Romero.

All told, there are probably 300 schools who would love to have a visit from the talented freshman. Then, there is this...yesterday from Jen Smith of The Lexington Herald-Leader:

Jen Smith@jenheraldleader

"Hearing from multiple sources that Kentucky is strongly in the mix for transfer Leticia Romero, who led Kansas State in scoring last season."

 

A very reliable source close to the UofL WBB program tells us:

 

"We shall see".

 

Here's a little more fuel for this Kansas brushfire:

....Kansas State has blocked former women’s basketball player Leticia Romero from receiving immediate financial aid from 94 schools in 13 conferences, including Wichita State. Her attorney said K-State has granted Romero permission to contact two schools not on her initial list. He said it also briefly granted Middle Tennessee State, one of the teams on her list, permission to speak with Romero. But K-State retracted the offer within one hour, claiming a clerical error had been made....

Do you really want to play sports at a school
that has a mascot that looks like this?

Stay tuned. We have a feeling this one could get even better than it is already.

Here's the sad thing. A girl comes to America to play basketball. Her four main mentors are all now gone from the school she played at. The athletic director refused a release at first but bows to social media and outrage. K-State initially blocks her chance to sit a year under scholarship before the negative publicity became the Wildcats new guidepost.

What's even more ironic is that K-State president Kirk Schulz is on the committee that is attempting to make some wholesale changes to NCAA governance of college sports.

Hey, Kirk...grab a bucket and clean up your own backyard before trying to change the world.

So...

Why doesn't John Currie like Spanish girls?  

A heroine, a villian, a do-gooder and a couple of mentors. It has the makings of a great Hollywood script...A good witch, bad witch and Dorothy. Currie and Schulz mime Abbott and Costello.

And now...multiple suitors. Or not. Depends on what day it is, I suppose or whether the skies are cloudy or clear.

Let's just hope and pray the NCAA doesn't get involved. They'll have her playing lacrosse at Bucknell in 2016.

Two people with the last name of Romero cross my mind.

The first is the late actor Cesar Romero...who was "The Joker" in the Batman television series of the late sixties.

He would have appreciated the ironic humor involved in this episode.

The other is Randy Romero, a Hall-Of-Fame thoroughbred jockey who overcame humble beginnings and career hardships to become one of the best riders of the 1980's.

Randy's ending is the ending we're looking for in Leticia's story.

Give "the Ville" due consideration, Leti. It just might be fun here at Louisville
becoming a sophomore with Myisha, Sid, Mariya, Arica and Ariana. The mad scientist Jeff Walz has a way of developing 5'8" guards who can score and pass into marquee attractions. And, there's nothing like that magic moment when the KFC YUM! Center lights go out, the music and montage takes over the scoreboard and the arena and Sean Moth booms:

"Let's meet your UofL Cards !!"

And 10,000 people roar in approval.

paulie

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/kansas-state/#storylink=cpy