Louisville Women's Basketball...Durr Claims R.O.W. again and Cards move up to #13 -- Tuesday Cardinal Couple

LOUISVILLE FRESHMAN DURR GATHERS 2ND ACC ROOKIE OF THE WEEK HONORS

There can be little doubt that the start of 2016 is meeting with Asia Durr's approval. She's gathered her second ACC Rookie of The Week honors in one month yesterday, the Cards were 9-0 in January and she's scored in double figures in her last eight games. Toss in the USBWA National Freshman of the Week laurels and you really couldn't blame her if she was a bit sad to see the calendar flip to Feburary.

All that for a player averaging 25 minutes a game and coming off the bench for Jeff Walz's women's basketball team. Walz will tell you no one spends more time in the gym than the Douglasville, GA. off-guard (he'll also tell you she needs to shoot more...but that's an entirely different story.) That hard work is paying off and backs up the old adage that you create your own success. 

What a long way from December for #25, when it was speculated that she might "red-shirt" her freshman year because of continuing pain from a groin injury back in the spring of the year. Psychologically...when one receives confirmation that things aren't getting worse and what one is experiencing is normal for a situation...it can only boost the psyche and attitude. When Durr received the affirmation from the doctors that she was healing properly, we saw the #1 recruit in the nation buckle her seat belt and hit the fast track. 

We get speculation here at the 'ol C.C. and there have been wonderings on whether Walz should make her a starter. I will offer some personal and good advice to this debate.

Don't wonder why Coach Walz does something..unless it's just out of innocent curiosity or to get a better understanding of the reasoning.

I'm pretty sure that the man has earned the deserved respect on how to run the UofL women's basketball program by now. You probably wouldn't want him popping into your workplace and changing the way you file your papers, treating your customers or revising your methods of doing business. He doesn't ask to run CARDINAL COUPLE and I have no desire to coach the Cards...

Step back, let the gentleman do his thing and enjoy the results.  His bosses haven't put the "Head women's basketball coach" title in front his name on pure whimsy or because they lost a friendly wager.

Granted, some coaches recently in DI women's basketball have appeared to have gone off the deep end or lost control of their teams. In Louisville, that's hardly the case. If anything, the Cards are experiencing a resurgence after a struggling start and high expectations. The redemption train has a full head of steam and is rolling down the tracks.

We can only predict that if you liked the January version of Asia Durr and her squad, you're going to love what you see in February. You'll have four chances to see them this month in the KFC YUM! Center. Why would you want to miss any of them? Your first chance is Sunday...with #3 UND visiting "the place of slaughter down by the water". 


CARDS CLIMB TO 13th IN POLLS


Louisville WBB has climbed to 13th in the latest Associated Press and RPI rankings. The Cards move up a notch from last week's #14th. in each. 

The ACC has four schools in the top 25 (Notre Dame, the Cards, Florida State and Miami). A bit of an eyebrow-raiser that the Seminoles are ranked 10th...yet the Cards knocked them off by ten points to start the month of January. 

"WHAT happened in season five of The Walking Dead?" 

Too much love for the SEC here, in my opinion, with seven schools (South Carolina, Miss. St., Texas A&M, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and Missouri) in the top 25. The Pac-12 has five schools in the standings as well. UConn and South Carolina remain atop of the standings. That should be a match-up well worth watching...they'll get together in Columbia Mon. Feb 8th.

Louisville will face three of the top 25 in February...beginning with #3 Notre Dame Feb. 7th., South Florida on Feb. 15th. and at Miami on Feb. 25th. 

paulie

8-0...how far can you go? Saturday Cardinal Couple

CARDS UNBLEMISHED IN FIRST HALF OF ACC SCHEDULE 

See how they run...this 2015-16 version of the Louisville women's basketball team...since the beginning of the new year. The Cards are a tractor...they keep mowing down the opponents. 

8-0 against the Tech's, the States, a couple of Carolina's, an Orange and a Tiger. 

How many saw that coming for the Louisville women's basketball squad? Especially after floundering through November? 

Yes it's true...Louisville women's basketball is out-producing the Pitino product and atop the ACC. Go gnash your teeth on that, underhand free throw fans. What ya got to counter? You're the second-best bakletball team on campus.

Wake Forest visits next. They might want to detour to the Jefferson or Bernheim forests nearby and spare the humiliation of a beating down by the river. No one has gotten within 10 against the Cards in the newly-formatted Stalag 13 (a.k.a. KFC YUM! Center) and the Demon Deaconesses don't look to be the one's to bust that up. If I have to take my pants off one more time at Checkpoint Charlie...aw, never mind...

Notre Dame, however...the next visitor to the lock-down after Wake goes home...does look quite capable of busting up the undefeated streak at the Pizza Palace. If Louisville doesn't go 8-0 in the second half of ACC play, you'll probably be able to wag that finger toward the Irish. One of these days, Walz will field a team that will muffle Muffet. It probably isn't the 2015-16 squad but we can still hope... 

Let's look at it. After Wake quakes on the Denny Crum Court, the Cards travel to face a UNC squad that has been plummeting. After the Notre Dame visit, Louisville WBB gets bottom-feeder Pitt, a non-conference tilt against a very good USF squad and then Virginia, B.C., Miami and Pitt again. 

If Walz can't go better than 5-3 in February, he might want to hand his clipboard to one of the security guards at the YUM! exit and take up lawn care or stand-up comedy. Maybe they lose to Muffett and Jose. Miami is tough on their home court. Anything past that is an expected win. 

You're seeing a team that is finally "getting it" and no longer needs the training wheels or the night-light when you look at these current Cardinals. Undaunted and un-intimidated.

And that equates to some very fun potential hoops over the next two months. Go be a part of it. Represent. 

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HELLO, RADIO! 

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs at 11 a.m. today. Looks like me and Worldwide, no Sam and a long-shot chance at getting Paige behind the microphone. Seems the Cardinal guys have a game today and...yeah, we're used to it...people got stuff to do. We're non-profit and we're used to it. It's not like this gig is going to lead us or our paricipants to the big time.

Nevertheless, we have a great show planned with recaps and preview of hoops, lacrosse, swimming/diving and more...plus our incredible audio of the Softball banquet, Syracuse and Clemson games, Sam's chat with Asia Durr and a quiz.

You know what we do and how to get there. Give a listen.

LINK: www.crescenthillradio,com

paulie

xxxxx

This One Goes to Eleven - Monday Cardinal Couple

Basketball Extends Their Streak

Where to start with this one?

  
With apologies to Maria von Trappe, maybe the end is the very best place to start for this game.

First off, it's a win, it goes in the win column and extends the Women's Basketball win streak to 11 which is one louder, innit?

The final score of 92-90 surely surprised people who may have given up on this game about halfway through when the NC State Wolfpack were leading the Cards 50-36.  No Cards made it to double digit scoring the first half, though Myisha Hines-Allen and Mariya Moore had seven, while Arica Carter and Asia Durr had eight.  The various stats were roughly even in the first half, but the important numbers were in the 2nd quarter where NCState hit 75% of their field goals and over 70% of their 3 point shots.  The Wolfpack also had a bit of an advantage from the free throw line as well, although the 67% for the Cards isn't awful from the charity stripe.

The Cards, after digging themselves into a significant halftime hole, started to chip away that lead, winning the 3rd quarter by seven points, and making up the other nine points for the two point win in the fourth quarter.  Whatever Coach Walz told the team at halftime worked, at least on the defensive end, holding NC State to only two made field goals and no 3 pointers whatsoever in the 3rd quarter.  The Cards weren't sowing the seeds of love, but were sowing the seeds of the end-game foul troubles, sending the Wolfpack to the line a whopping 13 times in the 3rd quarter on a very concerning 11 committed fouls.  The stats that really shifted in the Cards favor in the 3rd quarter were point in the paint (10-2), and points off turnovers (8-1 on five Pack turnovers)

Scary though the foul trouble situation may have been, it's a formula that worked.  More of the same in the 4th quarter where NC State got 20 free throw attempts on 12 fouls.  Overall, the Cards committed 35 fouls to NC State's 23.  The striped crew may have been a bit whistle happy, but in general I think it was a reasonably called game.  Both teams, in scouting the other, decided that good lock-down defense was the way to go, and that tends to result in more fouls.  The points off turnovers helped UofL with 12 on six NC State turnovers.

The real story in this one was in the final countdown, where NC State started out up five points coming off a pair of made free throws.  Dakota Weatherford, who only got a few minutes of playing time, but they were important minutes put up 3-point attempt, Hines-Allen got the rebound and fired a desperation-looking 3-point attempt that missed where the rebound went back to Weatherford, now practically under the basket and dropped the shot in.  The foul on the shot sent her sliding across the court thanks to the contact from the much larger Wolfpack player.  She wasn't able to convert on the and-one.

Weatherford was whistled for a near-phantom foul on the rebound attempt, and NC State was able to put the lead back out to five with 25 seconds left.

 Coach Walz used his final timeout, which, thanks to the new rules, advanced the ball to the hash mark and Asia Durr was able to bury a three on the inbounds play.  A sloppy inbounds attempt from NC State resulted in Mariya Moore having the ball and she was fouled going to the basket.  The reliable Moore, who had a career best 31 points in the game, made both free throws to tie the game for the first time since the first quarter.  NC State used their final time out to advance the ball to the hashmark.  After burning a few seconds of clocking looking for the last shot, Attack Yorkie Dakota Weatherford forced the tie-up.  With the possession arrow in Louisville's favor, the Cards got the ball with 4.1 seconds on the clock.  A lapse by NC State, they didn't put anyone on the ball on the inbounds, so Mariya Moore was able to let it bounce nearly to half court before touching it and thus starting the clock.  The NC State defense, coming to force Moore to take the ball and start the clock then fouled Moore at the half court line, putting her back on the line with a tie ballgame and 2.9 second on the clock.  The sophomore was ice ice baby, draining both giving UofL a two point lead.  NC State, with the last second desperation heave falling short went down to defeat.

FRED

So, "What did the Cards do right?"  Said Fred.

Free Throws, the most objective part of our FRED grading system are in capital "F" territory with a solid 76%, with the bulk of that stat being thanks to Mariya Moore's 8 of 10.

As for Rebounding, I think we're going to have to stretch to award a lower case "r" this one as the Wolfpack outrebounded the Cards 34-30.  Still awarding the lower case because 30 is a pretty good rebounding number, but I can't in good conscience award the upper-case when the other team gets more.

We'll give a capital "E" for Easy like Sunday morning, even though it was an afternoon game with UofL winning the points in the paint battle 32-24.

And lastly Defense only gets the lower-case "d" in my judgement.  We knew NC State was a 3 point shooting team, and yet in the first half, the Cards defense definitely did not get that message and go after the shooters outside the arc.  The second half was better, and Louisville won the turnover stat with only 11 TOs to the Wolfpack's 17, which is a key metric in my mind for this measure.  The 2nd half gets the "d" awarded, but without the first half effort to match, we can't make it upper case (the TO numbers were 7-6 in NC State's favor in the first half)

What We Liked

Mariya Moore, with 31 points and 7 assists, combined with an 11 point and 5 assist effort at Virginia, may have just played her way in a second ACC Player of the Week honor in this young year.

• Attack Yorkie Dakota Weatherford didn't play a significant number of minutes, but she did have a significant impact in her minutes, with a crucial put-back and a critical defensive tie-up to get the ball back for the Cards.  This in addition to a very good defensive effort.
• Arica Carter continues to have solid contributions. While she fouled out, she was only one of a number of players that fouled out of this game, and she did get 13 points before she went to the bench for the final time.  She ran the offense effectively, and continues to just play solid ball.  I do believe she is in the cat-bird's seat to get my most improved player accolades at the end of the season
• Asia Durr put up 19, which would normally put her in game-high scoring territory but misses out on it only because Moore had such a stand-out game.  Again, some critical great play down the final stretch showed remarkably poise for a freshman.

JMcA

xxxxx

Round 2 in the ACC for UofL women's sports...Where do they go from here? -- Thursday Cardinal Couple

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD

I took some time recently to reflect on UofL women's sports first season in the ACC.

My findings were mixed. This is one tough conference. Some sports had a rough initial tour-de-force in the ACC. Some rose to the top.

We promote the joy and excitement of UofL women's sports. Being in the most competitive and challenging NCAA Conference for women's sports gives the opportunity for greater UofL women's Sports successes than ever before.

Or the potential for sinking to the depths of mediocrity or lower.  

Where do they go from here? How will Year Two in the ACC turn out? The Fall season is upon us. 

Women's soccer and Field Hockey return some familiar faces but both are going through a youth movement. Which freshmen will step up and become names we report consistently? Who will be the future Charlyn Corral? Becca Maddock? Is Ayeisha McFerran the FH goalie for the next four years? Will Bjerke and Price led soccer to wins? 

Volleyball has enough players to field two teams. We'll watch the returnees Katie George, Janelle Jenkins, Maya McClendon and we're really excited to see what Erin Fairs and Molly Sauer can do. 

Basketball also has five new roster additions. The best recruiting class in the nation joins forces with the M&M girls, Cortnee Walton, Syd the Kid and Arica Carter. Will Asia, Taja, Brianna, Erin and Sam become as popular as the one-name reference players of years past like Angel, Dez, Candyce, Mo, Shoni & Jude? Can they match their accomplishments?

A UK fan was joking with me the other night and said he didn't see Sherrone Vails on the WBB roster. She figured that 'Roni had tenure by now and was a permanent fixture on the roster.

The faces of fall. We grew to love Emmonnie Henderson and are thrilled about her potential Olympic bid and ACC domination in the shot and discus. Kelsi Worrell captured this communities heart with her record-breaking aquatic numbers. She's another strong Rio candidate for 2016.

We'll be watching...learning the new faces and equating them with roster numbers and hoping to report good news. It's a cyclical process...you watch them come in, you treasure their time here and see them leave to go on with the next part of their lives. 

New conference, new challenges met in Year One. It's time for round Two. The games are still the same, but the ante has gone up and the player level is off the charts. 


Enjoy the song below...Click the Link.

Where Do We Go From Here?

paulie
xxxxx

Another honor for Durr -- Friday Cardinal Couple

Durr named POY

Douglasville, GA resident and former St. Pius X girls’ basketball standout Asia Durr was named the Parade Magazine national player of the year May 29.

Durr, who will continue her career at the University of Louisville, has had a stellar prep career including being named the Gatorade Georgia girls’ basketball player of the year and a McDonalds All-America.

The Parade All-American Basketball team, which originated with boys’ basketball in 1957, is the longest ongoing All-American selection list in the country.

Durr joins an illustrious list of Parade All-American honorees on the girls’ team including Cheryl Miller, Brittney Griner, Rebecca Lobo, Candace Parker and Chamique Holdsclaw.

Durr led the Golden Lions to a quarterfinal appearance in the 4A state tournament this season and a 27-4 overall record, including 18-0 in regular season region play.

She averaged 33.3 points per game and collected 6.4 rebounds per contest.

She also led St. Pius X in assists, steals and blocked shots.

Durr was named 2015 Miss Georgia Basketball for the second consecutive year by the Atlanta Tip-Off Club as well.

Durr finished her career as the leading scorer in school history — male or female — and led the Golden Lions to back-to-back state titles in 2013 and 2014.

“I’ve had a great time at St. Pius and representing Douglas County,” Durr said.

“It’s something that I’ll never forget.”