Purcell Moves On and Up - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Sam Purcell Heads to Mississippi State

Sam Purcell has become almost an institution on the sidelines here at Louisville for the Women's Basketball team.  His infectious energy, going toe to toe even with Jazmine Jones, has endeared him to all who have had the opportunity to witness him in action.  That goes double for those of us who have had the opportunity to meet him in person and interact with him directly.

Purcell will now get to take the helm of a team, having been hired by Mississippi State to take the reins from Interim Head Coach Doug Novak.  Novak stepped into the temp position in October after Nikki McCray-Penson stepped down in October due to health concerns.

Purcell's hiring is an event that is at once both surprising and long expected.  There was basically no public chatter about Purcell being a candidate for the position, so when the announcement came, there was no preparation for it, it just appeared seemingly out of thin air.  At the same time, anyone who was aware of Purcell's role on Louisville's coaching staff knew, without a doubt, that this day was coming at some point.

Purcell has been with UofL since June of 2013, when he moved north from Atlanta and Georgia Tech.  Initially listed as Assistant Coach, Sam was promoted in 2017 to the title of Associate Coach.

Sam will still be on the sidelines with the Cards for their NCAA tournament run, though he and his family (wife Meghan, and daughters Reese, Rylee, and Reagan) did make a visit to Starkville to see the facilities and do some initial meet and greets.  He will be officially introduced to Mississippi State after UofL's season concludes.

It has been a joy to get to know Sam over his tenure at UofL, and we here at Cardinal Couple, and I'm sure all of CardNation, wish him the absolute best as he embarks on his Head Coaching career.

Selection Show

Speaking of NCAA tournament runs, the NCAA Women's Basketball Selection Show will be tonight at 8pm on ESPN.

We've been following, and discussing, the "bracketology" leading up to this, but the actual results will be revealed tonight, ending the debate and uncertainty.

UofL had been a fairly consistent "1 seed", but there had been some wavering recently with a relatively late season loss to UNC, and an early ACC tournament exit.  Charlie Creme had said that UofL would remain the fourth 1 seed as long as Baylor didn't waltz through the Big 12 tournament unchallenged.

Yesterday, however, Creme had seen enough of the Big 12 tournament that he moved Baylor up to the fourth 1 seed, and dropped UofL off the 1 seed to the top 2 seed.  It's a fair enough decision, the Bears knocked off Oregon State 76-36, and then Oklahoma 91-76.  They still play Texas today, and it's reasonable to question if Texas pulls off an upset against the Bears, if that decision gets reversed.

Ultimately, however the change doesn't mean much.  UofL is still bracketologied into the Wichita region with the expected 1 and 2 seed matchup being between Baylor and Louisville.  Louisville would, of course, still be hosting 1st and 2nd round games here at the KFC Yum! Center and would be expected to play Mercer in the first round game, with Princeton and Central Florida being the other half of the sub-regional bracket.

(NCAA WBB Bracket Selection Committee)

Of course, all of this is just informed speculation, and there are games left to be played.  All of the speculation and crystal ball gazing will be over this evening.  Then we can start the debate and, hopefully good natured, criticism of the Selection committee in earnest.

Today's Action

Lacrosse

After a quiet day without significant sporting events on the UofL calendar yesterday, things will hopefully get back in gear today.

Lacrosse is on the road in Chapel Hill in a big challenge against undefeated UNC.  It is getting to feel almost cliche' to talk about just how tough the competition is in ACC Lacrosse, but it's no less true than it has ever been, and North Carolina has always been one of the tougher competitors.

With wins over Furman, James Madison, and Northwestern, this year is no exception and UNC is expected to be stiff competition for the Cards.

Jamie Ortega is the goal leader for the Tarheels with 19 on the season so far, but only just barely ahead of Scottie Rose Growney with 18, and Andie Aldave with 17.

Taylor Moreno will almost certainly be between the pipes in goal, having started all seven of UNC's games thus far and played the bulk of the minutes.  There have been some appearances by Alecia Nicholas and Stella Harrison did play in one game.

A 1pm start time for the game, and like all ACC games, it will be on ACC Network Extra streaming.

Softball

Originally set to be played Friday, yesterday, and today, the Bluegrass Challenge has had is scheduled shuffled several times, and one game called off due to snow.  Such are the hazards of spring outdoor sports, of course.

Instead, the Challenge got off to an early start on Thursday, didn't quite get the last game in Friday as mentioned above as Louisville's game against Ohio got interrupted due to the arrival of snow.  Yesterday ended up being a day off for the event as the city dealt with a late winter/early spring accumulating snowfall.

The grounds crews have been hard at work, however, and with some warmup expected for today (a forecast high of 54 at Ulmer) helping, two games are scheduled for today.  These games have been shifted as late in the day as is practicable to give Mr. Sunshine as much time to work as possible.

Indiana will take the field against Eastern Kentucky at 1:30pm with the Cards taking on the Hoosiers in the second game, scheduled for 4pm.

The Cards and Hoosiers have already played once, opening weekend, in Boca Raton.  Louisville won that one 9-5 with Taylor Roby in the circle.  Home runs by Roby, including a grand slam by Hannah File, powered much of the offense.

It will be interesting to see how Indiana has developed in the intervening weeks.  They're 11-4 overall, but are currently on a seven game win streak.  Their last losses were against Florida State, a quality team that we know well, of course.

With two and a half hours between the start times, I would expect the Louisville game to go off on-time, and maybe even early, so keep your eyes peeled.  The Indiana-Louisville game will be on ACC Network Extra, so you can catch that if you can't make it out to Ulmer stadium.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

All five channels were live yesterday as the full crew (Paulie, Jeff, Jared, Case and Daryl) made it for the CCRHP.  We talked a lot of basketball, because it's that time of year.  The show basically served as the NCAA tournament preview, and of course that meant we based a lot of the discussion about the bracketology and the bracketological principles.

Some quick mentions of other sports in actions, such as softball and lacrosse, but we stayed on basketball for most of the show.  Stay tuned until the end for a mini-rant about tumbleweeds.

You can catch the tweaked-for-better-audio version that Case puts up on the podcast directories at:

https://anchor.fm/cardinal-couple/episodes/NCAA-Tournament-Preview-e1fk9c4

jmca

Agunbowale Again -- Irish take National Championship 61-58 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

LUCK OF THE IRISH PREVAILS -- NOTRE DAME 61-58

Oh no she didn't do that again...(well, yes, she did --as a matter of fact). Arike Ogunbowale knocked down the off-balance, buzzer beating three last night in Columbus and gave Notre Dame the three-point win over Mississippi St. to claim the NCAA women's basketball national championship game last night in Columbus, OH. A game-winner in the semis. A game-winner in the final. What's the odds? 

A game that, if you're a Louisville Cardinal fan, basically came down to seeing two schools who had been in the UofL headlights this season battle for a title that Louisville pretty much got "pushed out" of the way for on Friday night -- to use a term -- and a lesser of two evils decision to root for, if you even had the want to root for either...for Cardinal fans who chose to watch the game. 

I chose not to return to Nationwide Arena Monday night. Not very interested in the eight-hour round trip to see the team that controversially knocked off Louisville go against a team that Louisville had defeated twice this season. No desire to sit banner-level high in the top of an arena with no dog in the fight. The ESPN broadcast worked just fine for this unlikely final game. 

Seats in the front row? Nah, not for this guy in Columbus...

How can I call it an unlikely final game? With two #1 seeds playing? I'll ask you, did you have the Irish and the Bulldogs facing off in the final when you did your women's tournament bracket? Was there any way undefeated UConn would stumble again in the semifinals? Especially to a team they had defeated earlier in the year? Yes, Mississippi State was ranked slightly higher in the polls than Louisville (#2 for the Dogs, #3 for the Cards) but confidence here and in a lot of other different places exuded that Louisville would find a way to down McCowan and Vivians and set up another tryst with Geno's dogs. 

Sometimes life just ain't fair. 

Notre Dame, with the four ACL injury-sidelines girls. The snub of not mentioning Asia Durr's name by "that other coach". The Irish didn't have much of an answer for McCowan either but took advantage of a late MSU cold streak and then, almost as if Hollywood has scripted it, Steven Spielberg directed it and (name any popular young actress out there today) was cast in the #24 jersey to heroically knock the shot down. 

Somewhere, Kobe is smiling. 

And she complains about "touch fouls"?  Yeah, OK.  

But, did the Irish get the break against the Bulldogs that the Cards didn't? In the final intense seconds, on the wild exchange of possessions at mid-court, it sure looked like Notre Dame's Mabrey fouled Mississippi State before McCowan ultimately fouled Notre Dame to prevent a breakaway layup. Another case of a ref sitting on a whistle?

Go back and watch it.

And, McCowan missing the bunny underneath the basket that would have given the Bulldogs a 60-58 lead? Irish eyes were smiling. Which leads to McGraw's moronic, in the heat of the moment religious reference post game -- about how a bunch of "good Catholics" got their prayers answered on Easter Sunday. 

What, the Southern Baptist or Church of God prayers being offered in Starksville were not heard? Were the "good Catholics" on the MSU campus prayers not considered? 

But, we won't dally on religious overtones here.

Tell me just how good you think I am, Dee...

What we will consider is that Notre Dame had one foot in the grave early but came back. Down 24-24 in the second quarter. 30-17 at the half. Then, tying it at 41-41 after three before momentarily stumbling again and having to rally to get to a tie late. Call it what you will, but -- it was a feat of perseverance from  the South Bend squad. 

In the end, it was "that player" from "that team" coached by "that woman" who got the spotlight. Arike Ogunbowale is talented, make no mistake about that. She'll be back next year to lead what has to be considered another very strong...maybe #1 ranked team for ol' N.D. To put together two shots like her game-winners is remarkable. 

Back also, though, is the "big" the TV analysis crew kept referring to. McCowan improved dramatically over the course of the season. She set a new NCAA Tournament rebounding record. Notre Dame did only slightly a better job defending her -- basically because they kept pounding her with the triple tag team of Nelson, Shepard and Westbeld. 18 points and 17 boards is still an impressive night -- but McCowan will probably be remember for missing the close-in shot as time ticked down that could have gave Mississippi State the lead. 

She shoots, she scores...

So, the most unlikely of the final four teams, in my humble opinion, is your National Champs. I'll be the good sport here and congratulate Notre Dame for winning. 

Somewhere, there's a part of me who wants to believe that it was all just an April Fool's prank and that Louisville is in the final game. 

Last but not least, I will mention the ridiculousness of having to bring the Bulldogs back out to play the last tenth-of-a-second of the game. I know, rules are rules...but it was impossible for any catch and release from three-point range to happen. A ref-stealing moment or five in what should have been the start of an Irish celebration.

Wave it off, Dee. Just call it a game. I wouldn't have put a team back out on the court if I was Coach Schaefer. Take a forfeit, whatever. Why put those kids through the humiliation of having to go back out there when all hope was lost? But, of course, it is the NCAA. Enough said. 

Hey, Cardinal fans. At the very least, we can boast that we beat the Nationals Champs twice. The future looks very bright for Cardinal women's hoops in 2018-19. Below, let's chat a little about that, shall we? 



CARDS RETURN ALL BUT HINES-ALLEN, ADD DEPTH

When Jeff Walz looks at the Cardinals' prospective 2018-19 roster, I'd be very surprised if a smile doesn't pop out his face. All return except for the incredible Hines-Allen. And with two red-shirts (Lindsey Duvall and Loreta Kakala) and three freshmen (Seygan Robins, Molly Lockhart and Mykasa Robinson) joining the fold...the Cards will have 14 players reporting to fall conditioning. OK, I know there is the possibility of transfers. It seems two or three depart each year. Even with that chance, it's a strong and talented collection of women who will don the practice jerseys and pound the hardwood later this year. 

I had the chance to talk with David Watson, women's college hoops aficionado, a bit on Sunday afternoon and we discussed the returnees. It's never too early to talk about what we love, right? 

We discussed who enters the starting lineup now that Hines-Allen has graduated. It came down to several scenarios. Do the Cards go "small" and put talented guard Dana Evans out for pre-game introductions? Do they go "big" and go with Kylee Shook or Bionca Dunham as the fifth starter? Does one of the returning red-shirts claim the role? Is one of the incoming freshmen going to impress enough to fill out the starters? 

Jeff Walz will tell you that it isn't all that important who is on the court for the opening tip, it's who is out there in a close game with little time left on the clock. And, he's right. We saw a lot of Dana Evans on the court when Walz needed to sit a starter. Shook and Dunham also had significant court time when Walz needed to go to the bench. Seygan Robins is an incredible incoming talent. Loretta Kakala has made great lepas and bounds according to many during her red-shirt year. There are options. 

Let me make it perfectly clear that you do not replace Myisha Hines-Allen. She may well be the second-most proficient player to compete her years of eligibility in Cardinal history. Definitely in the top five and one that brought a fire, intensity and skill-set to UofL that Cardinal fans will remember for a very long time. 

David seems to think that the Cards would be best served if they give Evans the full-time gig. She was impressive in the Mississippi State game and has the speed, quickness and defense to create havoc for opponents. We'd like to see that shot get a little more accurate...but look at the improvement we saw in Jazz Jones her sophomore year. Surely Evans has that growth potential as well.

I took a different route. I'm leaning toward Shook. She has all the skills a big needs. She can step out and bun an opponent and has shown she can be tough in the paint and do the things this team needs in rebounding and giving them additional paint presence. You can't teach height and wing-span and Shook has those features for sure.  

Ultimately, no matter what we prognosticate in April means nothing for the fall. It'll be a matter of who does the best work to get the start. Or the close. The UofL team is a tight-knit, cooperative group. It wouldn't surprise us to see Walz experiment with a variety of combinations early on in the schedule. 

Gee, it is fall yet? 


OTHER CARDINALS IN ACTION

Louisville Women's tennis took on #4 ranked Duke in ACC competition and fell to the Blue Devils 6-1. The Cards are 13-6 on the season and go to 3-5 in the ACC. Duke 16-1 with a 8-0 conference record. 

Louisville Rowing competed against #2 Cal in the PAC 12 Challenge finals and won one of three events against the Bears. The "Stroke" Cards won the Varsity 8+ event...a major victory for the Red and Black. 

Louisville now looks ahead to the ACC Championships on April 14-15th.  




CARDINAL COUPLE PICK "EM"

Whaddya mean I didn't win
the bracket challenge? 

Be sure to check back later today for our final, official results of our NCAA Women's Tournament "Pick Em". We gave Bracket Czar Jared Anderson Easter off (nice of us, eh?) but he's indicated he'll run the results in depth just one more time and get us the winner and second-place contestants. We'll update this section and also post them on "The Right Side of the Site."  

We'd like to thank him for checking the results and also thank you for participating! 

Now that hoops has ended, we'll be providing much more coverage on the other spring sports that the UofL women are competing in. We also plan on continuing basketball stories and have plans to get interviews with whomever we can that is involved with WBB at UofL over the next seven months. 

Our commitment to UofL women's sports is a 24 hour...7 day-a-week...365 days a year involvement. We appreciate you being here and, we never forget....YOU are CARDINAL COUPLE. 


Paulie
xxxxx



  

WBB Final Four -- Other News and Schedules -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Faces Mississippi State

Nationwide Arena Seating Chart

Paulie gave a great preview of Mississippi State in yesterday's article.  The Bulldogs will be one of the toughest tasks UofL has faced all season as they are a well-rounded team.  Against Oregon State, UofL was able to shut down Marie Gulich and from there halted the Beavers' NCAA run.  During the Sweet Sixteen, Louisville was tasked with stopping Brittany McPhee and Dijonai Carrington, which they did for the most part, but did not have to worry about scoring threats from the rest of the players on the floor.  Mississippi State has five players on the court at all times that can do it all instead of relying on just one or two players.

Mississippi State ranks high on several categories on the year: 82 points per game (10th), 56.1 points allowed (15th), 25.9 scoring margin (3rd), 39.5% on three-pointers (6th), 10.6 turnovers (3rd fewest), 541 made free throws (5th).

Louisville's success in the Lexington Regional came from limiting turnovers and stepping up their defense.  Against Oregon State, Louisville committed a school record and tied an NCAA record with three turnovers, all by Asia Durr.  They held Oregon State to a season-low 43 points while giving up 59 against Stanford including hold the Cardinal to 14 or fewer in the final three quarters.

Jeff Walz and his wife, Lauren

Just like the game against Stanford this is the first meeting between Louisville and their next foe.

Paulie and I will be in attendance at the game.  Mr. Cardinal Couple will be somewhere along media row giving you live updates on the game.  I also expect him to have some quirky question that will send Jeff Walz on a tangent during the post-game press conference.  I will be somewhere in the arena taking pictures.  Only the big media will be in the boxes on the court taking photos while all of the smaller sites have a location behind section 115 to post up.  You all will get treated to pics from a different angle than my normal spot so let's hope for the best!

The 7:00 tip-off is set to be shown of ESPN2.  If you cannot get to a tv to watch I highly encourage you to tune into the radio to hear Nick Curran and AJ continue their excellent coverage of the game like they have done all season.  For Twitter, follow Paulie (@cardinalcouple) for his tweets and sly comments during the game.


Asia Durr named to WBCA All-American Team 

Asia Durr was one of ten players named to the WBCA Coaches All-American team yesterday afternoon. Myisha Hines-Allen was named to the Honorable Mention list. She's the second Cardinal ever to be named to the squad. Angel McCoughtry made the team three times during her career at Louisville. 

Durr joins these players on the team: 

Name	Institution	Year	Position
Kalani Brown	Baylor	Junior	Center
Asia Durr	Louisville	Junior	Guard
Sabrina Ionescu	Oregon	Sophomore	Guard
Teaira McCowan	Mississippi State	Junior	Center
Kelsey Mitchell	Ohio State	Senior	Guard
Arike Ogunbowale	Notre Dame	Junior	Guard
Katie Lou Samuelson	Connecticut	Junior	Guard/Forward
Victoria Vivians	Mississippi State	Senior	Guard
Gabby Williams	Connecticut	Senior	Forward
A'ja Wilson	South Carolina	Senior	Forward

For Myisha, A bit of sadness that she, too, did not make the ten-team roster. Here's the Honorable Mention list:  

Name	Institution	Year	Position
Kristine Anigwe	California	Junior	Forward, Center
Ariel Atkins	Texas	Senior	Guard
Jill Barta	Gonzaga	Junior	Forward
Kenisha Bell	Minnesota	Junior	Guard
Monique Billings	UCLA	Senior	Forward
Allazia Blockton	Marquette	Junior	Guard
Lexie Brown	Duke	Senior	Guard
Tyra Buss	Indiana	Senior	Guard
Jordin Canada	UCLA	Senior	Guard
Chennedy Carter	Texas A&M	Freshman	Guard
Kaila Charles	Maryland	Sophomore	Guard
Napheesa Collier	Connecticut	Junior	Forward
Lauren Cox	Baylor	Sophomore	Forward
Sophie Cunningham	Missouri	Junior	Guard
G'mrice Davis	Fordham	Senior	Forward
Katelynn Flaherty	Michigan	Senior	Guard
Loryn Goodwin	Oklahoma State	Senior	Guard
Rebecca Greenwell	Duke	Senior	Guard
Marie Gulich	Oregon State	Senior	Center
Megan Gustafson	Iowa	Junior	Center
Tyasha Harris	South Carolina	Sophomore	Guard
Ruthy Hebard	Oregon	Sophomore	Forward
Myisha Hines-Allen	Louisville	Senior	Forward
Maria Jespersen	South Florida	Senior	Forward
Kitija Laksa	South Florida	Junior	Guard
Marina Mabrey	Notre Dame	Junior	Guard
Stephanie Mavunga	Ohio State	Senior	Forward
Brooke McCarty	Texas	Senior	Guard
Brittany McPhee	Stanford	Senior	Guard
Jaime Nared	Tennessee	Senior	Forward
Kia Nurse	Connecticut	Senior	Guard
Caliya Robinson	Georgia	Junior	Guard
Mercedes Russell	Tennessee	Senior	Center
Tyler Scaife	Rutgers	Senior	Guard
Jessica Shepard	Notre Dame	Junior	Forward
Azura Stevens	Connecticut	Junior	Forward
Shakayla Thomas	Florida State	Senior	Forward
Hallie Thome	Michigan	Junior	Center
Carlie Wagner	Minnesota	Senior	Guard
Kristy Wallace	Baylor	Senior	Guard
Morgan William	Mississippi State	Senior	Guard
Imani Wright	Florida State	Senior	Guard

Swimming Claims Four ACC Awards

Mallory Comerford claimed the Female Swimmer of the Year after claiming her second straight NCAA title.  Mariia Astashkina won Female Freshman of the Year after a strong rookie season.  Nicolas Albiero won Male Freshman of the Year after winning gold at the ACC Championships.  Arthur Albiero won Female Swimming Coach of the Year after leading the women's swim and dive team to a school record fifth place finish at the NCAA Championships.  Things look bright over at the Ralph Wright Natatorium.  Our in-house champion is a rising senior and will give it her all in her final season while Astashkina and little Albiero are both freshmen.  Coach Albiero has no plans of leaving Louisville for a long time so expect even greater results next season.

Softball Hosts NC State

A slumping Louisville softball team is in need of some wins this weekend when the Wolfpack visits Ulmer Stadium.  The Cards sit at 22-10 on the season and are 2-4 in conference play.  NC State is 19-13 and is 3-5 in ACC play.

Danielle Watson, the freshman stud, is third in the conference with 13 wins.  Her 2.11 ERA is a team-best and opponents' batting averages sit under .200 when Watson is in the circle.

Caitlin Ferguson holds the highest batting average on the team at .392 and her 31 RBI's also lead the team.  Sidney Melton and Celene Funke have a combined 18 stolen bases on the year.

The Cards have a doubleheader beginning at 2:00 p.m., with the series finale on Saturday at noon.  Admission is free.

Dani Busboom Kelly and Amanda Green Join Ranks of European Tour

Last week Molly Sauer was named to the US Collegiate National Team Tour in China.  Yesterday the European Team Tour was announced.  Amanda Green is on the active roster and will be coached by a familiar face.  Dani Busboom Kelly will take on the role as the head coach for the European Tour crew.  The tour will be July 4-15.  Specific locations have not been announced.

To those traveling to Columbus for the Final Four please be aware of the rush hour traffic in Cincinnati and Columbus. Drive safely in the expected rain and we hope to see you there!

Jared