Cards Romp in Home Return -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Louisville Crushes Longwood 100-37

I almost went all of November without a Saturday write, and it wasn't even because of deer hunting. After a wedding in Memphis the first weekend, a wedding in which I was in the party the second, and sleeping off a whirlwind work trip in which I went to Reno, NV and back in 32 hours for a 1.5 hour meeting last weekend, we're back on schedule.

And speaking of back on schedule, Louisville took care of business as expected against the Lancers of Longwood when they returned to the Yum! Center yesterday afternoon. After the surprising loss against Gonzaga, the rebound win against Texas, and then what may have been an even more surprising loss to South Dakota State, Louisville was in need of a game like yesterday's. In fairness, South Dakota State is 4-2 and has played four P5 teams and Creighton. They lost to the Jays 78-69 to open the season and fell to UCLA by 7 last Saturday but have beaten Mississippi State, Rutgers, and Lehigh in addition to Louisville. That isn't what we're here to talk about, though, so lets move on.

The major item of note before we get into the game was the absence of Hailey Van Lith. All that we know officially is that this was a scheduled rest day for HVL. After playing 124/130 minutes in the Bahamas, and with Ohio State on deck, Coach Jeff Walz and HVL decided this game against Longwood was one that she could afford to take a break on. While I'm mildly surprised that she wasn't dressed at all, especially with the amount of rest on either side of this game, it ultimately wasn't that big of a deal. We'll keep our ears to the ground to see if there might have been more to this story, but hopefully she's back in action against OSU and we won't have anything to speculate about.

In Van Lith's absence, some other players got the opportunity to shine. In fact, most of the team grabbed their chance to perform well, though you may expect that when a team scores nearly as many points in a single quarter as their opponent scores in the entire game. Louisville put up a 35 point first quarter and very nearly could have played defense only for the rest of the game. On the day, no Cardinal logged more than 26 minutes, an honor which went to Norika Konno, and everyone played at least 16. Every Card except for Mykasa Robinson scored and six players put it in double figures. Josie Williams got her first start and scored four to go along with six rebounds, an assist, and a block. Unfortunately, she was 0-4 from inside the arc and just 1-2 from the line, so there is plenty more there from her, and I'm sure we'll see it soon. 

The star of the day was Norika Konno. We've been longing to see her back on the court, and she did not disappoint in her return. Konno finished with 10 points and very nearly had a triple double. She snagged eight rebounds and dished out seven assists while also adding a steal and two blocks. On top of that, she did so extremely cleanly, as she turned the ball over just once and was the only Cardinal not to register a foul. As Paulie put it in our group chat yesterday, playing 3v3 was the best thing Konno could have done for her game other than grow six inches. 

You'll notice I eschewed a normal game recap, but that's because there isn't a lot to say. Louisville didn't play with their food. The Cards jumped out early with a three from Chrislyn Carr six seconds into the game. They were the first of her game high 17 points. After another score from Louisville, Longwood scored a layup on their second possession. They wouldn't score again for two and a half minutes, a period in which Louisville would add 13 points to their total to lead 18-2. The next few minutes were pretty even, with Louisville's lead hovering around 16 points until Longwood got to 10 points. After that it was like they hit some sort of invisible barrier, turning the ball over three times in the last two minutes to go along with three missed shots. Louisville, on the other hand, went about business as usual and scored another 11 to take a 25 point lead into the quarter break. 

The second and third quarters were near matches to one another, with Louisville scoring 19 points in each quarter and Longwood adding 19 between the two. Again, the Lancers couldn't score more than 10 in a quarter. The final quarter saw Louisville stretch their wings again to close the game out. The Cards started a bit clunkily, turning the ball over and fouling to prevent a runout. However, after a Payton Verhulst jumper (she finished with 16) and a three from Adriana Shipp, who led Longwood with 14, Louisville clamped down. They went on to win the fourth 27-8, hitting the 100 mark on a Merissah Russell three-pointer with a minute left. Walz didn't exactly call off the dogs, as Louisville couldn't run out the clock, but Longwood was happy to do so. After a Louisville turnover with 30 seconds remaining, the Lancers held for a final shot. The three ball to get them to 40 was off the mark and Louisville pulled down the deadball rebound as time expired to go to 5-2 overall.

Joining Carr, Verhulst, and Konno in double digits were Morgan Jones (15), Olivia Cochran (10), and Russell (11). Cochran led both teams with 10 rebounds to finish with a double-double. As you might expect from the final score, Louisville was significantly ahead in every category. Let's just have a look at the statistical reports.

The FRED Report

F - Free Throws: Louisville got to the line a fair amount, though more than half of their 15 total came in the first quarter. In that frame, they were 6-8, and they made six of their remaining seven attempts through the rest of the game. As it's the beginning of the name, a letter awarded is capital or there's no letter at all. 80% is greater than 70% (thanks, common core math) so that's a capital 'F'.

R - Rebounding: 57-23. Louisville cleaned up on the boards. They had 14 offensive rebounds, which led to 11 second chance points. On the other end, they held Longwood to just five offensive rebounds and didn't allow them to score after any of them. Capital 'R'.

E - Effort/Execution: After a couple of losses, Louisville needed to show their mettle, and they did. The Cards worked for the entire game, not allowing some lopsided fourth quarter in a blowout, and every player gave it their all in the minutes they played. Though they finished with 18 turnovers, they gave up just four points on the ensuing possessions. They also scored 100 without their team leader on the floor. Capital 'E'.

D - Defense: The Cards gave up no fast break points, just 14 points in the paint, and just 37 overall. They had ten steals, five blocks, and forced 20 turnovers. Longwood's best shooting percentage was 27%, which came in the quarter in which they scored their fewest points. A pretty solid defensive effort if you ask me. Capital 'D'.

Vince Vaughn plays Santa's brother, Fred Claus

The CASE Report

C - Care: Louisville turned the ball over a lot. 18 turnovers is not going to put you in a comfortable position in a lot of games. However, despite their 1-4 record, Longwood is turning teams over at a  respectable rate. Their average was 18 coming in, and Louisville hit that mark. On the other hand, we're looking for Louisville to outperform their opponent's defense. They'll get no credit for being under 60% of the opponent's average, but they did turn the ball over fewer times than Longwood, so it's a lowercase 'c'.

A - Assists: The Cards were spreading the ball around yesterday. While all but one player scored, all but two assisted. They finished with 23 assists on 38 made baskets, which exceeds the 50% assist rate we're looking for. As is typical, though, a high turnover game hurts here. Despite the 18 turnovers, Louisville was still positive in Assist-to-Turnover ratio, but their 1.28 ATO is shy of the 1.5 we're looking for. (Am I changing it from 2.0 this season? Yes, yes I am). Lowercase 'a'.

S - Steals: As you might expect with a solid defensive performance, this is a relatively easy one to award. Half of Longwood's turnovers were of the pocket-picking variety, as the Cards finished with 10 steals. That's more than 7.5 and more than the six that Longwood could muster. Capital 'S'.

E - Efficiency: Louisville shot 56% from the floor and 60% from three to go along with their 80% free throw rate. To make it even better, that 60% wasn't some measly 3-5. Louisville was lights out, hitting 12 threes in the game. While that means the field goal percentage was buoyed by the threes, they were still 54% from two point land and scored 48 points in the paint. Capital 'E'.

That gives final scores of F-R-E-D and c-a-S-E. It's hard to take away from a 63-point victory, but I'm sure there are some things Coach Walz will point out in practice for them to clean up. The Cards come away with what should be a full head of steam, and will hopefully disregard whatever number ends up by their name Monday. For the rest of the season, it shouldn't matter who is ranked what, only who comes to play on any given night. The next night for the Cards is Wednesday, as they close out November with Ohio State in the Big 10/ACC Challenge. The game will be on the primary ACC Network channel and tips off at 7:30 PM.

Post game Verhulst and Cochran:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-FJo3Pf780

Post game Walz:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-3qw-WB1Tk

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

What I imagine Paulie's setup would be
if he ran the show.

After a week off for various reasons (my sleeping past the podcast start time being one of them), we're back with another edition of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast this week. We'll have nearly a full house, as Jared is on the road to photograph the Battle of the Bluegrass. There's plenty to discuss, as Louisville WBB has played almost their whole season since the last show and volleyball clinched a share of the ACC title, so be sure to join us. As always, you can check out the live stream of the show by going to the Cardinal Couple YouTube page and clicking on the live video. Jeff usually creates that about an hour before the show, which officially starts at 11 AM Eastern. If the live time doesn't work for you, there are plenty of playback options, so be sure to check out whichever is best for you!

Cardinal Couple YouTube: Link

Anchor (podcast host): Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Spotify: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

CARDS WBB ENDS NON-CONFERENCE PLAY AT UT-MARTIN -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

10-1 CARDS A PERFECT 8-0 AGAINST SKYHAWKS

Captain Skyhawk says, "Hiya, Paulie !"

Louisville WBB goes into their Christmas break with a final game against a squad that has never beaten them. The Cards will play UT-Martin in Martin tonight, a 7 p.m. tipoff that will be available on ESPN+ and Cards Radio 790 WKRD. 

The teams have faced each other eight times in the past nine years, Louisville coming out on top in each match-up. Last time out, Asia Durr poured in 25 points in a 102-62 romp at the KFC YUM CENTER in early December of 2018. A 11-0 run in the first quarter helped push the Cards out to a 31-14 first quarter lead and Louisville steadily increased  the margin as the contest went on. 

So, what does the 2019-20 version of the Skyhawks offer? It was a rough start for UTM, dropping their first three games of the season to St. Louis, Mississippi State and Gonzaga...all on the road. They returned to the Elam Center for wins against Samford and IUPUI before hitting the highway again. A trip through Illinois resulted in losses to Illinois State and Southern Illinois. Getting back to Martin proven to be beneficial -- they have won their last two, against Chattanooga and Lipscomb.

Junior Chelsey Perry has been the main threat for head coach Kevin McMillian so far this season. She averages 19.9 points per game and also leads the squad in rebounding with 7.4 grabs a contest. The 6'2" forward from Middleton, TN had a career night in the Skyhawks last outing, a 83-67 win over Lipscomb, with 42 points and 10 rebounds. Perry has been named the OVC Player of the Week the last two weeks and also ranks 18th. nationally with 2.4 blocks a game.

Redshirt sophomore Damiah Griffin , a 6'0" redshirt sophomore from Memphis, averages 10.4 points a game. Of note, the Skyhawks have three players 6'2" or taller in Perry, Maddie Waldrop (Murray, KY) and Demi Burdock. The Skyhawks have four players who played Kentucky High School basketball in Waldrop, Tamiah Stanford (Radcliff, KY) Haley Harrison (Winchester, KY) and Emma Davis -- who played with Seygan Robins at Mercer County. 

For the Cards, it'll be a matter of not letting visions of home, family and friends dance in their heads as they play their only game in the next 10 days. Most of the players will be departing for their home towns after the contest. Norika Konno has already left for Sendai, Japan. She gets a few additional days of Christmas break because of the long distance and traveling time from Louisville to her hometown (6373 miles) and head coach Jeff Walz stressing the importance that all players have five days with their families. 

If Dana Evans can continue the point-guard proficiency she showed against UK and Kylee Shook can manage to school opponents inside and out, offensively and defensively, the Cards shouldn't have much trouble with their OVC foe. A chance, maybe for Walz to go deeper than the 10 player rotation that has been  protocol recently. Evans is second in the ACC in scoring with 29 points per game and has 31 threes on the season, which puts her in the top 30 of DI. 

This is the type of game that also sets up for Jaz Jones to have a big night. She saw 18 minutes of action with six points the last time UofL visited UT. The Cardinal starting lineup that night of November 11th, 2016 was Myisha Hines-Allen, Mariya Moore, Ciera Johnson, Taylor Johnson and Asia Durr. 

A contest tonight that will also give Elizabeth Balogun (Chattanooga,TN) and Liz Dixon's (Memphis, TN) parents, friends and family a bit of a shorter trek to see the two in action.

Martin is a quaint, little town in the northwest corner of Tennessee. When I was there a couple of years ago to watch the Cards WBB play the Skyhawks, the trip took about four hours. They have a beautiful campus at UT Martin, a Hampton Inn, a wonderful, old opera house and a couple of neat, local restaurants.

My favorite memory has to be going to "gas up" the vehicle to return to Louisville and waiting for the convenience store to open. 

As I waited, a "local law enforcement representative" approached me and asked what I was doing there. I explained my need for petrol and he told me that if I drove about a 1/2 mile up the road, I would find a 24 hour station open. I thanked him for that bit of knowledge, and, he was kind enough to follow me to the store. Even walked in with me as I plunked my cash payment down on the counter. And, he saw I got safely out of the city limits. 

I'm gonna miss seeing what adventures I might have gotten into this year. Family matters make it impossible to make the sojourn this time. Maybe I should call the police station and let them know. Or inform them Nick Evans will be in town. 

UTM floor (as of 2016) 

Back to basketball, and of particular note, tonight will most likely be the night that Kylee passes Angel McCoughtry as the all-time leading shot blocker at UofL. She's one block away from the tie. 

A final tune up before a brief holiday and the onset of ACC play. Let's hope that all of our WBB players have a efficient and productive showing tonight, and then safe travels home. 

And, in case you were wondering, it's 50 days until the start of Cardinal Softball. 

Have a terrific Thursday ! 


paulie
xxxxx 

Led by WBB's 36-point win, Cards Have Busy Friday -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Field Hockey Falls to UNC

After picking up a much needed victory over Syracuse in the ACC tournament to get the late season back on track and pad the NCAA tournament resume once more, Louisville ran into the buzzsaw that is North Carolina. The Tarheels have been the number one team in the country for most of the year, currently sitting undefeated, and continued to show why yesterday. North Carolina jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. The Heels scored once more in the fourth before Louisville was able to grab a goal to keep the final score a bit kinder at 3-1.

Bethany Russ was the goalscorer in this one, picking up her tenth goal of the year off of corner assist by Mercedes Pastor. It was one of Louisville's seven corner attempts, and the inability to capitalize on those corner opportunities has plagued the Cards all year long. Though the Cards were only 1-7, it should also be said that UNC was only 1-6. While they have struggled in scoring on penalty corners this season, Louisville has at least generally been equally as stingy on the defensive side.

Louisville now sits at 15-5 as they await their fate for the NCAA tournament, but three of their five losses have come in the last five games. Given that the Cards made up for a road loss to William and Mary with a road win over Duke in the next game and immediately followed a loss to Syracuse with a win over the Orange, perhaps things aren't as doom and gloom as they seem. Louisville still sits at 6th in the country based on the last rankings and it would be very hard to see them not getting into the tournament. Selection for the 18 team tournament is tomorrow, and we'll be sure to keep you updated on the future of the Cards.

Volleyball Picks Up Hard Fought Win in Miami

Seemingly unable to play a match that is not a barnburner this season, Louisville Volleyball went on the road to Miami and grabbed a five set win that may have gone forever if you had to win by two sets. Each team alternated set wins, and the fifth set went into extra points. In total, the sets were decided by only 20 points. The minimum number is 10, and the first set score was 25-16. As you might expect based on such a tight score, the two teams were also well matched in most other stats. Louisville had only eleven more kills and two more blocks, while Miami had three more aces and the two teams tied in errors. 

Louisville was once again led offensively by the trio that has stepped up in a big way since the loss of Melanie McHenry. Aiko Jones led all scorers in the match with 20 kills, but Claire Chaussee was only one behind her (and still ahead of every Miami player) at 19. Amber Stivrins again chipped, using the most of her playing time, adding 12 kills. Aiko Jones also added 5 blocks and two aces, beaten in the former category only by the six laid down by Anna Stevenson, who continued to be a rock in the middle. Tori Dilfer was unable to put down any of her attack attempts, finishing with a negative hitting percentage by erring on one of the seven attempts, but she did add 57 of the team's 63 assists while grabbing an ace, three blocks, and nine digs. Shannon Shields did not play, and perhaps Jeff has more information about that. Alexis Hamilton, as always, held down the back row with 17 digs.

The win was much needed by the Cards, who used it to stop a 3-game skid. With the victory, Louisville also guarantees it won't finish the major road trip winless. Louisville has one more game on this trip when they head just up the state from Miami to take on the Seminoles of Florida State in Tallahassee tomorrow at 1PM. After the FSU match, Louisville will get three more matches at home, all rematches, before the last match of the regular season in Pittsburgh. That match against the Panthers may not be for the conference title as many expected, with Louisville now sitting at 9-4 in conference, but it will still be a major matchup in Louisville's NCAA tournament picture. Until then, the Cards have four more matches to work to get back on track as the regular season draws to a close.

Louisville Thumps Murray State in Basketball

After playing strong defense and leading by 25 points at the half, Louisville used a 20 point run in the third quarter to completely squash any thoughts the Racers had about a potential comeback. The Cards went on to win 76-40 in their second game of the season, with no player scoring more than 14 points. Louisville will get a bigger break after this matchup, playing next on November 14th against the Chippewas of Central Michigan in the KFC Yum! Center.

Louisville opened last night's game with what may be the worst possible outcome on offense... a pair of missed free throws. (I couldn't decide if missing free throws or a turnover was worse. Let me know what you think.) Just thirty seconds later, Elizabeth Dixon would again get the opportunity to open the scoring as she stepped to the line and sunk both. Remember that thing I said about turnovers, though? They were just waiting for the Cards to score. Louisville turned the ball over on three straight possessions, gave up two offensive rebounds and fouled on a shot. How Murray State was unable to score in that time is beyond me, but Louisville would finally score again nearly two minutes after their first points. Despite the fact that the Cards would go to the quarter break leading 16-4, they certainly couldn't be happy, having given up 11 turnovers in the first ten minutes of the game, including three by both Norika Konno and Jazmine Jones. Konno would go on to finish the game with only three turnovers. Jaz picked up two more.

In the second quarter, the Cardinal defense fell off just a tad, but it may have only been a product of a faster overall pace of play. Louisville scored 22 in the second quarter, turning more of their turnovers from the previous quarter into points instead. Going into the break up 38-13 would usually lead a coach to a generally positive halftime speech. Going into the break up 38-13 with 14 turnovers and 7-12 from the free throw line is not going to garner priase from Jeff Walz. One positive from the half was Dana Evans showing that she is ready for a major offensive role, scoring 10 points in the half with 7 coming in just over a minute as the clock wound down in the second quarter.

In the first three and a half minutes of the third quarter, the Cards and Racers traded baskets, with a Murray State three pointer cutting the lead to 21. Louisville decided that was quite enough of that. Over the next five minutes, the Cards methodically demolished the will of the Racers, allowing Murray State to score no points and extending their lead to 41. After a couple of more baskets, Louisville carried a 40 point lead into the fourth quarter. The final quarter saw a large contingent of non-starters grab court time as Murray State won the period 17-13. By that time, the damage had long been done, though, and the Cards coasted to 2-0 while the Racers dropped to 0-1 on the year.

Kylee Shook made the most of her time in the second half, putting up all 13 of her points in 12 second half minutes. Shook also grabbed a double-double, scoring 13, rebound 12, and adding in a block and a steal. Three other players--Evans, Jones, and Elizabeth Balogun--finished with double-digit points. No Cardinal player saw more than 22 minutes of court time. Norika Konno did her best to make up for her 3 first quarter turnovers by finishing the game with 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. She'll have to make more of her shots (just 2-7) for Louisville to get the most out of its offense, but it's good to see a freshman recover after a rough opening stanza. 

The CASE Report

Paulie alluded to The CASE Report earlier this week when he gave the FRED Report after Louisville's opening game. For a brief refresher, here's how the CASE Report works. CASE stands for Care, Assists, Steals, and Efficiency. All of the categories are stat based, with a pair of thresholds for each granting the possibility for letter improvement. We'll get through this one with some explanation.

C-Care: The Care section focuses on Louisville's turnovers. Generally, there will be a point awarded for Louisville turning the ball over 65% of the opponent's season average in turnovers forced (we expect Louisville's offense to be better than the opponent's defense) and another point awarded for turning the ball over less than the opponent. Since this is Murray State's first game, Louisville actually set their season average at 21 forced turnovers. I'm actually going to break from the standard of the scoring here, because even though Louisville forced 24 turnovers from the Racers, I cannot award a letter for 11 first quarter turnovers and 21 in the game. No letter.

A-Assists: This section awards a letter for assists based stats, namely assist percentage and assist-to-turnover ratio. As always, a huge turnover number is going to put this stat in a hole, but the game of basketball is pretty intertwined so it's ok if my stats are too. Louisville finished with 16 assists on 29 made baskets, which is not bad and is over the 50% threshold. However, it yields an assist-to-turnover ratio of less than 1. We're going for 2. Lowercase 'a'.

S-Steals: The most straightforward of the CASE Report. Half a letter for getting more than 7.5 steals, another half for getting more steals than the opponent. The Cards grabbed 12 in this one, just edging the 11 put up by Murray State. Capital 'S'.

E-Efficiency: This is where the CASE and FRED reports overlap a tad. We're looking at shooting efficiencies in this one. Specifically, we're looking for better than 45% from the floor and better than 75% from the line. Louisville finished with 6-26 shooting from beyond the arc, driving their overall shooting percentage all the way down to 40.8%. They also struggled to recover from 5 missed free throws in the first quarter, finishing at just 66.7% from the line. No letter.

In the opening CASE Report of the year, Louisville finishes with just _-a-S-_. The flashy final score and 20-0 run in the third make this game seem like a nice win, but the stats show that Louisville did not have a great night. Everything that Louisville did poorly, Murray State just did worse. It's only the second game of the season, but the Cards definitely have some work to do to get to the dominance they're looking for this year.


They said it: 

LINK: POST GAME WALZ

LINK: POST GAME SHOOK AND JONES

LINK (AUDIO ONLY)  : MURRAY ST. HEAD WBB COACH RECHELLE TURNER POST GAME

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

I'm out once more, but the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour lives on. We are still exploring our options for the future of the show, so keep an eye out, but for the time being, the show still comes to you live from WCHQ FM. Today, join Paulie and Jeff as they are both back into their wheelhouses with volleyball and basketball fully in swing. They'll bring you those and more at 11AM on WCHQ. Catch the show at 100.9 FM, the WCHQ App, wchqfm.com, or on Facebook Live.

HERE'S THE LINK FROM TODAY'S SHOW:
LINK: THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR 11/9/19

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

News on Norika....Around Campus -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Norika Konno at FIBA U19 World Cup

To start with, I just want to give everyone a heads up that “Norika” keeps wanting to autocorrect to “not okay”. Seeing that we will hopefully be talking about one of our newest women’s basketball players for the next four years go ahead and make note of that on your (not so) smart devices.

However, Konno is in the news for something good. FIBA released a list of 19 players to watch at the U19 World Cup at the end of July and the lone Louisville Cardinal represented was one of them. FIBA had the following to say about Konno:

“Intensity, speed, scoring, a three-point danger and always crashing the boards well for her positions, she can be a basketball dynamite on any given day.”

You can see Konno with Team Japan while Jeff Walz corrals Team USA. The event will be held July 20-28 in Bangkok, Thailand.( Let’s hope the Wolfpack from the  movie Hangover doesn’t decide to make a guest appearance)!

Welcome Back to Campus

I decided to check out what all the brouhaha was about surrounding these new electric scooters popping up on campus and in the city. You download an app, sync your bank card information and can ride around for so much money per minute. It’s pretty neat and gave me a great opportunity to explore campus earlier in the week.

During my travels it seemed summertime campus was not as quiet as it may seem. Several of our UofL teams are hard at work preparing for upcoming seasons. Field hockey had a full-on practice going on. Lacrosse was in the midst of a camp with Coach Teeter and his hat standing at midfield. I ran into Emina Ekic near campus, who told me they’ve been working on conditioning with lots of running. I didn’t stay to talk to her for more than a minute or so -- as my scooter was on the clock.

It’s nice to see players back on campus and teams preparing for the upcoming seasons. It means fall sports start soon and for us at Cardinal Couple, it can’t come soon enough!

Be sure to check back here tomorrow for Paulie's interview with Bionca Dunham.

Happy Wednesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville WBB -- Start learning the names now, Cardinal fans -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

THESE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN YOU SHOULD GET TO KNOW

Being a bit of a movie buff, one of my favorite remakes of a classic was the 2016 remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. This remake of the 1960 movie (of the same name) starred Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke.

The plot was based around seven gunmen being banded together to protect a small town from a private army of a destructive and despicable rich industrialist. 

Jeff Walz is offering a live, basketball version of the classic Western when he brings seven "new to the KFC YUM! Center floor" women's basketball student-athletes together for the first time to join another group of student-athletes who seek to defend their ACC Women's basketball regular season share of the title.  We know some of the names...because of their previous exploits in DI WBB. I recommend you commit all seven to memory.

Say "Hello!" to Elizabeth, Kianna and Liz..." 

From Georgia Tech, both ELIZABETH BALOGUN and LIZ DIXON saddle up and ride north to take shots at ACC foes from a different perspective. The duo teamed up for a combined 25 points per game and average of 30 minutes a game down in "hot 'lanta". While Cardinal fans wait to see if they can join the party right away or in 2020-21 -- having that kind of arsenal available will pay huge rewards for the squad -- be it practice or game situations. Balogun, a guard, was the ACC Freshman of the year. Dixon, a 6'5" paint player, was named to the All-ACC Freshman team and the leading freshman rebounder in the ACC. How this for a trade...lose a couple of key guards and post-player to graduation and to the WNBA and gain a couple of key guards and post? I like the restocking strategy. 

KIANNA SMITH makes the journey to the "Ville" from California, where she was a key guard in the Bears system for two years. We do know she'll have to redshirt the 2019-20 season but...look out Cardinal fans after that! A PAC 12 All-Freshman team selection in 2017-18, 35% from beyond the arc and, oh yeah...she was a "burger girl" like Liz and Elizabeth.

A Cardinal Couple welcome to Ramani, Nyah and Norika !

NYAH GREEN arrives from Texas carrying the titles of 2018-19 Texas Ms. Basketball and the 6A Texas Player of the Year in her saddlebags. She's been committed to carrying on the gunfight on Main Street for quite sometime now and, as we all know, you don't "mess with Texas". Green is a delight to watch on both ends of the court and will fit in very well with the "WalzBall" philosophy. 

RAMANI PARKER leaves the "Sunshine State" , where she showed she was a 6'4" forward with outstanding three-point skills and strong rebounding numbers during her one year at Montverde Academy. For Cardinal fans who have been hoping "height" would become more prevalent on the UofL WBB roster...Happy Birthday! You're going to love her game. Talk about a nightmare matchup for opposing squads...

NORIKA KONNO journeys the farthest of the seven to sprout her Cardinal wings and fly. The 5'10" guard has a wealth of international experience. She spent November playing for the Japanese National Team. She was on Japan's 2018 3x3 team. She's a scorer who thrives in a fast-paced basketball environment and should become a fan favorite quickly. 

MOLLY LOCKHART had one of the best seats in the house last year during her red-shirt season at UofL. But, she was busy...as well. Now much stronger, quicker and having gained a lot from the daily practice battles with Sam Fuehring, Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham...Lockhart hardly resembles the high school senior that arrived last year. At 6'1", she's a force to deal with.

Let's put it this way. You try handling and challenging Sam Fuehring up and down the court everyday for a year in practice and see what it does to your game and skills. 



OK.  It's not like these seven are walking down a dusty and deserted Main Street. The Cards have plenty of veterans back from last year's 32-4 squad. Dana Evans, Jazmine Jones, Kylee Shook, Bionca Dunham and Yacine Diop return. They could start for almost any team in DI WBB. Kasa Robinson, Lindsey Duvall and Seygan Robins had key roles on the 2018-19 squad. Jess Laemmle is a crowd favorite "spark plug" who can run the offense and knows Walz's system.  

We sadly say "Goodbye" to these three who affected the Cards so
much in their careers here. 

So..."Magnificent Seven"...meet the "Nine Lives" who greatly impacted the UofL WBB successes of last season. And, Cardinal fans...a bit of personal advice to you from the "Paulie". You better start early with the process of putting these seven's faces and names to numbers. 

Instead of clearing Main Street for an epic shootout, I'm recommending you pack Main Street (and the KFC YUM! Center for UofL WBB home games later this year. You're going to love the fireworks. This "corral" looks "OK" to me! 

It might be wise for the rest of the ACC WBB squads to circle the wagons and get ready for this upcoming attack...


paulie
xxxxx