Cards Fall in Round of 32 -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Curry's Career High Not Enough in 85-70 Loss

Jayda Curry did her best to will the Cards to a victory over TCU in the second round of the NCAA tournament, scoring a career high 41 points, but Louisville wasn't able to recover from a nightmare run by the Horned Frogs in the second quarter. In the end, Louisville outscored TCU by six in the second half, but a 21-point halftime deficit was too much to overcome. TCU advanced to their first Sweet Sixteen in program history (men's and women's), while Louisville missed out on its chance for a 13th under Jeff Walz. 

Curry scored the first basket of the game, which was an auspicious start to her day. She would go on to score 15 of Louisville's 17 first quarter points, which was incredible, while also becoming incredibly alarming as the game wore on. Louisville held TCU at bay for much of the first quarter, and a Curry three with 4:34 to go in the quarter gave Louisville its largest lead of the game at 13-7. TCU answered with a three of their own (far from the last) and hit another after a Louisville layup to make it 15-13. The Cards responded with another basket with 2:57 remaining in the first to go up 17-13, but then the wheels fell off. TCU went on a 7-0 run to close the quarter up 20-17. 

The quarter break didn't help Louisville at all. They continued to be unable to score, not making a basket in the second quarter until there was only 4:10 remaining in the quarter. That's almost a full quarter's worth of scoreless basketball. In that time, TCU had scored ten points to stretch their lead to 30-19. Louisville's shooting woes continued, while TCU kept taking shots on a kiddie goal. When all was said and done, the second quarter was a 27-9 bloodbath, TCU was on a 34-9 extended run, and it looked like it might all be over but the crying. 

This was a matchup long awaited by those that created the packages about Hailey Van Lith taking on her former school and coach, and the former Louisville guard didn't disappoint. Van Lith played all 40 minutes and finished with a double-double, totaling 16 points and 10 assists. She was a big part of that second quarter. While she only scored four points in the quarter, she tallied four of her assists (for 11 points), three of her five rebounds, and her only steal and block each in the second. When Louisville was on the mat, HVL and TCU didn't let up. 

If the first quarter was bad for Louisville from a defensive perspective, the second was a disaster. TCU went 8-13 in the first, with a 4-6 effort from beyond the arc. In the second, they improved, shooting 11-14 overall and 5-7 from three. The Horned Frogs were shooting 70.4% overall and 69.2% from deep. As the Cards watched them run away, they managed to find the bottom of the net on just 9 of 35 shots, going 2-7 from three. That's 25.7%. With a -44.7% disadvantage in shooting, almost no other stats matter. 

Jeff Walz must have lit a fire under Louisville at half time, or at least stirred some embers, because the Cards didn't fold coming out of the locker room. Olivia Cochran scored the first points of the half on a couple of free throws, and Louisville cut the lead to 15 with 7:28 to go. Unfortunately, the third quarter was a lot of "Louisville might get some momentum... oh never mind." The Cards were unable to claw back much closer, and the lead stretched back to 20 on two occasions. Even when Imari Berry hit threes on back-to-back possessions, TCU was able to respond with an and-1 on a layup to halt any progress. With 31 seconds remaining in the third quarter, Louisville's luck in the game was summarized pretty well by the final sequence. Berry drew a foul and responded by missing a pair of free throws. On the ensuing possession, Curry forced the ball away from Van Lith, again giving the Cards a chance at the last shot. Louisville worked the ball around to find an open Elif Istanbulluoglu, who missed a three as time ran out. 

Trailing by 18 entering the fourth, things weren't looking good. The Cards opened with a quick score by Elif, though, and TCU missed a three on their first possession. A Cochran three probably isn't what I'd recommend to get back into the game, and it missed, but Louisville weathered another offensive possession by forcing a miss from HVL. Curry was fouled on a three attempt and hit all three free throws to make it a 13-point game with 8:37 remaining. Another miss meant Louisville finding Berry for a three would have made it a 10-point game, but the shot was off the mark, as was the follow-up layup (not for lack of help by some contact, but the game was pretty loosely called). 

A couple of TCU free throws pushed the lead back to 15, but Curry dropped in a three to make it 12. Right on cue, the momentum killer came on a free layup and a Louisville miss. Another turnover meant that the Cards weren't out just yet, and a nice jumper by Cochran kept it at 12. A missed three fell to Curry, who brought it up court, kept it herself, and fired up a wild three that managed to hit almost all of the rim and the backboard before falling in. Louisville was down by just nine points with 5:26 to go. Consider by eyebrows raised. 

It wasn't meant to be, though. The Cards weren't able to keep up the pressure or go on a sustained run, and they never got closer than eight points with 2:47 remaining. TCU pushed it back to a 15-point deficit in the end, even without Louisville playing the foul game. Curry continued to do everything in her power to get Louisville across the finish line but she needed help. She got some from Cochran and Berry, who scored 15 and 8, respectively, but if you do the math on that, you're going to be disappointed. Allow me to help. 41+15+8=64 from three players. Louisville scored 70 total. Curry made 13 of Louisville's 24 baskets. She was 6-12 from 3 and Berry was 2-4. Louisville attempted 8 others and made none. The Cards got six points out of 113 player minutes. If you take Curry's 13-28 away, Louisville went 11-43 (25.6%) from the floor. The offense just wasn't there.

The FRED Report

Free Throws: The Cards had a good day at the line, making the most of their chances by going 14-16 from the stripe. Curry was her typical 9-9, but Cochran added a surprising 5-5. The super senior gave it a good run in her final game for Louisville, adding six rebounds, one assist, and three steals to her 15 points without turning the ball over. That was a bit beside the point, though. 87.5% is a capital 'F'.

Rebounds: There isn't a much more stark indication of Louisville's shooting woes (and TCU's hot hand) than the rebounding stats. The Cards and Frogs tied with 31 rebounds apiece. Louisville had 15 offensive boards. TCU had 29 defensive. That's right - 44 of the 62 rebounds came at Louisville's end of the floor. Woof. TCU scored on both of its offensive rebounds. Louisville managed fewer second-chance points than they had offensive rebounds. TCU was a decent rebounding team, averaging a margin of +7.8 this season. I'll go lowercase 'r' but I'm reluctant about it. 

Effort/Execution: I was ready to throw in the towel at the half, but I'll go ahead and tell you I'm awarding a capital 'E'. I know Louisville lost by 15, but they never gave up. Maybe there was a stretch in the second where they looked a little defeated, but they could have lost this game by 40 and they chose to fight back, cutting it to single digits. They also only had seven turnovers. Their problem was that they couldn't hit the broadside of a barn. Sometimes that's the way it goes. 

Defense: This one is a bit of an enigma. The Cards forced 14 turnovers, six from HVL, and they had a good strategy to keep her off balance. They came away with 10 steals and picked up a block. They only gave up nine fast break points. All that said, they gave up 85 points overall on 63% shooting. TCU was better than 50% in every quarter. Their worst shooting quarter was the third, where they went just 4-8, but they made up for it by going 13-15 from the line in that period. Louisville was a bit late on help defense, and they overcommitted on traps on a few occasions. It is what it is. No letter.

That's a final score of F-r-E-_. A bit of a surprising score, given the way the game turned out, but stats don't always tell the story. We'll have plenty more to say on this team, but for now, let's be proud of the fact that the Cards made it to the NCAA tournament, despite some shakiness during the season, and they managed to get back into the second round. It was a tough loss to end the season, but we got a pair of pretty nice swan songs from Cochran and Curry, who I feel like I couldn't have given enough words to in this column. 

Walz showed that he could win games with the transfer portal last season, but he showed he still knew how to run a program this year. The Cards are set up for the future with the players set to return, so we'll see what there is to come. Louisville won't be dancing any more this season, but you can be sure that there are plenty of tournament wins yet to come for the program. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards Survive Husker Rally; Softball Wins Game 1 -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Advances with 63-58 Victory

Like the men's team a day earlier, Louisville women's basketball faced a team from Nebraska that had a strong post player and kept hitting threes when Louisville attempted to break the game open. Unlike the men, the women kept their cool and never let the game get out of reach. The Cards and Huskers played a game marred by long scoring droughts, sometimes by both sides at the same time (such as a three-and-a-half minute stretch in the first quarter), but ultimately, Louisville's defense stepped up to force Nebraska into the most important drought of all: not scoring for the final minute of the game. 

The Cards and Huskers traded blows in the first quarter, but it was Nebraska's inability to hold onto the ball that really kept Louisville in it early. The Cards shot just 30% from the floor in the first quarter, compared to 46.7% from Nebraska, but they trailed by only two at the break. That was largely due to a 6-3 Louisville advantage in turnovers, which resulted in a 6-0 advantage in points off of those turnovers. 

Louisville would ride that turnover advantage wave throughout the game, with the biggest difference coming in the second quarter. The second saw Louisville take its first real lead of the game (6-5 was immediately erased by a Nebraska 3 in the first quarter) when they went on a 9-0 run to close the half. The Cards had the same 6-3 turnover margin in the second quarter as they did in the first, but they scored 11 points off of those six turnovers while Nebraska could manage just two. The Huskers looked like they'd hold on to the lead throughout the quarter, as each time Louisville got close, they'd hit a three to stretch the advantage. Nebraska led by about five for the entire quarter until that Louisville run over the final two-and-a-half minutes. In the second, Nebraska shot an identical 7-15 from the floor, but Louisville brought their average up to 38.5% with a 9-19 quarter. The Cards also made two threes, matching Nebraska, and led 36-32 at halftime. 

Olivia Cochran picked up two fouls in the second quarter, but both came as a result of playing hard against Alexis Markowski, and it was paying off. Louisville had a strong post presence in the game, despite the potential Nebraska advantage in that area, and the Cards limited Markowski overall. In the end, she finished with a double-double, but she scored only 12 points, and her 10 rebounds came primarily on the defensive end. She was just 5-12 from the floor (1-2 from three) and had two turnovers. The Cards outscored Nebraska by 12 in the paint. One place Louisville struggled in this area was second chance points. The Cards had 18 offensive rebounds, compared to just 9 for Nebraska, but it was the Huskers that won the second chance points battle 8-7. 

Taj Roberts scored a layup on the first possession of the second half to push the Cards lead to six, and both teams decided scoring was optional for a bit. Olivia Cochran broke a four-minute scoring drought with a free throw to make it 39-32. Nebraska matched that with 5:07 remaining in the quarter, and a three by Jayda Curry, over five minutes after the last made field goal in the game, pushed the Louisville lead to nine. The Cards looked like they'd be in control from that point on, but the Huskers held on, cutting the lead to 46-44 with 1:10 to go in the quarter. A pair of layups by Elif Istanbulluoglu in the final minute pushed Louisville's lead to 50-44 going into the final stanza. 

Not so fast, my friend as Lee Corso would say. After Elif's layup in the final second, a bit of chaos ensued. The refs convened for a chat about whether a technical foul should be assessed for Louisville players coming onto the court before the quarter was over. Ultimately, the right decision was made, and no foul was given. The clock operator had mistakenly stopped the clock with 0.1s remaining after the field goal, meaning the bench did come out on the floor to celebrate before the quarter ended. However, the clock shouldn't have stopped for a made basket in the third quarter. The conversation ended with the refs correctly determining that the quarter would have been over if the clock hadn't stopped, and that was that. A whole lot of stress for nothing. 

As if the teams felt Louisville fans relax from afar going into the fourth quarter, things turned on a dime. Louisville decided that the beginning of the quarter would be a great time for a scoring drought, but Nebraska didn't agree. The Huskers opened the fourth on a 10-0 run over 3:30 that flipped Louisville from +6 to -4. The Cards would finally score in the fourth with 5:28 remaining, lucky to not trail by more. The Louisville basket made it 54-52 in favor of Nebraska, and given the final score, you can probably guess that the end was tense. Neither team scored for two minutes, and Louisville finally tied it at 56 with 2:20 remaining. Jayda Curry's second tough jumper in a row, coming after the second offensive rebound of the possession, gave Louisville a 58-56 lead with 1:16 remaining. 

Britt Prince (one of two Prince's Louisville needed to be very aware of entering the weekend) hit a layup to tie the game with 59 seconds remaining, and Jeff Walz called a timeout to draw up a go-ahead play on what could be Louisville's final possession. As the shot clock wound down, Curry put up a three that rimmed out. Cochran was there for yet another offensive rebound for the Cards, and she was fouled on her put back attempt. Olivia missed the first but buried the second to give Louisville a one-point lead. After a timeout to advance the ball, Nebraska looked to run the clock down and take a final shot to win. That is, until Prince saw what she thought was an open lane for a layup. (Side note, this was ill advised, in my opinion, in a one-point game. If you make it, Louisville has the ball down one and gets to hold for the last shot. Are you leading? Yes. Have you just subjected yourself to potential heartbreak? Also, yes.) As it was, Louisville stepped in to draw a charge on Prince, voiding the basket and fouling her out of the game. It was a bit of a late move to pick up the charge, but Louisville had just been called for the same thing a couple of minutes earlier, so if it was a bad call, at least it was consistent. 

From there, the Cards knew they were playing the foul game, and they wisely got it in to Curry, who tried to kill time but was fouled with 21 seconds remaining. She did what everyone hoped she would and calmly sunk both to give Louisville a three-point cushion. Nebraska advanced the ball with a timeout again, but the three-point attempt they drew up missed and Mackenly Randolph pulled down the rebound. She got the ball to Cochran, but Olivia couldn't get it away before being fouled. Cochran hit one of two at the line to stretch the lead to four. Another timeout (taking three into the final minute is a choice...) advanced the ball, but this time, Nebraska threw the ball away. Cochran was sent to the line for free throws that were largely academic and made one of two to set the final score of 63-58. 

Survive and advance. 

The FRED Report

Free Throws: The Cards weren't great at the stripe, going just 9-15. Cochran had a good game (14 points, 5 boards, just three fouls, and a block), but she was a big part of the lower percentage, going 4-8 from the line. Roberts missed her only attempt to convert a three-point play and Ja'leah Williams was 1-2. Curry led the way at 4-4. No letter.

Rebounds: Louisville held a huge advantage on the offensive glass, but they managed to outrebound Nebraska by just four overall. They also didn't convert those O'boards into second chance points consistently, though they did have some second (and third) opportunities that were clutch down the stretch. Nebraska had a height advantage in the post, so I'll award a lowercase 'r'.

Effort/Execution: Louisville never gave up, even when the shots weren't falling and Nebraska went on a late run. The Cards could have caved but they didn't. Jayda Curry played through getting hurt what felt like seven times, but hopefully she'll be ok going into tomorrow. Louisville got at least five minutes from everyone that played (11 players) and everyone that got on the floor contributed at least one positive stat. The Cards had just 13 turnovers, and only 14 fouls, and they had 14 assists on 25 made baskets. That kind of performance in a tournament game where momentum is everything gets a capital 'E' from me. 

Defense: Nebraska shot the ball well, but not really for lack of Louisville's defensive pressure. The Huskers were ultimately 23-52 from the floor, making fewer shots than Louisville. They took only eight free throws, and Louisville turned them over 24 times (scoring 27 points). Williams led Louisville with four of their ten steals, and she pulled down nine rebounds, seven defensive. She struggled offensively but she was a huge force on defense. The Cards also had three blocks. To put a bow on it, Louisville gave up just 58 points to a team that averaged 75.5 throughout the year. Capital 'D'.

That's a final tally of _-r-E-D, which is certainly nothing to slouch at. We'll need the Cards to get to the line more tomorrow and to take advantage of those opportunities, but this was a good showing from Louisville, who return to their winning ways in the NCAA tournament. 

Louisville will move on to face TCU in the matchup the selection committee was going for when they set the bracket last season. After Louisville was upset and didn't get to face LSU and Hailey Van Lith, the committee set the stage again. The Cards will face the Horned Frogs, led by Van Lith and Sedona Prince, on their ugly home floor tomorrow. The game will tip at 6PM. 

Softball Beats UNC 7-4

Louisville softball won their first game of a three-game set in Chapel Hill yesterday by a final score of 7-4. The Cards rallied twice in this one, powered by a pair of three-run homers. UNC took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, and Char Lorenz sent a three-run shot down the left field line to take the lead in the fourth. UNC responded immediately with another two runs to regain the lead in the bottom half, but Bri Despines put Louisville back in front with a homer to right in the fifth. Camryn Lookadoo hit a pinch-hit double in the sixth to set the final score at 7-4.

The Cards didn't have a great hitting day, but they got hits when it mattered. Louisville left just three players on base, scoring seven runs on just eight hits and two walks. The long ball will do that for you. UNC managed 13 hits and two walks, but Alyssa Zabala (8-3) and Sam Booe combined to strand 11 runners. Zabala got the start and gave up all four runs on ten hits and one walk in four full innings, striking out two. Booe came in after Louisville retook the lead and earned the long save. Booe pitched three full and gave up three hits and one walk, while also picking up two strikeouts. Booe is listed in the pitching summary as giving up an HBP, but none is listed in her stats or the batting stats for UNC. 

The Cards and Heels will get together for game two of the series at 2PM today. 

CC NCAA Tournament Pick 'Em Update

After day one of our NCAA Pick 'Em, here's the scoreboard as it stands midway through the round of 64. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We've got hosts scrambled all over the place today, so we aren't able to get together for the show this week. We'll be back next week, hopefully to discuss a continued tournament run for the Cards.

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Cards Fall Flat in ACC Quarters -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Offense Struggles in 61-48 Loss to Duke

Louisville women's basketball played its second consecutive game without Jayda Curry and Merissah Russell last night and let's hope it's the last time they have to do that this season. After surviving in overtime against Clemson on Thursday, Louisville's offense looked lost against a suffocating defense, leading to the worst scoring half of the season when they headed to the locker room with just 18 points. Louisville tried to make a game of it late, but their momentum was halted and they'll now await their fate on Selection Sunday. 

The Cards' shooting woes started early, as they managed just 5-16 from the floor in the first quarter, a mark of 31.3%. Duke shot 50% from the floor in the first, but they turned the ball over a handful of times and Louisville was able to stay close. The Cards trailed just 15-11 at the end of one, and it looked like they might be able to keep the game in hand. Unfortunately, Louisville couldn't make it out of the quarter without Nyla Harris, Ja'Leah Williams, and Olivia Cochran all picking up their first fouls. Even more concerningly, Taj Roberts started the game just 1-6 from the floor. With Curry out, Roberts is Louisville's leading scorer, so the team will go as she does without Curry.

Louisville's hopes of keeping the game close fell apart in the second quarter, as their shooting woes continued. The Cards were 3-10 from the floor in the second, and while Taj Roberts hit her second three of the game, Duke stretched their lead from 4 to 13 at the break. Duke opened the second with a three, and Louisville made their first basket of the quarter with a Mackenly Randolph jumper but failed to score for the next six and a half minutes. Fortunately for the Cards, Duke went on a long scoring drought as well. Unfortunately for the Cards, Duke's ended with a scoring run, rather than a single basket. The Blue Devils finished the quarter on an 11-5 run. Louisville had six turnovers in the quarter. They trailed 31-18 at halftime. 

If you're doing the math on the final score, you know how the second half went, but it started with a third quarter that looked as though Louisville might lose the game by 30. Louisville remained largely unable to score, mustering their first basket over two minutes into the half and sitting on 20 points for four minutes after that. Isla Juffermans made 1-2 free throws to go to the under 5 timeout, pushing Louisville to 21 points with just 14 minutes left in the game. Duke went to the line with 3:31 remaining to extend their lead to its peak at 22 points. At that point, Louisville's offense finally found a bit of rhythm. Louisville closed the third quarter on a 9-2 run to move into the final stanza down by 15 with some momentum. While it isn't great to be optimistic about a 15-point deficit, it was, as I mentioned, threatening to be much worse.

The Cards continued their comeback bid to open the fourth quarter, scoring the first seven points of the fourth to cut the lead to eight at 45-37 and force a Kara Lawson timeout with 8:18 remaining. Briefly, it looked like game on... and then it didn't. Louisville had a chance to cut the lead to six, but a missed jumper in the paint and a missed put-back (both of which had decent shouts for fouls, in my opinion), gave the ball back to Duke, who got a layup and drew the foul to complete the three-point play. A five-point swing meant that instead of 39-47 it was 37-48. After that point, Louisville struggled avoid turnovers, and Duke started to make threes, quelling any further comeback efforts. The Cards didn't see a single-digit deficit for the remainder of the game. A desperate attempt to play the foul game late pushed the lead back to it's final mark at 13 and the Cards' run in the ACC Tournament ended with a 61-48 loss. 

For the second game in a row, Ja'Leah Williams struggled to stay out of foul trouble when she was depended on to be the floor general. After fouling out of the Clemson game, Williams picked up only two fouls in the first half against Duke but got a quick one in the third and was called for her fourth foul just four minutes into the third quarter. Williams was able to avoid fouling out, but she was off the floor for key minutes, and Louisville's offensive fate was in the hands of true freshmen in a hostile environment and a tournament setting. It didn't go great. Roberts, Izela Arenas, and Imari Berry combined for nine of Louisville's 21 turnovers. While a couple of Williams' fouls were suspect (one was whistled while she had both hands on the ball for a jump ball attempt), she will need to find a way to avoid ticky-tack situations if she is going to be depended on to run the floor. 

Despite Louisville's struggles, Mackenly Randolph somewhat quietly had her best game of the season. Randolph played 34 minutes and scored a personal-best (and tied for game-high) 13 points. She was 5-7 from the floor, including 1-1 from three, and made both her free throw attempts (each of which were and-ones). She did commit two fouls and two turnovers, but she had a pair of rebounds and another pair of assists (a lot of twos in the box score). Randolph has shown flashes so far this season, and last night's game (Robert's woeful shooting aside) was another indicator that this could be a very strong core group of players moving forward. 

We have given Olivia Cochran some flak this season, but she played hard in last night's loss. She was only 4-10 from the floor, but she made all three of her free throw attempts and finished with a double-double (11 points, 11 rebounds). She only had two fouls and her three turnovers were unfortunate, but not game-breaking. As Louisville's spiritual leader, her efforts in helping prevent the blowout were considerable, and I hope for a celebratory end to her illustrious UofL career in the NCAA tournament. 

The FRED Report

F-Free Throws: Louisville didn't take their first free throw until well into the third quarter, but they managed to do well at the line, despite the season averages of those that took the shots. The Cards finished 9-11 from the line, just under 82%. I can never quite remember the difference between a capital f and a lowercase f, but I'm crediting Cochran, Randolph, and Juffermans for their 7-8 performance. Capital 'F'.

Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) models my facial 
expression for much of last night's game.

R-Rebounds: Louisville didn't get run off the boards, despite how it felt at times last night. Each team had 34 total rebounds, and Louisville had 17 each of offensive/defensive rebounds compared to Duke's 16-18. Louisville lost the second-chance points battle, but not by much (12-8). Duke outrebounds opponents by 6.7 per game on average, compared to just 3.3 for the Cards, so I'm going to award a capital 'R'. Again, I'm rewarding an individual effort here, as Cochran was the only player with double-digit rebounds. 

E-Effort/Execution: Ok, here is where my generosity runs a bit thin. Louisville shot just 32% from the floor, which isn't solely down to Duke's defense. They also had 21 turnovers, 11 of which were Duke steals. The Cards had only 9 assists on their 18 made baskets, and had multiple scoring droughts over five minutes. I'd like to reward the fact that they never gave up, but it's hard to ignore their worst offensive output in a single half (18) and their second worst scoring performance of the season. In retrospect, it's kind of crazy that they scored more than 18 in both halves when they managed just 42 points against NC State. No letter. 

D-Defense: Hmm. This one is a bit of a stumper. The Cards forced 18 turnovers, but just three of those were steals. A couple were turnovers in which they gave the ball right back. They were a bit slow on closeouts, and while Duke was just 41.5% from the floor overall, they were 6-18 from three. Louisville gave up 24 points in the paint, 13 fast break points, and it could have been worse if Duke hadn't shot 58% from the free throw line. I don't think Louisville's defense kept them in the game in the second half so much as Duke couldn't quite run away with it. No letter. 

In a weird game like last night's, it's hard to expect much more than the weird final score of F-R-_-_.

Louisville's fate is now in the hands of the committee. With conference tournaments going largely as expected, the Cards' resume won't be dramatically improved or harmed by outcomes across the country, so we just wait and see. After last night, Louisville's NET ranking remains in the mid-30s (35) and Charlie Creme still has them as a 7-seed in the Spokane region. NET rankings and bracketology will go out the window in eight days, but they're all we have for now. 

2025 Cardinal Couple ACC Pick'Em Update

Despite a couple of potential upsets, the day was largely chalky yesterday. After dropping his perfect bracket in the first quarterfinal matchup, Nick O saw his lead slip away in the last QF of the night. Five entries now sit on 9 points (Nick O, Curtis, Karen J, Kenny S, and Case) with three (Thomas, Jeff, and Daryl) close behind at 8. 

Nick O and Karen J will each drop another game having both picked FSU over NC State today, but they join the other six entries with Notre Dame as their champion. Paulie and Blue Lou (both with 7) will be rooting for Duke upset, which would upend the standings. Paulie needs Duke to win the championship for it to come down to tiebreakers, while Blue Lou could win outright with NC State over Duke in the final. 

Softball Soars in ACC Opening 9-2 Win

Louisville very nearly walked off Notre Dame in the sixth inning, but the Irish got one more attempt in the seventh. Sam Booe, who took the win from Alyssa Zabala, closed it out, though, and Louisville opened their ACC season with a big win over a middling Notre Dame squad. The Cards will get the Irish twice more this weekend, including a 1:00 PM matchup today. 

Louisville and Notre Dame each had ten hits in this one, but the Cards were able to do more damage with runners in scoring position, as Louisville pitching and defense stranded 11 on base for the Irish. The Cards left just five on base. Coach Holly Aprile manipulated the lineup slightly again, with Bri Despines batting fifth in this one and Madison Pickens taking the cleanup spot. Pickens made good use of it, sending her first career home-run to right field in the first inning to score Chelsea Mack and give the Cards a 2-0 lead. Pickens had a two-run single in the sixth inning to set up the potential walk-off, giving her four RBI in the game. 

Joining Pickens with two hits in the game were Easton Lotus, Chelsea Mack, and Taylor Monroe, with Lotus and Mack also each scoring two runs. Lotus had a timely RBI triple in the fifth, kicking off a four-run inning after Notre Dame trimmed the lead to 3-2 in the fourth. Louisville's offense, unsurprisingly, wreaked havoc on the base paths, as they had infield singles, a forced error (for runs), and finished with seven steals (two for Mack). A small-ball delight on a team that also has some pop. Can't be mad about it. 

Alyssa Zabala had a bit of trouble in the cool evening weather, but she was serviceable and in line for the victory. Zabala pitched 3.2 innings and gave up seven hits, three walks, and two runs (both earned) while striking out a pair. Sam Booe came on to relieve her in the fourth with the tying run on base. Since Zabala was on the hook for the potential game-tying run upon her departure, the win ultimately went to Booe, who is now 4-1. Booe had another great outing in the circle, as she gave up just three hits and one walk in 3.1 innings and struck out five. She also did well to keep the ball out of danger as just two of her batted balls in play were in the air. All three hits were short outfield singles and she gave up just two fly ball outs. 

Louisville's win moves them to 15-6 and pushes Notre Dame below .500 at 10-11. I would expect Brooke Gray to get the start this afternoon, but Booe and Zabala are both capable on short rest if Gray struggles. The Cards took down the Notre Dame ace yesterday, giving Micaela Kastor just her second loss of the young season. If Louisville's offense can continue to build confidence, especially among the freshmen, this could be a fun year. 

Postgame with Madison Pickens

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

We'll have four (with a potential showing from the fifth) in the booth today to recap the past week. There has been some bad, but a lot of good, so we'll do our best not to dwell on the negatives as we advance the mission of bringing you the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics. 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

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

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Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Softball Wins Home Opener -- WBB Senior Day Tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Cards Open Home Season With Blowout Win

Louisville softball had a warm welcome home, both figuratively and literally, as they defeated crosstown rival Bellarmine 10-0 in five innings. Temperatures broke into the 70s for the first time of the 2025 calendar year and the Cards couldn't be stopped with aggressive baserunning.

The Cards pieced together 10 runs on 10 hits while capitalizing on a pair of Bellarmine errors and multiple obstruction calls.

Brooke Gray got the start in the circle for the Cards, earning her third win on the early season. In her three innings of work, Gray surrendered two hits but maintained a shutout. Izzy Harrison came in relief for the final two innings, striking out six and walking one.

Louisville jumped out front early. After Chelsea Mack and Bri Despines found ways to get on base and advance to scoring position, Char Lorenz drove both runners in. The Cards recorded four successful steals in the first inning.

With two outs in the second inning, Louisville pieced together a four-run rally with Easton Lotus, Bri Despines, Chelsea Mack, and Madison Pickens crossing the plate.

Louisville did more damage in the third inning before recording any outs. Maddi Grant led off with the only triple of the game and was followed by a double by Ally Alexander. Easton Lotus followed with a single and the Cards found themselves threatening to run rule the Knights.

In the fourth inning, UofL pieced together two more runs to add a little insurance. The inning was highlighted by a 10-pitch at bat for Taylor Monroe, who capped it off with an rbi double.

Louisville finished the game 8-for-9 on steals with the only unsuccessful attempt coming in the fourth inning. The Cards had five multi-base hits and had no strikeouts on the offensive end.

The Cards remain home to host the Cardinal Classic this weekend. They will play five games from Friday-Sunday. 

Cards WBB Host Clemson for Senior Day

Photo by Go Cards

Senior Day for Louisville women's basketball has already arrived. The Cards will face off against Clemson at 6:00pm for their final home game of the regular season. It will be aired on tv on ACC Network.

Prior to the game, Olivia Cochran, Merissah Russell, Jayda Curry, and Ja'Leah Williams will be recognized in the Senior Ceremony. Cochran and Russell are both five-year players at Louisville. Curry has been with the Cards for the last two seasons while Williams used her final year of eligibility at Louisville this season.

Clemson, under first year head coach Shawn Poppie, is 13-14 this season. The sit near the bottom of the ACC at 6-10. The former Clemson had coach, Amanda Butler, is on the Louisville coaching staff as an assistant

Photo by Go Cards

While the Tigers don't have a ton of strengths, they have been efficient with their three-point shooting and have had strong bench scoring. Loyal McQueen is one of the best point guards in the country, averaging 5.0 assists per game. Hannah Kohn has proved to be one of the best three-point shooters nationally with 75 made threes and nearly three per game.

Louisville leads the all-time series, 12-3. All 12 wins have come since the Cards joined the ACC. Last year, Louisville went down to Littlejohn Coliseum and won 81-64.

WALZ PRESSER 2/26/25

(Softball photos by Jared)

Happy Thursday and Go Cards!

Jared

Cards Crush Canes 74-56 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Daryl is off celebrating her nuptials, so you'll have to put up with me today instead. You'll see me again tomorrow and Daryl should be back next week. 

Jayda Curry's 21 Leads All Scorers in Rout

In my article on Saturday, I alluded to Miami's 11-1 record being a bit misleading. Although they hadn't played much of anyone, they weren't even receiving any votes to be ranked, which is a bit of a slap in the face, to be honest, since they were still winning the games. Unfortunately for Tricia Cullop's squad, it's been a tough week. Cullop took over in Coral Gables after Katie Meier retired and left Jeff Walz alone as the longest tenured coach in the ACC. Cullop is the winningest coach in Toledo history, but that wasn't much comfort to Canes fans last night. 

After a fairly close battle against UNC on Sunday (a 69-60 loss at home), Miami came to Louisville looking to pick up a signature win against a Louisville team that has been struggling. We can put the Boston College win aside for a moment, as the Eagles were beaten 86-59 by Duke last night after trailing 42-19 at halftime. The Cards needed to beat Miami to prove to themselves that they still hoped to make some noise this season. In the end, Louisville came out on top, winning even more handily than the final score suggested.

The Cards gave up the first basket of the game, but seemingly never looked back. After Ja'Leah Williams tied the score at 2, Olivia Cochran scored the game's next five points with a jumper and a three-pointer. Louisville would go on to extend their lead to 11-4 before Haley Cavinder (yes, the twins are still there) scored her first points of the night. Cavinder would finish just behind Jayda Curry with 19 points. Not content with a seven-point lead, Louisville's boom continued, and a quick 6-0 run, all on two-point baskets, triggered a Miami timeout. Out of the break, Miami missed a three and Louisville punished, making it a 19-6 game. 

After Miami finally broke their scoring drought with a three, Louisville committed three straight fouls, starting with an offensive foul creating a turnover, and put Miami in the bonus with 1:28 remaining. Nothing much came of that, though, as Miami didn't go to the line for the remainder of the quarter after Hanna Cavinder went 1-2 from the stripe. The Cards added free throws of their own and another basket, but a turnover on the final possession of the quarter gave Miami a breakaway layup to set the deficit at 9 instead of a potential 13. Cards led 23-14.

Despite only shooting 1-6 from beyond the arc in the first quarter, Louisville finished 10-16 from the floor. That means they were 9-10 from two-point land, and that's quite alright by me. The defense held Miami to a matching number from three and allowed just 37.5% shooting from the floor overall. 

Louisville opened the second quarter with a three from Elif Istanbulluoglu, almost as if to say, "Yeah, we're just pouring it on now." Elif scored Louisville's next basket as well, on a jumper, to reiterate that the Cards were capable of scoring from anywhere with their bigs. Elif's jumper came after Hanna Cavinder's second and final basket of the evening, as she would finish with just five points, far off the pace set by her sister. 

Leading by 12, Louisville went through a short slump that allowed Miami to close back to within seven before a Merissah Russell three-ball fell. The make brought the Cards back into the game a bit, and after another Miami basket with 5:30 remaining put the lead back at eight points, Louisville went on a 12-2 run to close the half... almost. A foul on the last shot put Miami to the line with three seconds remaining and they scored a pair to set the halftime score at 43-27. 

During that run, Tajianna Roberts scored eight of her 14 points with a pair of triples and another jumper. Roberts wouldn't make another three, but she added four rebounds, four assists, and two steals to her 14 points for a solid stat line over 22 minutes. She did tie for the team lead in fouls with three, but at least one was a questionable offensive foul call. Imari Berry had a forgettable night, as she had three fouls in just six minutes and wasn't able to score. 

The third quarter saw Louisville match the first as far as the deficit goes. The Cards put on their biggest scoring run of the night with another boom to close the third, as they scored 12 points over a 2:27 span. Curry started the run with a pair of free throws to put the Cards up 17 and ended it with a three to functionally end the game. Louisville led 65-38 with 1:22 remaining in the third. Miami would again score free throws to close the quarter, but the 25-point fourth quarter deficit was too large to overcome. 

Louisville's fourth quarter left a fair amount to be desired. Curry opened the quarter with a three and Williams matched a Miami bucket to keep the lead at 28, but the Cards couldn't quite stretch it to 30. In fact, they'd stay stuck at 70 points for just under five minutes before Williams bookended the scoring drought with another jumper. Fortunately for Louisville, Miami joined them in their scoring protest for much of the quarter. After Louisville's basket at 8:34, the Canes hit two quick threes and scored a layup to cut the deficit to 20 with 7:01 remaining. 

Caption this classic pic of Walz in the comments.

Jeff Walz called timeout to get things back on track, but apparently only the defense got the memo. At any rate, Williams' jumper with 3:35 remaining was the first score for either team after the timeout. Woof. Isla Juffermans knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:50 remaining, and Louisville would not score again. I've repeatedly talked about Louisville being seemingly unable to put a complete game together. This game was pretty decent, don't get me wrong, but the Cards scored 70 points in the first 31:26 and scored four points over the last 8:34. 

To put that into a bit of perspective, that means the Cards were on an 88.8 ppg pace for just over 75% of the game and scored at just an 18.8 ppg pace for the remainder. And it wasn't just because they called off the dogs. Louisville had three of their 13 turnovers in that stretch and shot 1-9 (0-5) from the floor. Again... Woof. The Cards will take an 18-point conference win, but I am sure Walz will have plenty for Louisville to address in practice ahead of their next matchup.

The FRED Report

 

F - Free Throws: Louisville didn't get to the line very much, but they were efficient when they did. The refs only called 31 fouls total, and 19 of them were on Louisville. Two of Louisville's seven free throws came after a flagrant was awarded on review. Curry knocked those down as part of her 5-5 night and Juffermans had the other two. 7-7 is 100% so that's a capital 'F'.

R - Rebounds: Louisville was outrebounded in this one, which is certainly not ideal. Although they won the second chance points battle 6-5, they were beaten on the glass on both the offensive (8-6) and defensive (25-24) ends. The Cards were technically at a height disadvantage, but they were also outhustled for a fair number (Haley Cavinder and Ahnay Adams, both 5'-6", combined for 10 rebounds). No letter.

Fred Willard was delighted
with Louisville last night.

E - Effort/Execution: Louisville shot 47.5% from the floor and 34.6% from three. They had just 13 turnovers and forced 19 from Miami. If you exclude the fourth quarter, which I'm going to ascribe mostly to bad luck and questionable shot selection, the Cards were a glittering 53% from the floor and 42% from three. If the men's team shot 42% from three they'd score a million points per game. Louisville didn't seem to give up the fight in this one, despite how the fourth quarter looked. I'm awarding a capital 'E', but I completely understand any disagreement on that front. 

D - Defense: We've established that Miami's early opponents were bad, but they entered the game averaging 74.2 points per game and Louisville gave up just 56. Louisville let Haley Cavinder (19) and Cameron Williams (12) score their averages (18.3 and 11.9, respectively), but no one else was in double digits. The Cards also held the Canes well below their shooting averages of 46.5% and 30% from three, as Miami finished just 38.5/23.5%. I've mentioned the turnovers once already, but 19 is more than Miami's average in that category, and the Canes had just a .474 ATO ratio compared to .995 on the season. Another generous(?) grade from me: capital 'D'.

That's a final tally of F-_-E-D, which much like the game was close to perfect with a glaring question mark. 

The win moves the Cards to 9-5 and 2-1 in conference play. They've won their last three games -- their longest streak since November. The Cards won't get much credit from the voters or the committee for the win over Miami, but it should build confidence as they head into a short road trip ahead of a big home game against GT next week. Louisville will get the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest on Sunday in Winston-Salem, and they'll head to Pittsburgh on Thursday. Neither team has a conference win yet, and I'd rate it as "unlikely" that Pitt scores one against Duke before playing the Cards. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case

Volleyball Sweeps; Basketball Wins Home Opener -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Volleyball Wins in 3 at Syracuse

Louisville Volleyball went on the road to take on the once-mighty (and now not so much) Syracuse and are leaving New York with a sweep of the Orange. The Cards moved to 12-1 in the ACC and 20-3 overall with a fairly straightforward 25-17, 25-18, 25-15 win. 

Louisville won the first three points of the match and fairly well set the tone for the remainder. The Cards held the Orange at bay for a bit before back-to-back Syracuse aces made it 10-8. A service error and a Louisville ace quickly flipped it back to a four-point advantage for the Cards and the Orange never shrank the deficit from there. 

In both the second and third sets, Syracuse won the first couple of points. In the second, they were able to stick close until both teams reached double-digits. In the third, Louisville blitzed them quickly and put the match out of reach. The Cards dropped Syracuse (who was undefeated in non-conference play) to 1-12 in ACC and just 13-12 overall. Yikes. 

Louisville's offense was well distributed yesterday, with six players picking up at least five kills. Only one other player (Alanna Bankston) had a kill and she was one-for-one on attempts. Nearly everyone that attempted had a kill as well, but Nayelis Cabello was oh-for-one and Hannah Sherman was a surprising oh-for-three. Anna DeBeer led the way with 13 kills and a hitting percentage of .385. Carra Cresse and Reese Robins had identical offensive lines (6 kills, 1 error, 10 attempts, .500), but Cresse took the matchup with four block assists to Robins's one. PK was back in a big way with seven kills and a .556 hitting percentage. 

Last night saw the first opportunity for Louisville fans to see Kamden Schrand wear the off-color jersey with the starters. Elena Scott got the night off, and Schrand played well in the libero position. She finished with 12 digs and an ace, while recording no service or reception errors. She didn't have any assists, but with Cabello and Elle Glock putting up 38 of Louisville's 40 assists on 44 kills, there weren't many opportunities. 

It wasn't a huge blocking night for Louisville, overall, as they only finished with seven. But that was better than Syracuse's three, and they outhit the Orange .389 to .119. Louisville also won the service battle with each team recording six errors and Louisville putting up seven aces against Syracuse's five. 

It isn't a win to write home about, as I noted earlier, with the Orange occupying the third to last-spot in the conference, but when so many matches are emotionally draining top matchups, winning the ones you are supposed to easily is very important. Louisville will now head to Boston College to take on a scrappy Golden Eagles team. BC is only 12-13 (5-8) on the year, but as Jeff has mentioned, they can jump up and take a set off of anyone. Louisville shouldn't have too much trouble, but they can't take a road match like this for granted. Tomorrow's match gets underway at 1PM on ACC Network Extra. 

WBB Beats Southern Indiana 75-51

After opening the season with a tough loss to a highly ranked opponent in Paris, Louisville women's basketball started their home season with a get-back win over Southern Indiana. It may not have started quite like fans expected, but the Cards took care of the Screamin' Eagles in the end with a 24-point victory. Coach Walz was less than thrilled in his post-game press conference, citing a poor shootaround and mindset entering the game. The team responded after a close first quarter to play much improved for (almost) the rest of the game. 

Louisville picked up a quick 7-2 lead to open the game, but USI was not deterred. The Eagles hit a three to cut the deficit to two and held tight to the Cards despite two early 3-pointers from Merissah Russell. Ahead by a pair with three minutes to go in the first, Louisville gave up a pair of offensive rebounds that ultimately led to USI tying the score at 15. After a steal, the Eagles took the lead on a breakaway layup. Walz gave his team the chance to sort it out themselves, opting not to call a timeout. The Cards responded with an offensive rebounding effort of their own and tied it at 17 with 1:34 remaining. 

USI was ready to strike, though, and after retaking the lead, they extended their advantage to four with another steal and breakaway. Again, Walz chose not to call a timeout, and Russell hit her third triple of the first quarter. Russell then forced a steal on the other end and hit Izela Arenas on the outlet pass to give the Cards a 22-21 lead at the first break. 

Daryl displays the mood for the second quarter.
Paulie displays the mood for the remainder.

The first quarter was ugly. Louisville gave up five offensive rebounds, leading to eight second chance points, and they were outrebounded 9-7 overall. They allowed 7-16 shooting and USI was 5-6 at the free throw line. As Walz noted in his presser, the poor shootaround carried into the game, despite the team's "spirited discussion" after the walk-thru. 

After what I'm sure was another one of those spirited discussions in the quarter break, Louisville woke up. The Cards opened the second quarter on an 18-0 run (which extends to 23-0 if you take it back to the end of the first) over the first six minutes. Louisville went a bit cold for the remainder of the quarter, making just one more three over those final four minutes, but they held USI to just four points of their own, giving the Cards a 21-4 quarter victory and a 43-25 halftime lead. Louisville won the points-off-turnovers battle 12-0 in the second and held USI to 2-11 shooting. 

Southern Indiana recovered a bit in the third, scoring 11, but Louisville continued to apply the pressure with a 19-11 victory. It wasn't quite the same beatdown as the second, but the Cards held USI at more than arm's length, and entered the fourth with a comfortable margin. As the fourth quarter wore on, Louisville extended their lead to 33 points with 4:36 remaining in the game. Here is where Walz got frustrated again and why I said Louisville was much improved for almost the remainder of the game. Louisville had 13 turnovers in the game with three minutes to go. Louisville finished the game with 19 turnovers. Woof. They also lost those last three minutes 9-2. Double woof. Despite having a largely rotated lineup in the game at that point, Walz and the fans would expect more from the team. 

At the end of the day, Louisville comes out on top with a 24-point win. It's easy to nitpick, but it's also easy to forget that this is a very young team that has a lot of growing up and growing together to do. The close loss against UCLA may have given us a bit of an overestimation of how the beginning of this season could look. Similarly, this game could be the outlier and Louisville could go on the road and beat the tar out of UT Martin. We'll see. 

The FRED Report

F-Free Throws: Louisville took a surprising number of foul shots in this game. If you're surprised at 18 shots, though, you'll be shocked at only 9 makes. No letter. 

R-Rebounds: Should Louisville outrebound an OVC team easily? Yes. Did they? Kind of. Louisville finished with a 45-31 advantage on the boards and won both the OR and DR stats. The first quarter wasn't great, but they did clean it up significantly. Only because they managed to also win the second chance points battle, I'll award a capital 'R'. 

E-Effort/Execution: Hmmmm. This one is a toughie. The Cards shot 29-64, making 45.3% of their shots in the game. They were 8-25 from beyond the arc, which isn't terrible, but 32% isn't great either. Excluding the first nine minutes and the last three minutes, Louisville outscored USI by 36. But you can't exclude those minutes. And 36 would be an ok, but expected margin of victory for this whole game. I'm going to say no letter. 

D-Defense: The Cards held the Eagles to 37.5% from the floor, but that's largely thanks to the 2-11 second quarter. USI was over that percentage in the other three. The Cards had 12 steals and four blocks. With the very strong second quarter and the good quarter and a half after the break, I'll give lowercase 'd'. 

That yields a final score of _-R-_-d, which is not particularly good. It's early in the season, of course, but we'll want to see more out of this team in their next outing. 

Daryl grabs a selfie with
Z-Bo (Zach Randolph), 
father of Mackenly

Speaking of the team, nearly everyone played. All but Jayda Curry and Rebekah Graves saw the floor, with everyone getting at least five minutes. Louisville was led by Olivia Cochran, who finished with 15 points. The only other player in double figures was Taj Roberts, who had 11. Imari Berry led the team with eight rebounds, with Cochran and Ja'leah Williams close behind at six. Nyla Harris and Merissah Russell finished with nine points each. Everyone that played snagged at least one rebound and everyone except for Reagan Bender and Eseosa Imafidon scored. Bender was a bit of a surprise, going 0-5 from the field (all from three-point distance) in fifteen minutes. 

With Curry out, two freshmen joined Cochran and Harris in the starting lineup along with transfer Ja'leah Williams. Mackenly Randolph and Taj Roberts drew the starts, but it was another freshman, Izela Arenas, who picked up the second most minutes (23) behind Cochran's 25. 

Louisville is back in action on Tuesday against UT Martin. That game will be on ESPN+ and will tip at 7PM eastern. 

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

The number of topics is shrinking with a couple of fall sports wrapping up, and coincidentally, the hosts are shrinking with it (for this week). Paulie and Jeff (and maybe Daryl) will bring you the show this week with plenty of volleyball and basketball to discuss. 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

Spotify: Link

Apple Podcasts: Link

Google Podcasts: Link

Overcast (free account required): Link

Pocket Casts (free account and app required): Link

RadioPublic: Link

Until next time, Go Cards!

Case