WBB Falls to UConn 86-62 - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Basketball Falls to UConn

There were several storylines in this contest between two good, and at least based on various polls, very evenly matched teams.  UConn has been injury plauged, seemingly for several years now, and thus has some question over who will be playing game to game.  UofL is still putting their team identity together with so many transfers, though the overall contours are starting to be seen.

UConn takes the overall victory 86-62, and the second half went about as you'd expect from that score.  The first half, however, remained pretty close, with only a one point lead for the Husky's after the 1st quarter (28-27), and four points at half (46-42).  Also looking at that score, it seems both teams came out of the before-game locker room trying the no-defense strategy, and it sure made for an exciting game.  But with good coaching, and for the Jeff and Geno show, you knew you were going to see good in-game coaching, the no-defense strategy won't last.

And, yes, the numbers back it up.  The Cards shot 73% from the field and 50% beyond the arc in the 1st, but mostly those numbers tumbled from there.  41% from the field and 25% from the arc in the 2nd, 20% and 0% in the 3rd, and 29% and 20% in the 4th.  UConn's numbers followed a similar, though not quite as steep, decline.  Neither team made a successful three point shot in the the 3rd quarter.

Kiki Jefferson lead the Cards with 19 points, along with five assists, three steals, and an block.  Sydney Taylor and Olivia Cochran joined her in double digit scoring with 13 and 12 respectively.  Chalk up a trio of assists for Taylor, and a trio of steals for O along with a pair of blocks.

Subjectively, Paige Bueckers is back.  After what I'm sure felt like a decade to her, she is back playing and it's as if she never left.   And stop me if you've heard this one before, Aaliyah Edwards is pretty good, ya know?  Despite being in a less competitive conference, Geno continues to find a way to attract good players and be competitive on a national level.  Part of that is scheduling good teams out-of-conference, teams like Louisville, to be that competitive, iron sharpens iron, material, because they're not going to find a whole lot of iron to sharpen themselves on in the Big East.

Louisville is starting to figure out who they are, and was able to play competitively for 20 minutes, but that's just not enough.  The drop off in the 2nd half was scary, and they're going to have to find a way to dig in a play a consistent 40 minutes of good basketball.

The Cards will bring another set of Huskies, from Washington, into the KFC Yum! Center Wednesday night for a 7pm tip on ACC Network.

FRED Report

Let me introduce you to Fred Baker.
Baker has been a major figure in
developing many of the standards
upon which the Internet is built.
He has worked with an alphabet
soup of standard's setting bodies
including the IETF (Internet
Engineering Task Force - who define
most of the standards that define
the Internet). He has also worked with
The Internet Society, the FCC, ITU-T,
and NIST. He has co-authored or edited
over 50 RFCs (the standards documents
of the IETF).
photo by Вени Марковски (Veni
Markovski) via Wikipedia

OK, let's get this over with:

F - Free throws.  The Cards have been a pretty good free throw shooting team this year, earning a bunch of "F"s so far, but they won't add to the collection today.  66.7% from the charity stripe isn't enough for a letter.

R - Rebounding.  29 rebounds for the Cards, which is a pretty good number, particularly with the score-fest that was the first quarter, but UConn clocked in with 33.  I'm on the edge on this one, despite the overall number, as 11 of UofL's boards were on the offensive end, and only five of UConn's were.  I do weigh offensive rebounds a bit higher, and I'd like to at least award a letter today, so we'll go with the lowercase R for the offensive boards.

E - Execution/Effort.  13 assists for the Cards vs 22 for UConn...well that's not a great start.  41% field goal shooting, and 25% from three isn't terrible, but it's not great, and obviously fell short of UConn's numbers.  And with 20 fouls to UConn's 15, with UofL's top three scorers all finishing in distinct foul trouble with four apiece.  I just don't think I can award an E for this.  Maybe if we were only judging the first half...

D - Defense. Steals and Turnovers are just about even between the two teams, 12 steals each, Cards with one less turnover, 19.  UConn got 7 blocks to UofL's 3.  Again, I just don't see how I can come up with a letter on this one either.

So, - r - -.  That's not pretty, is it?

They Said It:

Jeff Walz spent a lengthy time talking to the media after this one:   LINK 

Geno postgame

Bueckers, Edwards, Griffith postgame

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Podcast

(From the early days...Jared was out taking a "selfie")

Four on the floor, as Paulie put it, for the podcast yesterday, with Case sneaking in just under the wire to get on the call to start the show.

Plenty of basketball chatter, and a wrap-up of the Volleyball season.

You can listen at:

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cardinal-couple/episodes/Volleyball-Season-Ends-and-WBB-Takes-on-UConn-e2db42m

-- 

JMcA

Suftball drops final at NC State -- UConn vs South Carolina -- Season Recap -- Pick 'EM MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLCE

 CARDS RALLY FALLS SHORT IN RALEIGH

Louisville Softball got themselves in a hole early against the Wolfpack in the series finale Sunday, and -- despite three home runs -- fell to NC State 10-6

 

The Wolfpack posted three runs in their first-at-bat against the Cards, all with two out in the inning -- and Louisville was able to get only one back in the top of the second when Vanessa Miller went "Grass, fence, wall - touch 'em all" on a solo shot in the top of the second. It was her third round-tripper of the season. 

NC State got that run back in the home half of the second when they connected on a solo homer. 

The third inning is where the damage was done. NCST exploded for six runs. Two home runs, a double and a single gave the Wolfpack a 10-1 advantage. Sam Booe and Taylor Roby felt the wrath of the NC State bats and needed to do something to prevent a five-inning run rule decision.  

And respond they did. Louisville put four runs on the board in the top of the fourth. A three-run Roby home run down the left field line was the big blast in the inning (her 12th of the season) and Hannah File began the inning with a triple. Thee former James Madison standout scored on a Jenni  Servi single. It was 10-5 NC State, but the Cards were showing life. 

But, the scoring pretty much ended after that. Tala Felder entered the circle in the bottom of the fourth and delivered three innings of  two hit, no run pitching for the Cards. Louisville had two on in the top of the fifth but could not advance them home. Vanessa Miller went "yard" for her second home run of the game in the top of the seventh to make it 10-6, but the Cards scoring stopped there. 

Louisville falls to 19-15 on the season  with the "L" and is 3-6 in ACC play. 

A big one awaits Wednesday when the Cards take on in-state rival Kentucky and this one will be shown on ESPNU. We'll cover that preview in more detail in our Wednesday column. 

UCONN WBB vs.SOUTH CAROLINA IN THE NCAA WBB FINALS

South Carolina is your 2021-22 National champ- disposing of UConn last night 64-49

The Gamecocks got off to a 13-2 early lead on the Huskies and never looked back. They held UConn to just eight first quarter point in amassing a 22-8 first quarter lead. That lead swelled  to 30-12 in the second quarter before UConn mounted a charge that got them back into the contesr but USC scored last in the half and took a 35-27 into halftime. 

South Carolina started the second half on a 11-0 run and that pretty much doomed any UConn chances of winning.. The SEC school coasted through the forth quarter and won by 15 over a UConn squad that failed to put as many points on the board as Louisville did against them in the semi-finals. 

Congratulations to the Gamecocks.

A SEASON RECAP 

What fun it was to watch Louisville women's basketball this season ! The Cards took us on a magical ride that gave us so many things to enjoy and embrace. The dominating guard play of Hailey Van Lith, Kianna Smith, Chelsie Hall, Kasa Robinson and Ahlana Smith shut down opponents defensively and put points aplenty on the scoreboard. 

Emily Engstler, Olivia Cochran and Liz Dixon were as good as any front line in the nation and battled on the boards, shut down taller foes and packed a powerful scoring punch. Payton Verhulst contributed a loy as well as a freshman and the future looks so bright for her. A solid reserve crew of Ramani Patker, Merrisah Russell and Sydni Schetnan make sure the Cards maintained the pace and momentum when they entered Cardinals contests. 

It took the eventual National Champion to finally stop this Cardinal Cannonball, a UofL team that  was so good and effective on defense and ran past so many opponents (in conference and out). Foes never knew who would explode on them offensively but did know that points were going to be very hard to come by against the Cards stifling defense. 

Louisville will miss Hall, Engstler and Kianna Smith but there is so much talent returning and a great incoming class of five freshmen  who will compete for playing tome and recognition. Louisville women's basketball is alive, prospering and will be a major force to deal with in the 2022-23 season. 

Jeff Walz and the coaching staff did a wonderful job with these college student-athletes.  We wish Sam Purcell the best of luck and unqualified success at Mississippi State. I hope they realize what an incredible, hard working coach they are getting in Starkville. 

Such a fun, exciting and rewarding season we had, that got the Cards back to another Final Four. Whaddya say we do it again next year and end the season on a winning streak? 

CARDINAL COUPLE PICK EM

With South Carolina winning it all, we had two contestants tie for most wins. Our own Jared Anderson and Kenny S. ended up 47 wins, so we went to the tie-breaker. 113 points were scored in the championship game -- Jared predicted there would be 120, Kenny S. guessed a few more than that, so Jared wins the trip to Sea World (just kidding), but he nabs the winning gift card to Cracker Barrel. Kenny gets Subway. 

A thanks to all that participated and to our Bracket Czar Jared. 

What? He ran the contest AND won it? The Cardinal Couple Chimps have lodged a protest, called for sanctions and demanded a court of inquiry be formed. Yeah, we'll get right on that...

 paulie   

WBB: CARDS 69 - UCONN 64

 STRONG 4TH QUARTER LIFTS CARDS PAST HUSKIES

Hailey Van Lith scored 10 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter and Louisville went 17-20 from the free throw line in that final 10 minutes to vanquish the UConn Huskies 69-64 in the Mohegan Sun Arena Sunday afternoon. 

Van Lith and Kianna Smith led a balanced Louisville scoring attack with16 each and Ahlana Smith added 11 to improve Louisville to 10-1 on the season. 

Trailing 45-43 after three quarters, the Cards went on a 9-3 run to open the fourth, getting five points from Emily Engstler in that stretch, and then battled back and forth with UConn until Engstler sank a jumper with 1:57 to play to give Louisville a comfortable 59-54 lead.

 

Louisville had to withstand a career high effort from UConn freshman Carolyn Ducharme (24 points) and getting whipped 37-32 on the boards on an afternoon where the Cards shot 53% from three point range (8-15) but only led a total of 12 minutes in the contest. 

It was not an auspicious start for Walz's bunch. The shots weren't falling for Louisville and UConn soared out to a 12-2 leas over the first six minutes. To add to the malfeasance, Emily Engstler picked up two questionable fouls in the first three minutes and found her herself with the best seat in the house for the remainder of the first half, next to Louisville associate coach Stephanie Norman. UConn's Dorka Juhasz was having a picnic in the paint on the Cards and UConn held a 16-9 lead after 10 minutes, aided by UofL's 25% shooting.

Louisville would nibble the Husky lead down to four several times in the first 7-1/2 minutes of the second quarter, but it wasn't until there was 2:23 remaining in the first half that it felt like Louisville was really back in the contest, after a Kianna three made it 24-22 Huskies. Ahlana would get UofL to within one at 26-25 with a minute to play but.Durcharme counted witth a second chance put-back to create the 28-25 UConn halftime lead,

The third quarter was topsy-turvy, UConn built an eight-point lead midway through the quarter, but UofL rallied to go up by three after a Kianna jumper with 2:37 left in the third. UConn went on a 6-0 run to close the quarter, though, and the Cards faced a three point deficit going into the fourth. 

I love the battle and unwillingness to fade away I've seen in this Louisville squad this year and we saw it again in the fourth quarter in Uncasville again today. Van Lith and Engstler had 19 of Louisville's 27 final quarter points and the two went 8-8 from the free throw line. The Cards had no turnovers in the fourth while forcing four UConn miscues and UofL made 14 of their16 free throws.  Chasing down the errant shot, pouring on the defensive intensity and playing smart basketball -- the Cards showed a nationwide TV audience that they were quite worthy of their #7 ranking. 

THE FRED REPORT

Fred McMurray couldn't have got a finer effort
out of "His Three Sons" that the Cards put on today. 

Free Throws -- 17-20 is 85% and that easily qualifies for a CAPITAL "F" in our Fred system. 14-16 in the fourth quarter won this game for Louisville.  

Rebounding -- The Huskies won the battle of the board 37-32 and I was surprised to see it was that close when I check the post-game stats. Engstler did have six for UofL -- but when you only get six out of Cochran and Dixon in 40 minutes...something's amiss. No letter earned here. 

Effort/Execution -- 43% shooting and just 13 turnovers are bright spots in this win and winning points off fast breaks 21-8 shows the hustle too. Yes, it was a painful start, but the Cards recovered nicely and I'll float a CAPITAL "E" out here for the overall performance.

Defense -- Despite the freshman torching us, I was pleased with the defense as a whole . Six steals, Holding the Huskies to 3-15 three point shooting offsets UConn's scoring edge in the paint , It's a win, defense made it partially possible, so I'll finish with a CAPITAL "D"

Final Fred Tally:  F-R-_-D

A well-deserved XMAS break for UofL now, before they begin conference play Dec 30 against Boston College at the KFC YUM! Center. I was off in my pre-season prognostication of a UofL 7-3 mark before UConn and happy to admit it. I don't expect a 18-0 conference run, but, I think the Cards have served notice that the other ACC14 have ample to worry about and NCST isn't in for a walk-in-the-park for a regular-season title. 

paulie

 

Rankings -- Spring Sports Countdown -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

New Rankings

Not much changed changed in the latest  AP rankings minus a couple switches here and there.  The Civil War had the biggest effect, causing Oregon to move up to #3 and knocking Oregon State down to #10.

South Carolina remained #1 and was the heavy favorite for the top spot after they improved their record to 19-1.  Baylor remained in the #2 spot after moving to 17-1 on the year.  They did received three first place ballots.  UConn, who took down rival Tennessee earlier in the week, dropped to #4 and only sits six points behind the Ducks.

UConn fell to the USWNT last night 79-64 after trailing by a single point entering the final quarter.

Louisville remained at #5 and received a first place vote again.  The Cards had a solid victory against Virginia on Thursday and trounced Pitt on Sunday.  They head to Notre Dame on Thursday night, which will we preview that day, and host Team USA on Sunday.

Have you got your USA vs Louisville tickets yet? Coach Walz has asked the media to help him promote the exhibition and you don't want to miss our Cardinals going up against the best in the world!

There are lower bowl seat available, last I heard, and after last night's UConn vs, USA game, we need to show the Huskies that we can pack our arena, too. That was a good game, UConn hanging in there after a slow start until the very end.

OK, back to the rankings.

Stanford, NC State, UCLA, Mississippi State, and Oregon State round out the Top 10.  Other notable rankings are Kentucky at #13 and Florida State at #14.  The ACC has had somewhat of a down year with just three teams sitting in the Top 25.

Speaking of Wildcats, UK struggled a bit with Auburn last night in Memorial Coliseum before getting a 68-61 win.

If you haven't seen Unique Thompson play for Auburn yet, do yourself a favor and catch her action. She blistered the Cats for 27 points last night!  The 6'3" junior forward also had 15 rebounds and held Rhyne Howard to just 10 points. Unique is fun to watch, and she's got Dana/Kylee- type eyelashes !!


Spring Sports Countdown

Some sports like tennis and swimming and diving have begun already while others are swiftly approaching.

Lacrosse is nearly upon us.  Their season opener at Cincinnati is just 12 days away.  Their home opener is 18 days away.

Softball is a tad closer to their season when they begin the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Fla in 10 days.  They won't be at Ulmer Stadium until March, however.

Golf has a little more time before they begin their spring season, with the Moon Golf Invitational in Melbourne, Fla coming in mid-February.

The second Spring Sports Media Day is scheduled for Thursday at the Cards WBB practice facility. This time, Softball, Lacrosse, Rowing, men's Tennis and men's golf will take the stage.



Thank You, Kobe

Paulie already mentioned this yesterday but I want to also pay my respects to Kobe Bryant.  Besides his legacy in the NBA and his character he has made a lasting impact on the women's basketball community.

To those who don't know, Kobe was coaching some of his daughters' basketball teams and has been a big advocate for women's basketball at the high school and collegiate level.  Less than two weeks ago, Kobe went to visit UofL commit Hailey Van Lith and the two took a picture together, which we have featured for you.

Imagine 20 years with just one team. It sounds ridiculous in today's free agency, but Kobe was a Laker all those years and meant so much to LA. They say he built the Staples Center and, after his retirement, worked non-stop to promote women's sports.

He and his daughter also had a close relationship with Geno the UConn WBB squad and at last night's game they paid tribute to "Mambacita" with a UConn jersey draped over a chair on thee UConn bench and other tributes to 13 yr. old GiGi. Gone too soon, Kobe, Gigi and the seven others on that helicopter that definitely should have been grounded.



********************************************************************************

Already yelling at the refs for not calling her way

There are no women's sporting events for the next couple of days, giving us a slight rest in event coverage. We're guessing Walz will hold his usual Wednesday presser, so we'll have that to post for you in Paulie's article tomorrow. 

Thursday, we will get to see the Cards destroy Notre Dame. It's an ESPN game. I'll preview that more on Thursday. Paulie won't be attending in South Bend, he's 0-3 up on the Notre Dame campus for sporting events and doesn't want to jinx the Cards WBB squad

The Irish are 7-13 on the season, 2-7 in ACC play and got blown out Charlottesville Sunday by the 8-12, 3-6 Virginia Cavaliers by a 90-60 result.

Happy Tuesday and Go Cards!

Jared

Louisville women's basketball -- UConn capitalizes on Cards slow start, wins 69-58 -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

19-0 HUSKY RUNS EARLY SINKS CARDS

If, by some chance, you missed the first ten minutes of the Louisville women's basketball game against Connecticut in Storrs last night, consider yourself fortunate. It was a disaster. It started well, enough, with Arica Carter hitting a three to give Louisville the only lead they would have in the contest, but the walls caved in after that. The Huskies went on a 19-0 run that virtually eliminated Louisville's chances. It was ugly, painful and disappointing to view if you are a Cardinal fan. It was just another day in the office for Husky backers. 

Shots wouldn't fall and were hurried and forced. The offensive patterns never materialized. The first quarter turnovers were atrocious (nine of them) and the Huskies couldn't miss from the floor. Led by Katie Lou Samuelson, UConn just went off on the bewildered and out-of-sync Cards, roaring to a 19-3 advantage and a 24-6 first quarter lead. It was what UofL did to Notre Dame earlier in the season, but the Cards were on the receiving end. We know who is #1 in the nation with no doubt whatsoever now and it isn't the ACC school on the banks of the Ohio.

Walz called timeouts. They didn't help. Kia Nurse, UConn guard, was applying intensive-care defensive on Asia Durr and the junior couldn't gather enough space to tie her shoes...much less get a good shot off. Louisville looked clueless, the Huskies scored at will and the capacity crowd in the Gampel Pavilion nodded and cheered in approval every time the Huskies did something right and Louisville miscued and floundered. 
The sense of dread and disillusionment clear and present as I watched from my easy chair. This wasn't so easy. 

"We defended them about as well as we wanted to and that was the plan going in" 

Those words, from UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, were a understatement. Mission accomplished. The Cards looked like one of the non-conference patsies that were sacrificial lambs to Walz's crew early in the season. 

After those bloody and deflating first ten minutes, the Cards started to gather a bit and get back in sync...but it was too late. The Red and Black played on fairly even terms in the second session with Connecticut but still found themselves on the short end of a 42-22 halftime score. It was "Lou" (Samuelson) taking on Louisville single-handedly and doing quite well, almost outscoring the Cards by herself after twenty minutes. Threes, drives to the basket, layups, jumpers...she was the Energizer Bunny and Louisville was dead batteries when it came to containing her. 

Play Louisville basketball? Certainly not this version. 

You can credit the Cards for not letting this one get any worse. In fact, Asia Durr and company won the second half 36-27. She finished with 20 points, Myisha Hines-Allen recorded a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds -- her 13th double-double of the year -- and Arica Carter hit a career high four trifectas in the affair to finish with 12 points. Sam Fuehring had a strong effort inside, mostly in the final half, with strong rebounding and eight points. 

But it was all after the contest had been decided. The 11-point margin of loss was the closest Louisville got to the lead since the horrific first period. Jeff Walz discussed the first quarter: 

"We had good shots there in the first quarter and just missed them. I thought that some of them were too quick and those led to transition for them. That's something you can't do." 

A non-conference lesson learned. 

Losing to #1 in the nation is no disgrace. Louisville shouldn't plummet from their #4 status in the nation, especially when you consider Notre Dame is #5. The ACC Championship is still a very attainable goal and the Cards continue on, with the road trip taking them to Boston College next for a Thursday night contest.

How will the loss to UConn affect them against the Eagles? One would hope they come out madder than hell and punish B.C. But, that first quarter gave every other coach in the ACC key insights on how to stop the Cards. Whether there is anyone in the ACC that can duplicate what UConn did is highly doubtful. Will the Cards come out still hurting and stung in Chestnut Hill? We hope not. 

I'm going to do my best to forget the first half-hour of what I saw last night. Walz will probably use it as a teaching tool, and rightfully so, because there are a lot of things to learn from there. I'd just as soon forget that beginning last night. UConn came out and did what they do. They took control of the car and never gave the keys or driving privileges to the passengers. They showed all women's college basketball fans that the road to Columbus and Final Four dreams goes though Storrs and Geno's roadblock and gauntlet. 

"I thought we competed, which is want we wanted to do, but I just wish we could have made it a better game off the bat".

So do we, the fans, Coach. So do we. 

The question is...how will the Cards react when they get behind the wheel Thursday?
Cardinal fans had hopes, expectations and dreams of knocking off #1. I did too. What we got was a painful and embarrassing lesson on how the elite team in women's college basketball handles big match-ups. 

The casual basketball fan who may have missed the game will look at the final score and maybe think that UConn got a bit of a test last night by only winning by 11. They would be mistaken. This one was over early and UConn maintained. Case closed. 

Let's hope UofL learned something and can put it to use. 28% shooting in the first half would be a great place to start the teaching. Remaining calm and collected in a frenzied environment a good teaching point.  

Does Louisville want them again? Further down the road...NCAA Tournament time? I'd just as soon pass. I hope we end up on the other side of the bracket. We will learn from the loss, yes, but can the Cards do anything to prevent the Huskies from doing it again? Geno's squad learned too. 

I'll dwell on it no more. As UofL football coach John L. Smith said many years ago...sometimes you just have to tear off the rear view mirror and just keep driving. 
Let's hope the Cardinal Caravan doesn't have any slow, sluggish starts in what's left of winter.

I know this column isn't in the usual vein of our "joy and excitement" of Cardinal women's athletics. I'll try to end on that note. The Cards didn't completely fold up the tent. They won the second half. They played UConn as close as just about anyone has this year. They are still a great team and will have many more successes this season. 

Onward. 


THE FRED REPORT

Fred Gwynne (Herman Munster) must
have watched the first quarter...

FREE THROWS -- UConn rarely fouls, in the eyes of most referees. When they did last night the Cards failed to capitalize. 55.6% on 5-9 shooting doesn't get a letter.

REBOUNDING -- Here's one battle the Cards did win last night...36-34. Myisha with 12,  Sam with seven and Arica grabbed six. We'll provide a small case "r" for that. 

EFFORT/EXECUTION -- Throw out the first quarter and it wasn't all that bad in effort and execution. But, that first quarter...ugh. I'll take the high road here and award a small case "e" for the overall performance. 

DEFENSE -- Holding the Huskies to 69 points is pretty impressive.  Samuelson and Williams pretty much scored when they chose to, though, and the Cards got pounded in the points in paint category 44-24. The closer you get, the easier the bucket gets. Based on that, I'll with-hold the letter. 

FINAL FRED REPORT:  _-r-e-_


paulie
xxxxx