Governor's Cup Winter Edition - Sunday Cardinal Couple

Rivalry Day

Well, it's here, that one day of each year when we're virtually guaranteed a visit from "Matthew Mitchell for Governor" in our comments section.  I could barely sleep last night with anticipation of what gifts of rhetorical exposition we'll receive.

Love ya Guv!

We do love the visits that we get from fans of our opponents, and we're particularly blessed when some of them stick around and become regular readers (Hi Arthur!).

How happy will he be around
5 p.m. today? 

Today is, of course, the annual Battle of the Bluegrass - Women's Basketball Edition, where our Louisville Cardinals match up with the Kentucky Wildcats.  This one will be televised on the SEC Networks as Kentucky are the hosts, so they get it on their channel.  The benefit is that SEC Network is a linear ESPN network, so you can tune it in on your normal pay TV service, giving you another option to watch this one.  Of course, being an ESPN property, it is also available on the WatchESPN streaming platform, so if you're away from a TV, you can pull this one up on your phone, laptop, tablet, or whatever Internet accessing device you have available to you.

An honest appraisal of the past few years of UofL vs UK teams I believe would show that UofL has had, overall, the better squads, but The Wildcats have that certain something that sees them frequently prevail over the Cardinals.  We'll see if this year's Cardinals can get over that mental block and take our friends to the east down as the numbers, rankings, and records suggest they should.

The Cardinals are coming into this one undefeated on the season so far, a 12-0 record, with wins over some highly competitive teams, including Ohio State (I will not put "the" on the front of that, deal with it Columbusians), Oregon, Michigan, and virtually the whole state of Tennessee.  The biggest struggles came from then #5 Ohio State, and a better-than-most-realize South Dakota State team.

Can the Cards win in Memorial for the first time since
1978? 

Kentucky comes into the Battle 8-3. and truth be told, none of their wins are over particularly
impressive teams, so we're still looking to figure out how good this team really is.  Right now, there's a lot of skepticism about their quality.  They've lost to a quite good Baylor team, what will probably turn out to be a pretty good Miami team (who we will, of course, see during conference play), and a bit of a head-scratcher to Florida Gulf Coast.  I took a look at FGCU's schedule and they are similarly situated with a difficult to judge record so far, they have wins over Illinois, Kent State, squeaked out an OT win over DePaul (Doug Bruno typically puts together a decent team).  FGCU lost by 10 to Belmont (a squad largely put together by former UofL Assistant Cameron Newbauer, before he stepped up to the Florida Gators helm).

The net takeaway, in my mind, from all of this is that perhaps we shouldn't dismiss Kentucky too quickly based on that loss to FGCU as it appears that they may be putting together a respectable squad down there.

Santa wears "red" for a reason. 

All in all, I expect this to be a Battle worthy of the moniker.  I do believe that UofL is probably the better overall squad, but they need to get over this "thing" about UK, plus Kentucky gets the benefit of home floor and a largely blue crowd cheering them on.  I believe I predicted an 85-79 victory for the Cards on the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday.  I don't expect this one to be a blow-out either way.

Just as a "what we're thinking" the four participants in The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour yesterday provided their guesses on today's final score. Got a thought? Leave it in the comments section. Whoever gets closest to the actual score will be entered in out Panera Card drawing. Here's what the "knuckleheads" came up with:
Paulie   77-61  Louisville
Julie     83-69  Louisville
Case     77-65  Louisville
Jeff       85-79  Louisville

May the better team win, and let's hope it stays clean and respectful.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Speaking of CCHR, we did have our last live show of the calendar year yesterday as we will not be able to produce live shows until after the beginning of the new year due to WCHQ moving studios to a new location.  We are contemplating trying to put together a pre-recorded show or two, and are considering the logistics that would be necessary to accomplish that.

In the meantime, you can check out the replay up on the soundcloud :

 https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171216.

 Julie JC Sullivan joined Case, myself, and the car-challenged Paulie in studio for a fun hour of hilarity and even some discussions of UofL Sports.

Volleyball Season Wrap

A quick note on the conclusion of the NCAA Volleyball season.  5 seed Nebraska defeated the 2 seed Florida in the championship match of the NCAA tourney last night 3 sets to 1.  I was at a friend's Christmas party last night, so I didn't get to watch this one closely, though I did have it streaming on my phone intermittently.  My takeaway is that it appears to me that the better team won.  I think Nebraska proved that they did deserve better than the 5 seed that they were placed with.  That seeding was certainly a post-selection show discussion point.

This may prove some small bit of consolation for our blue friends to the east to know that they were eliminated in the Elite Eight by the eventual champion of the tournament.  Honestly, though, they don't need much consolation for this volleyball season as they had one of the best seasons ever for Kentucky Volleyball.

The connection to UofL Volleyball here is that, of course, head coach Dani Busboom Kelly was born and raised a CornHusker, played her collegiate play at Nebraska, and after a single season as an assistant here at Louisville, went back home to Nebraska for a 5 year stint as an assistant to legendary coach John Cook, before returning to her first head coaching role back here at Louisville.  I'm sure she and her husband Lane, who was a Husker footballer, wishes there were a direct flight between Louisville and Lincoln.

Louisville has another coach on staff with a Nebraska connection.  Associate Head Coach Dan Meske also spent time at Nebraska, overlapping 3 years with Kelly's time.  Overall, Meske spent 8 years as an assistant at Nebraska, starting as a Graduate Assistant, moving on to Volunteer Assistant, and finally a full-time Assistant position.  He did leave Nebraska to take a head coaching position at Augustana, a DII school in South Dakota, before joining the Louisville staff with Coach Kelly.

Dani and Dan are both justifiably proud of their association with Nebraska, and particularly Nebraska Volleyball.

--
JMcA


Paulie Plug

I had the fortune to be invited to a restaurant opening last night. 4 Seasons Restaurant has opened their doors at 8402 Hudson Lane. They're right across Hudson from St. Gabriel Catholic Church off Bardstown Road in Fern Creek.  

I left two hours later very impressed, quite full and happy.

I don't normally do restaurant reviews. All I can tell you is that everything I tried (sausages, lamb, rice, vegetables, bread, chicken soup, home-made yogurt and baklava) was delicious. I would encourage you to try them. They are on Facebook 4 Seasons Restaurant.

They have a vast menu. There was a buffet set up for the invited yesterday and I had to limit portions to try everything. I didn't want to, but there comes a time when capacity is reached before want is fulfilled.

You should go. You won't be disappointed.   (Paulie) 

A Brief Edition -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

The last couple of days have been articles mostly related to news, rather than sport. I haven't seen any new stuff come across the wire since yesterday, and Jeff covered graduation in his Friday piece. I briefly perused the Louisville athletic site to determine if there was anyway to find out the majors of some of our favorite players, but was unable to do so. At any rate, with a big game tomorrow, and nothing much having happened this week, I figured I would leave the rivalry preview for tomorrow and I would give our readers a bit of a break, as I need one myself after a long couple of weeks at work.

While there isn't much I have to say on the pages this morning, I feel quite confident that the words will flow at the microphone during the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. As many of you may have seen via Facebook and some mentions here at the site, the studio for WCHQ FM is moving locations. During this transition period, there will be no live shows on the channel. That means today is the last live Cardinal Couple Radio Hour that you will find until the New Year. There will be quite a bit of basketball and the bowl game for football between today and the next show. From what I hear, Paulie may be trying to work out a brief recording to fill some space so that your weekly "Cardinal Couple Radio Hour" time is not completely empty. If you really need your fix, you can go to the WCHQ website and access past broadcasts just to hear us rib each other.

Sometimes it can feel a bit wild in studio.

Today's show is sure to be full of basketball chatter. All of our other fall sports are done or otherwise irrelevant at the current moment, and there are big games on the horizon for Louisville WBB. Paulie, Jeff, and myself will be joined in studio by Julie Sullivan, another knowledgeable fan of WBB. Paulie will bring you the insider info many others don't have, Jeff will bring the snark, Julie will bring the true fan view, and I'll try to hold everyone (including myself) together. We'll see how well I can achieve my task. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs on 100.9 WCHQ FM from 11AM to noon. Today's broadcast will take you right up to the men's basketball game against Memphis State. If you aren't in the broadcast area of the station, you can listen along on the WCHQ app or the website, at WCHQFM.com. Come along and join us!

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Sleep Deprived Star Wars Edition -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(JEFF McADAMS ATTENDED THE STAR WARS "THE LAST JEDI" LAST NIGHT AND THIS COULD PROVE TO BE A REAL INTERESTING ARTICLE TODAY.  BEWARE OF PORGS AND THAT GUY IN THE BLACK HELMET. NO, NOT LAMAR JACKSON...)

Graduation

Tonight is the University of Louisville's Winter Commencement.  99 UofL current or former student athletes are graduating in this winter season, though not all will be at the ceremony, of course.

There are 5 individuals that will be receiving their degrees with playing time still to come at UofL, including a couple of popular names around Cardinal Couple.  AC, Arica Carter will be one of the, while a former women's basketball player and current track and field athlete, Emmonnie Henderson will be collecting diplomas.  Also on the list is the Poof, Nicole Pufahl who came in from patrolling the outfield at Ulmer, along with a rower, Erin Enk, and another track and fielder, on the guys side, Damar Robinson.

One of our CC favorites...The "Slapper" Jordan McNary from softball is also going to dash from the seats to the podium to grab her paper and may try for second. "The Governor" now can add' college graduate' to her resume of political candidate list of accomplishments.

Congratulations to these current student athletes.

There are also several familiar names that have completed their time at UofL and have returned to finish their degrees, including Bilal Powell, finding time to hit the books between reps with the New York Jets, and Joao De Lucca, Brazilian swimmer extraordinaire.

Of course there are numerous other student athletes that are just finishing up their eligibility and finishing their academic studies at the same time.  Most will not graduate until Spring, but some have gotten ahead of schedule and completing their coursework a semester early.  The two that I know of in that list are unsurprisingly from Volleyball, Tess Clark and Coline Coessens.

Whatever scandals UofL may have had of late, I do think it's important to note that the quality of academic instruction at the University has never been called into question.  Yes, the SACS accreditation thing happened, but that was all about questions of administrative independence from the state and never, to my knowledge, even hinted that, despite all of that, academic instruction was suffering.

So congratulations to all of the UofL students in general, and the student-athletes both current and former, that are graduating tonight.  You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments, and at least for today, I'm not referring to any activities on courts, fields, pitches, diamonds, pools, tracks, lakes and rivers, or whatever else your venue of play might have been. You're a college graduate and we cheer just as loud for that.


UK vs UofL tickets

Paulie's e-mail exchange with Cards super-fan Jerry Smith early this morning reports that the tickets he bought for Cardinal fans for the game are going pretty quickly. He has a few left.

Per Jerry:

I still have 13 left.  They are lower level

tickets. 

I can email them and I will trust Cardinal fans 

to either send payment to my PayPal account 

or bring the money to me at the game. 

I paid $9 each and would like to get my 
money back if possible but if a Cardinal fan

wants to go and doesn’t have the 

money, I will give him a ticket. 

My email address is Louavulpugs@gmail.com

That is the best way to 
reach me. 

Jerry Smith 

More Honors

Case mentioned a couple of honors for UofL student athletes yesterday, and more news along this line hit in the meantime.

Basketball

Current hoopster Asia Durr, and Cardinals legend Angel McCoughtry were both named to the USA Basketball National Team Pool.  This is the pool of players from which the National Team is expected to be selected.  While we talk about the National Team in the singular, it's actually a bit of a fluid thing as, depending on player development and availability, the Roster selected for particular competitions can shift somewhat.

Regardless of the specific make-up of teams, to be selected for the National Team Pool effectively puts Durr and McCoughtry in the top 29 players in the country, at least in the estimation of the Selection committee.  The Women's National Team is currently coached by Dawn Staley, head coach at South Carolina, and there will be a Team mini-camp Feb. 9-11th.  Durr and the other four college players will not be participating in the camp due to collegiate commitments, and several other players are in professional play in Asia so they won't be participating either.

Walz addressed the media today about the game and other things

LISTEN HERE

Soccer

Tim Kubel, in addition to be a major asset for Men's Soccer on the pitch, earned a First Team Scholar All-American selection.

In his four years, Kubel has maintained a 3.69 GPA while majoring in Finance....  I've taken finance classes in the past, so I know just how impressive it is to make it through that material...not exactly page-turning stuff, there...and to do so while maintaining such academic standards while also maintaining the level of athletic training that he has is impressive stuff.

Congratulations to Tim.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Our new digs, lit up at night! 

Tune in tomorrow to catch the last live Cardinal Couple Radio Hour of the year.  The WCHQ studios are moving, so the studio facility will be unavailable for a couple of weeks during the process, so CCRH will have to go on a bit of a break.  We're considering how we might be able to do some pre-recorded shows, perhaps abbreviated from our usual hour-long format, but there are some logistical issues to work out for that, so that's up in the air as to whether that happens.

The line-up for tomorrow, barring any game-time developments, will be me, Paulie, Case, and classing up the joint as always, Julie "Santa wears red for a reason" Sullivan.

Check us out on 100.9 FM in the central Louisville area, or via the WCHQ app, or their website at http://crescenthillradio.org.

-- 

JMcA

Cardinals Receive National Honors -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Emina Ekic Named Freshman All-American

The dynamo midfielder for Louisville women's soccer, Emina Ekic, has added to her list of postseason awards by being named to the first team of TopDrawerSoccer Freshman Best XI. It can be a bit muddy in the "non-revenue" sports to determine which publications should be heeded for rankings. Of course, it can also get muddy in the revenue sports because there are dozens of publications pushing out rankings and All-American teams. At any rate, TopDrawer is a the place to go for college soccer rankings, as they provide the best coverage and their rankings do a good job of indicating the best teams. I often use their rankings to determine a team's quality for both men's and women's, especially early in the season when the NCAA's RPI rankings haven't evened themselves out.

Ekic was a star for Louisville in her first season at her hometown university. She ranked first on the team in points, goals, assists, shots on goal, shots, and game winning goals. Her shots on goal percentage of 41.2% wasn't great, but she had 7 more SOG than Brooklynn Rivers (46.7%) and 10 more than Allison Whitfield (73.3%). Rivers and Whitfield were the only two players ahead of Ekic in SOG% with double digit shots on goal.

Ekic played 1390 minutes in 18 games this season, with 17 starts. She trailed only the starting defenders, goalkeeper, and Alison Price in minutes. While doing so, as the center midfielder, she picked up only 1 yellow card, proving that she played clean defense and kept her emotions under control. On top of her team leads, Ekic was just outside the national leaders among all players in most categories.

Emina is a Louisville native, and anyone around the program that wouldn't say they're extremely glad she stayed home would be lying. Louisville is lucky to have her around the program for three more seasons, and with the other young talent on the team, the window of opportunity could be opening wider for the Louisville Women's soccer team.

Another top-notch star out of Louisville Manual High School, directly south from the Louisville campus. 

Wilma Rivera Earns All-American Honorable Mention 

Another UofL rookie was granted a national honor when Wilma Rivera was named to the Honorable Mention section of the American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) All-American teams. Rivera was a transfer into the program this season, her Junior year. That means she'll be putting up sets for Louisville's hitters for another year. In addition to the All-American Honorable Mention, Rivera was also the ACC Setter of the Year and named to the All-East Region First Team. 

Rivera was the obvious team leader in assists, accounting for 84% of the team's assists on the season. She also ranked fifth in both kills and blocks behind the major front liners. She was first on the team in aces and second in digs. Rivera was huge for the Cards this season and Dani Busboom Kelly will be sure to utilize her talents going forward with another offseason of work to prepare.

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Louisville WBB 12-0... Christmas sweaters... WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Basketball Hot Start

The women’s basketball squad pulled out another lopsided win.  Coach Walz’s team downed Tennessee State 95-56.  A dozen wins and a goose egg for losses is a heck of a way to start the season.

Seven Cardinals scored in double figures and everyone who saw playing time scored.  No one made it to the double-digit column in rebound but Sam brought in nine while MHA had seven.  DOO-BLAY is in need of another double-double soon.  Maybe she’ll get one on Sunday… but we’ll get to that in a little bit…

UofL dominated down low, outscoring the Tigers in the paint 56-16.  Much of that came from the
huge number of layups.  The Cards had some trouble down low making other close shots and layups, which could’ve gotten them to the triple-digit mark had they made a few more.

The stat that didn’t impress me tonight was 17 turnovers.  As Walz has mentioned on numerous occasions this season we do see an up-tempo offensive style of play.  A fast-paced offense will lead to turnovers and 10-12 is okay.  Giving the ball away 17 teams against the #317 team in the RPI (out of 349 D1 women’s basketball teams) should not happen.  11 of those came from our post players- MHA, Bee, Kylee and Sam.

The real excitement of the night was Christmas sweater night.  Some people wore Christmas sweaters, some wore ugly sweaters, and others seemed to have left their sweaters at home.  I will attempt to get the spirited photos added to the bottom of the article so wish me luck!

(NOTE: I added his photos to the article instead of the bottom. It's what I do...meddle, tinker and destroy otherwise good write-ups.)

J-A-R-E-D report

J – jump shots: despite some missed layups the Cards shot 54.3% from the field and 47.1% from downtown.  That’s pretty darn good.  Five players made a three pointer on the night.  Capital “J”.

A – assists: we dished it out 22 times on the night.  Nine players recorded an assist.  Jazz led the way with five of her own and AC had four.  I’ll give them an assist and reward the team a capital “A”.

R – rebounds: just from watching the game I never would have believed Louisville hauled in 52 rebounds.  Nearly one-third of those were offensive.  That is quite an impressive stat.  TSU had 31 rebounds of their own.  Z had two rebounds, but every other player had at least four on the night for the ladies in Red and Black.  That’s deserving of a capital “R”.

E – effort: a few plays come to mind on effort.  The biggest play is Jazz’s acrobatic moves and she does a butt jump over a ball headed out of bounds.  AC went flying out of bounds trying to save ball in the first half.  Sam, who was feeling a little ill, managed to play 18 minutes and tie for the leader in points for the team.  Plenty of players put forth some extra effort to receive a capital “E”.

D – defense: TSU was held to their fewest point total of the season, but that was expected since none of their other opponents are anywhere as close to good as UofL.  The 56 points is the sixth most points allowed this season.  Some of those other games included top-ranked opponents like Ohio State and Oregon.  After coming off of a game where MTSU was held to 26 points I was hoping to see another sub-40 point defensive performance.  The nine blocked shots and 18 forced turnovers is a good stat though.  Lowercase “d”.

Final:  J-A-R-E-d

It wasn’t their greatest outing of the season but it’s hard to motivate yourself against a weak non-conference opponent having come off an exceptional performance on Saturday.  Also, finals wrapped up this week, so minds could have been elsewhere.  Kentucky is next on the schedule and many heads have turned to that match-up already.

Last season Louisville took the overtime win at the KFC Yum! Center.  The Wildcats will look for revenge and to get on a winning streak after dropping a pair of road games in the Sunshine State.  Rivalry games are typically close and Memorial Coliseum can get ground-shaking loud.  The ladies of Blue and White haven’t lost at home.  Walz has four and a half days to get this team prepared and I believe he will.  Paulie and Sonya will be making the trip down I-64 to give us live coverage of the game.

Emily Howell and Lacrosse

Rising senior Emily Howell found herself being a part of the United Women's Lacrosse League (UWLX) College Draft.  She was drafted in the ninth round by the Boston Sotrm.  Best wishes to her in the pros!

Upcoming Radio Shows

The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour continues its entertaining session from 11-noon on Saturdays on WCHQ.  If I heard Paulie correctly we will be taking the final two Saturdays of 2017 off. We will be in this Saturday, except for me.

Work has kept me out of the studio for a month now and this coming Saturday I am stuck in a dress rehearsal before picking up my lucky lady Katy from the airport.  If you’re looking for some holiday music this weekend you can hit up the Fourth Street Live main stage at 1:00 for TubaChristmas.  Sunday afternoon at 3:00 at Harvey Browne Presbyterian Church I will be performing with the Louisville Winds for their Christmas music.  If you were to sit in the back and watch the Louisville-Kentucky game on your phone I wouldn’t blame you.

UofL vs. UK

No, I'm transferring and I won't
run that play, Matt. 

Thinking about attending UofL vs. UK in Lexngton?

Need a ticket? Huge Cardinal fan Jerry Smith bought 50+ of them so Cardinal fans could sit together.
You can call him at 502-426-9794 to get one or a few. $9 each. In Memorial Coliseum Sunday at 3 p.m.  Also, his e-mail is Louavulpugs@gmail.com if you want to check that way. Go support the Cards WBB squad in Lexington. Call Jerry. 

Closing Thoughts

-- Sam Purcell once again led the way with the festive outfits at WBB.

-- I’m ready to get back in the studio in 2018.

-- There’s some exciting games for WBB, MBB, and football before we conclude the calendar year so buckle up and hold on tight!

-- Can we go undefeated for 2017? For games left until 2018 gets here. I think we can! 

Go Cards!

(PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ALSO. HE WENT THE DISTANCE! )

Jared

Julie Sullivan -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

It's official! Cardinal Women are #3

Week 6 Associated Press rankings were released Monday and Louisville has moved up one spot to #3. This ties the Cardinals best ever ranking AP ranking and best since March of 2014. At 11-0, the women sit just behind Notre Dame (9-1), with ND's only loss to #1 UConn. If these rankings hold, Louisville will have an opportunity to take the #2 spot in a head to head match up with ND in KFC Yum Center on Jan 11, 2018. Notre Dame doesn't face a ranked team until then, while Louisville will face a currently ranked #14 Duke at home on January 4th.

In the spirit of Ugly Christmas Sweater night, here's a few in the photos today from last year.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves ...

Tonight the Cardinal Women face their 4th Tennessee based school in as many games when
Tennessee State comes to town. The Tigers are 1-5 with their only win a 98-48 win over Fisk (NAIA). Junior forward Tia Wooten (#22) leads the team with an average of 22 points and 8.5 rebounds while freshman guard Taylor Roberts (#0) pitches in 15.8 pts and 8.3 boards. This will be a good test for UofL in their ability to maintain focus and intensity in what will likely be a rout of an overmatched Tiger squad. The bench should see significant minutes and opportunity to refine their shooting and further cut down on unforced turnovers. The Cards can use this as a final tune up before traveling to Lexington on Sunday at 3 pm. And do you know what that means? Bad news for the Wildcats. If you are planning on attending the game at Memorial Coliseum and haven't bought your tickets yet, you best get on it. Less than a dozen lower level seats remain.

It's Ugly Sweater Night!

This is one of my favorite games of the year. In honor of the first night of Chanukah, I had originally planned to come as a human menorah, but Amazon and UPS foiled that plan with slow shipping. Instead, be on the look out for Santa in section 113. More importantly, WWSPW? What will Sam Purcell wear?

Put on your gaudiest sweater. Doll it up with a Santa hat or reindeer antlers, blinky lights or other Christmas (or Chanukah) accoutrements and get crazy. Whatever you wear, just get yourself to Yum Center for a 7 pm tip off to see what might be the best and most well balanced team in Louisville history. #ThisTeamIsSpecial

Men's Game Observations

Last night the men rolled to an easy victory, 102-59, over the Bryant Bulldogs as part of the Gotham Classic. Once again the Cards came out with a seeming lack of intensity except for Anas Mahmoud who had 17 points, all in the first half along with 9 boards. Quentin Snider hit 4 of 6 3 pointers and also finishing with 17 points. Deng Adel also chipped in 17 for the trifecta, including going 2 for 4 from the 3. Confidence and competence from behind the arc is going to be vital moving into a much tougher conference schedule, not to mention a meeting with those puddycats down the road in a few weeks.

Interesting first half stat, UofL committed only 2 turnovers and both were charging fouls. While seemingly lethargic, they certainly did take care of the ball. I hope Jeff Walz challenges the women to match that stat. Close the bakery!

The second half gave the freshman, including walk-ons Jacob Redding and Jo Griffin some quality minutes. Redding hit his 2nd free throw to hit the 100 mark. The arena was nearly empty by that point, but those of us diehards left gave him the largest cheer of the night.

UofL's attendance woes continue. I never heard the attendance announced and I am terrible at
estimating crowds, but the lower bowl was at best 2/3 full and less than half in the upper level. I counted 11 suites that looked completely empty and I did not have a full view of the suites. This week I received info from UofL on discount tickets and even group ticket pricing as low as $20. I have never heard of group pricing for men's games. While UofL is trying to woo fans with special pricing, the scandal fatigue and distrust of a board that many believe have suspect motives toward athletics are still weighing heavy. Hopefully, the university and athletics will begin to work together. While I think the hash tag abbreviation is unfortunate - We, The Future - is spot on. The university's success is dependent on building bridges between academia and athletics and finding a sense of community, a sense of WE.

Case in point of the disconnect. The pep band was missing most of its members last night because the university scheduled the final for the marching band class at the exact same time as the game. I am not suggesting a game is more important than a final exam, but the fact that there was no communication or consideration to this conflict serves as an anecdote for the schism that exists. Pep band director, Al Greener promised to be at full force for tonight's women's game.

Let's finish on a positive note.

I have decided that Darius Perry is the Jazmine Jones of the men's team. His intensity on the court is palpable, but it is his cheering and excitement for his teammates while on the bench that makes him even more endearing. If you don't know what I am talking about just watch Jaz or any of the women's while on the bench.

Everyone please make a effort to get out tonight to the UofL WBB game. They're going to be gone for quite a while after tonight...so come see them!

--
Julie, JC, JSully, The Bird Lady ... whatever we are calling me this week ;)

Louisville women's basketball -- After 11 games. -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

We apologize for the late edition of Cardinal Couple today. Two of us, that I know of, aren't feeling so great but Paulie has managed to rise from the sack and cover Case with an article, of sorts. I hope to feel better tomorrowad proof read JC's entry before posting it. If not, you get what you get...

CARDS TO MOVE UP? 

I definitely DON'T feel like this today

With Tennessee's win over #2 Texas yesterday, is there any doubt that the University pf Louisville women's basketball team will move up in the DI WBB polls? The official polls will come out after today's article...but I can easily see the Cards going to at least #3 in the nation at 11-0 and with a little divine province, one could make the argument for #2 over Notre Dame, who has one loss. 

It has been an exemplary season for the 12 that call themselves Cardinals and since we are roughly 1/3 of the way through the season, let's take a look at the squad with a trimester report, of sorts.

KNOW THE SCORE? 11 games in and Louisville has 918 points on the season. That's 83.4 a game. They've allowed 608, which breaks down to 55.2 per contest.  28.2 points the average margin of victory. Even without Lamar Jackson throwing TD's. 

KNOWING WHO SCORES.  Asia Durr leads Louisville with  202 points (18.4 points a game). In double figures with her is Myisha Hines-Allen with 146 points (13.2 a night). Jazz Jones rounds out the trifecta with 105  points (9.5 an outing). Those numbers show that these three are responsible for 49.3 % of the Cards point total. 

OFF THE GLASS. Louisville has 443 rebounds on the season.  (40.3 a game) Opponents have 321  (29.1%). MHA leads UofL with 106 (9.6) a contest. 

WHERE ARE THESE STUMBLEBUMS FROM?  The Cards have played four schools from our neighbors to the south Tennessee. Two from Ohio. One each from in-state, South Dakota, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan and Oregon. Eight in the KFC YUM! Center, three on the road. 

WHERE ARE OUR HEROES FROM? UofL has two players each from in-state, New Jersey and California. One each from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Florida, Georgia, New York and  Colorado. 

SEVENTY-PLUS. The Cards have scored 70+ in all their games except one...a 68-64 win at SD State. 

DRUM ROLL, PLEASE!  Here's some grades from Professor Paulie. I've sent them to the UofL Academic offices as well, they ought to boost a few GPA's 

PERFORMANCE:  Gotta give them an "A" here because they have not lost. 

EFFORT:  I'll go with a B+ here. Trailing S.D. State early and fumbling with IU a bit keep this from being an "A". 

MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER:  Step forward Asia Durr and accept the award. She would probably hand it right back to me and tell me she doesn't pay attention to her individual efforts, it'd the team that matters. 

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER:  This is a toughie but I'll go with Jazmine Jones. Second on the squad in rebounds, third in scoring and a starter this year. Some may argue this with me. Feel free to present your arguments in the comment section. 

That's gonna do it for today. Back to the sack and need to hydrate. I'm praying this crud isn't the flu and just a 24-48 hour stomach bug. 

Here's hoping for a better Tuesday...


Paulie
xxxxx

Louisville Women's Basketball -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE -- Raiding Defense

MTSU Raiders Vanquished

The women's basketball squad continued it's dominance over teams from the state of Tennessee with a 80-26...you can't sugar-coat this...absolute beat-down of the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders.  This is a school record for UofL for least points scored by an opponent in a game.

When no one player gets more than 25 minutes, you expect scoring by committee, and that's exactly what we got.  Asia Durr lead with 19 pts, with Bionca Dunham picked up 14.  Dana Evans and and Jazz Jones also reached double-digits with 11 and 10 respectively.  Sam Fuehring had another nice game with 8, Arica Carter got 6, MHA had a bit of an off night with only 5, and Kylee Shook contributed 4.  Shook did have some fun on the defensive end of the court, getting more blocked shots, with 6, than she did points...there's a reason she holds the state of Colorado high school blocks record.

What may be the stat of the night, however, is 26 assists on 27 made shots.

It was Alumnae Night last night. How many do you recognize? 

There's really not too much to analyze on this one.  MTSU came into the KFC Yum! Center, and ran into a buzz saw.  They were clearly an overmatched team,   They struggled to accomplish even the basics in the face of a withering defensive presence.  The frustration showed a bit, too.  I find no joy in watching a team struggle like this against a better opponent, and look for joy in other aspects of the evening.  A win is a win, and it's good to get it in the win column, but I, for one, certainly won't be dwelling on this, or even basking in the glow of a battle won.  I will wish the Blue Raiders the best, applaud them for their win over Vandy, and turn my attention ahead to Tennessee State Tuesday night.  There was joy downtown last night, but it was found in welcoming back a wonderful group of alumnae and honoring what came before...it was found in the entertaining antics of the Pep Band...and it was found for me, personally, in an abnormally large number of personal acquaintances that I got to visit with at the game last night.  (On a side note, it seems the Softball coaching staff is raring to go for this season...play starts in February...and are excited at the schedule they've put together and a deeper pitching staff than we've seen in recent seasons)

We'll see what TSU brings to the table, but I fear the most joy will be found, again, in the Pep Band, and in the annual debate over who has the ugliest Christmas sweater.  Assistant Coach Sam Purcell always sets the bar high and we've heard that he's been searching for the prime specimen for this outing.

Walz did mention it the post-game presser that Purcell would not be involved in any way in Walz's Tuesday night outfit. And our photog and CC writer Jared Anderson has to choose from three different Ugly sweaters. Decisons and choices.

Fred Checks In

How did Fred do?

Fred Savage. "The Wonder Years"

Free Throws - at 18 for 25, that gives us a 72% at the charity stripe.  While that will get you a letter,  a lower-case "f" is what's awarded here. I use 75% for the capital, so...

Rebounding - It's always easier to get defensive rebounds than it is offensive, so a lower opponent shooting percentage usually results in more rebounding because it will inflate the defensive rebounding numbers.  MTSU shot field goals at only a 20.5% clip with UofL hitting 56.3%, so this should be a significant advantage for the Cards, and yet MTSU out rebounded the Cards slightly, 29-28.  We can award no letter, here.

Energy/Execution/Effort - Hard to question this one too much.  Despite maintaining a significant lead from very early in the game, the Cards continued to play hard and didn't let down.  "E" is the result.

Defense - Absolutely withering defense caused a large amount of frustration on the part of MTSU.  Even if the lowered shoulder bull-rush charge into Sam Fuehring didn't draw a charging foul, (it did draw Asia Durr quickly jumping in front of Fuehring, who looked like she was about ready to throw down).    No doubt of a "D", here, holding the opponent to 26 for the game, and single-digit scoring in each quarter.  I'm gonna add an underline to it for a little extra emphasis, so let's make it "D".  Any better and we may have to start playing with font sizes.

f- -E-D is the overall result.

The women are back in action Tuesday night against the aforementioned Tennessee State Tigers to complete the homestand versus all comers from Tennessee.

POST GAME ASIA DURR AND DANA EVANS

WALZ POST-GAME MTSU COMMENTS

RadioHeads

A quick check, and yes, the recording of yesterday's Cardinal Couple Radio Hour broadcast is up and available on the Soundcloud.  If you missed it, you can hear the audio at

 https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20171209.

I'd take these six , play the current squad and expect a
close game. The original "Attack Yorkie", C.B.  Megan,
Cortnee, Keisha  and Taylor Johnson.

Three of us knuckleheads were in the studio, Paul, Case, and I; and we were honored to have Jack Grossman from WIUX Sports, the sports home of Indiana University.  We previewed the IU vs UofL Men's game, and talked a bit about IU Soccer's bid for the College Cup which they are playing for today at 1pm.  They play Stanford for the championship in what I expect will be a rather chilly Philadelphia.  Jack is a Louisvillian, graduating from Manual High School, and really did Paulie a solid at the UofL vs IU Women's game in Bloomington last weekend.

Good fun was had, and Jack fit in with the lighthearted banter of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, despite definitely not being a knucklehead.  Of course, we also talked about the UofL women's games and the season so far.  A good time was had by all.

We'll be back in the studio next week. That should be sufficient warning to all in the Crescent Hill/Frankfort Ave area.   

--

JMcA

Cards Host MTSU for 'Alumni Night' -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Seeks to Continue Dominance

Louisville's women's basketball team is off to a great start so far this season. 10-0 is their second best start of all time and this is their first 10 game win streak since a stretch between December and February two years ago, according to the UofL athletics site. Louisville is in a very good position to break that previous run of 15 games as well as have a new best start ever if they can continue to play the way they do when they are playing well. Louisville has been absolutely dominant at times, but they've also been quite plain at others.

Tonight, Louisville welcomes in the Blue Raiders from Middle Tennessee State University. The ladies at MTSU opened their season with a 65-54 victory at Vanderbilt. After Louisville's up and down performance against the Commodores, perhaps it would do the Cards well to not look past these Blue Raiders. MTSU is not receiving votes in the mid-major top 25, but they are 5-2 with the aforementioned victory over Vandy. Their two losses have both come since Thanksgiving, both on the road, and both to Power 5 schools; 56-65 to Ole Miss and then 45-48 to Georgia Tech. Not that either of those teams are world beaters, but it is clear that MTSU has shown a propensity to go into hostile environments against higher quality teams and perform to the best of their ability.

As I mentioned, Louisville has looked rough at times. They trailed by double digits at South Dakota State, and Vandy hung tough for the first third of their game against the Cards. Turnovers, as usual, are a major issue for the Cards. They've shot well from the floor (for the most part) and OK from the free throw line. Giving the opponent extra possessions has not cost Louisville so far, but if they run into a team that is hot and playing with nothing to lose (like MTSU tonight) and they turn the ball over and can't shoot well enough to compensate, the Cardinals could be looking at a December loss. I believe that Coach Jeff Walz will maintain focus for the team and not let them look forward to the rivalry game looming next week. Turnovers are always a focus of his, and this team seems like one that can shake the turnover bug. As long as the team practices well and focuses on the task at hand each game, I believe we may see that turnover number start to fall a bit.

During halftime of tonight's game, Louisville will honor a group of women's basketball alumnae. Why they are calling the game "alumni night" instead of "alumnae night," I have no clue. The honorees tonight will be Von Macklin (1977), Terri Keown (1977), Val Combs (1980), Marilyn Reckelhoff Dippel (1988), Stacy DeGraffenreid Simons (1991), Leatrice Scott (1995), Darnice Cloudy (1996), Kiva Thomas (1996), Misty Smith Albrecht (1998), Kendria Braxton Lockett (1998), Jaime Ludwig (1998), April Goddard (1999), Alison Bass Egan (2000), Roscelle Bullock Griffin (2000), Kim Graham Calhoun (2004), Sara Nord (2004), Jessica Huggins (2006), Connie Neal (2006), Helen Johnson (2007), Patrika Barlow (2008), Candyce Bingham (2009), Keshia Hines (2011), Shelby Harper (2013), Tia Gibbs (2014), Megan Deines (2015), Sara Hammond (2015), Cortnee Walton (2017), Taylor Johnson (2017), according to gocards.com. Perhaps Paulie will be able to grab some former Cardinal Couple favorites for a quick soundbite or two. 

Tipoff for tonight's game is at 7PM. If you can't make it out to the Yum! Center, you can follow along on the ACC Network Extra or on the radio broadcast with Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson. If you are able to make it to tonight's game, you really should. This Louisville women's team is an exciting one to watch, and they deserve all the support they can get. You might even get home in time to see the important part of the Heisman Ceremony.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

For the first time in awhile, I'm back in the studio. I've been all over these last couple of weeks, but
Paulie and Co. have done a great job, just as they did before I was ever part of the team. As Jeff mentioned yesterday, we'll have a special guest joining the three of us in studio today in lieu of Jared Anderson. We'll have Jack Grossman, student radio man for Indiana University, filling in the fourth chair today. Jack is in town for the UofL v IU men's basketball game and has agreed to take some time to sit down with us. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs at 11AM on 100.9 WCHQ FM. It is also available to stream at wchqfm.com and via the WCHQ app. Tune in, won't you?

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-

Louisville women's basketball -- Cards pull rank on Commodores 79-57 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Commodores Get Dispatched

If we borrow from the military's use of ranks and hierarchy, and figure out where the rank of Commodore fits in, I guess that makes the UofL WBB squad at least Rear Admiral's (at least based on Wikipedia's telling of it).  The Cardinals dispatched the Commodores back to Tennessee with a 79-57 win at home last night.  Depending on when you checked in on the game, the game was either much more competitive than that score would suggest, or much less.

In any event, the boatload of Tennessean's that ended up on the shores of the Ohio in downtown Louisville were sent back to Music City with the "L" and despite VU's Rachel Bell ringing it quite frequently in the first half, this battle between Birds and the commissioned officers went to the home team.  

At the end of the 1st quarter, Vanderbilt led 24-20, and even about halfway through the second
quarter it looked like this was going to be a very competitive scrap.  But then the Cards flipped a switch.  I have no idea what caused this particular switch to be flipped, but if we could super-glue it into this position, that'd be great.  Beginning about halfway through the 2nd quarter, the Cards started a 28-0 run that would extend past halftime and through most of the 3rd quarter.  A missed defensive assignment on one trip down the floor and the 'Dores found a wide open Rachel Bell (who else?) who predictably dropped the 3-ball into the basket.  The Cards weren't done, yet, picking up another 10 points before before the black and gold got a free one at the stripe.  Many props to the UofL pep band for serenading the Vandy players at the line with bad Christmas songs.  The Cards would win the 2nd quarter 22-9, and the 3rd by a margin of 25-4.

Coach Walz was very disappointed in the 4th quarter though as the second line came in to play and just didn't play up to the standards that we know, because we've seen them do it, they are capable of playing.  Vandy took the last frame 20-12, but it wasn't enough to overcome the lead gained in that 38-3 run.

Paint presence proves positive for the Cards and they controlled the boards 34-26 against Vandy. Myisha Hines-Allen grabbed ten of them for UofL.

(We're an academic school.) 

Three got into double digit scoring territory for the Cards.  Unsurprisingly Asia Durr leads the list with 25, but Arica Carter found the 3 range pretty well and ended up with 15 after dropping 3 of 5 from distance.  Sam Fuehring came up with 14, mostly by constantly running back-door cuts which the Commodore's seemed utterly incapable of stopping.  The only way they figured out to stop the back-door cut scoring was to foul Fuehring, sending her to her usual spot lined up to the left where she dropped 6 of 6.

It was announced in the post-game presser that Loretta Kakala would take a red-shirt for the season.  Somehow, Paulie found out before the game. Must have been his political connection with the "mayor-for-life" Jerry Abramson sitting next to him. 

What About Fred?

Fredrick Douglass. Social reformer, writer
and statesman. 

I'm not going to try to come up with a J-E-F-F report, and I'll leave the C-A-S-E and J-A-R-E-D reports to their respective creators.  I'll take a stab at a F-R-E-D, though.

F - Free Throws. 86.4%.  Lot's of capitals "F"'s being earned this year.  I love it!

R - Rebounds. 34 to 26, I'll take it.  Vandy had 21 defensive boards compared to our 11 offensive.  Defense has something of an inherent advantage, here, but I'd like to see our squad crash the boards on missed shots a little more.  Still good enough for the upper case R.

e - Energy/Execution.  Would've had the upper case here except for that late let down from the 2nd line.  We know they can do better. Small case "e" is the call.

D - Defense.  A 38-3 run through the heart of the game, and limiting the total to 57.  That's a pretty impressive showing on defense.  And 13 steals is always a recipe for entertainment. We'll capital "D" that! 

F-R-e-D.  Not bad at all, but room for growth.

Radio Guest

Jared will be off being a banker-man again tomorrow for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, so Paulie
has lined up a real treat for us with Jack Grossman, of WIUX, home of Hoosier Sports, joining us.

Check in for an update from our neighbors to the north.

We'll be on at our usual time of 11am on WCHQ Radio.  That's 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Louisville, also available via the WCHQ app, or at http://crescenthillradio.org.

Check it out, won't you?

PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ANDERSON (except of Fredrick Douglass, of course). 

POST GAME WALZ

POST GAME ASIA DURR and SAM FUEHRING

(don't miss Steve's eloquent but wordy and baffling post game recaps and eventual questions...)  

-- 

JMcA