Reid key to Cardinals scoring punch

MONIQUE REID, WEEKLY PANERA WINNER and ANGEL MCCOUGHTRY in today's report. LOOKING AT LUCKY romps in Haskell.

CARDINAL COUPLE will be spending the next several days previewing

the returning players for Jeff's Walz's University of Louisville basket-

ball team. WE begin with last year's leading scorer, Monique Reid.

Note: statistical information is what it is. The opinions and commentary expressed in these reviews is what it is also..mainly our own. Got a different take? Feel free to comment.

Monique Reid was a bright spot for a sometimes dismal UofL women's basketball team in 2009-10. The forward from Fern Creek High School finished her sophomore year with 18.4 points per game and 9.2 rebounds per game. Both totals were leading numbers for Louisville...who went 14-18. The season was a stark contrast for Reid, who went to the Championship game of the NCAA Tournament her freshman year. A wing player, Reid started 28 of 32 games for Louisville and averaged 33 minutes a game on the court.

For most of the year, Reid was the "go to" scorer for the Lady Cards. Not possessing a dangerous three point shot, Reid created most her offense off the dribble and on the offensive boards. Few BIG EAST teams could stop her drive and penetrate move to the basket and she was most effective creating off the dribble or going to the boards after a missed shot and getting the putback.

With a lack of offensive presence on the team, Walz was forced to go to Reid for offensive production and other teams would sometimes just concentrate on shutting down her teammates with her on the floor and let her get her points.

Defense has never been the main focus of Reid's game and although she made significant strides toward improving her guarding skills from her freshman year to her sophomore year, there is still a lot she can do to get better. She possesses a great first step, good overall quickness and can back into the basket as good as anyone in the BIG EAST..why her skills don't translate over to the defensive side of her game is a mystery.

One theory is that she simply does the minimum required on defense and saves her energy and strength for when Louisville has the ball. An improvement in her ability to shut down the opposing wing that she draws as her defensive assignment will be a key to her improvement as an overall talented player. Jeff Walz's is a firm believer that defensive intensity can create a transition game for the offensive and Reid's potential for improvement when the other team has the ball could be a key in how the Cards perform this year.

Although her scoring was one of the reasons fans showed up to watch the Lady Cards last year, she'll find herself surrounded by quite a few more offensive options and talent during the 2010-11 season. When she finds teams keying on shutting her down on offensive, she'll need to develop and refine her skills on getting the ball to the open player and being more of a team player. How her game will evolve to that next level is anyone's guess...but we've seen what she can do on a team with multiple scoring weapons during her freshman year and she can be a dedicated team player when she sets her mind to it.

PROJECTION: Will start for the Cards as a wing this year and be one of the leading scorers.



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Congratulations to Chuck Fulner, who won the $10 PANERA gift cards last week. A tough decision but Chuck wrote a very good couple of paragraphs on why he likes PANERA:

"I go to PANERA because they have the best bagels in town. I prefer the "everything" bagel toasted with the low fat veggie cream cheese. It goes great in the morning with the dark roast coffee. The free wi-fi makes it a great place for business meetings, too.

The Dupont locations rocks!"

Want some? Get those entries into us on why you like to go to PANERA. E-mail to:

cardinalcouple@insightbb.com or leave a message in the comment section.

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TEAM ANGEL, Angel McCoughtry's skills camp for girls' basketball hopefuls begins today at The Basketball Academy. CARDINAL COUPLE will visit and try to get a few words with the ex-UofL star and current WNBA's Atlanta Dream player. She'll likely be in a great mood, since the Dream regained sole possession of the WNBA's Eastern Conference lead with a 90-74 win over Indiana on Sunday. McCoughtry scored 20 points in the win for the Dream as they captured their fourth victory in a row. Iziane Castro Marquez led the Dream with 22 points, Erika DeSouza added 16 and Sancho Lyttle had 13 points and eight boards for Atlanta.

The Dream shot 51% from the field in the win, their 10th of the year at home. Tamika Catchings led Indiana with 24 points but the Fever shot only 35% from the court. Atlanta looks to be fully recovered from their slow start after the All-Star break.

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LOOKIN AT LUCKY romped the field in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Race Track Sunday. Guided by jockey Martin Garcia, the 3 yr old Preakness winner laid off the early pace and roared to the front of the pack when the horses hit the stretch. Bob Baffert had him ready to go after the long layoff and LUCKY was the odds on favorite to win yesterday. SUPER SAVER, with Calvin Borel in the saddle, contested the race early and challenged briefly in the stretch before fading to fourth. It was SUPER SAVER's first time out since winning the 2010 Kentucky Derby.