Photos, analysis and comments on the Cards win over UK

Monday (morning you sure look fine) at CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Game commentary from us.

-David Watson weighs in on game.

-Breaking down the numbers.

-Football to St. Pete!

First off, congratulations to the Louisville football team for selecting to play Southern Miss. in the Beef O' Brady bowl in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Dec 21st. CARDINAL COUPLE will endeavor to have at least one of our chimps or correspondents on site for the activities and game. Guess I need to get out the straws and see who gets the short one. Amazing things out of Charlie Strong's bunch this year. GO CARDS!

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Louisville did a lot of good things in Sunday's win over the Cats, but we were most impressed with the way the Cards took the offense to UK the entire game. Such a big difference from last year's embarrassment in Lexington. The Cats tried to full court press and pressure the ball on out of bounds plays...but the Cards committed only 21 turnovers all night...a far cry from last year's 35. Most importantly, Shoni Schimmel and Shelby Harper continuously just beat the UK pressure with quick passes and hyper speed ball movement with the dribble. When Louisville went on the defensive side,
they made sure the Cats did not beat them
from outside the three point arc. The Cats went 3-18 from three point range, no player connecting more than once. Keyla Snowden, in particular...had a horrible afternoon...1-12 overall and 1-6 from beyond the arc.

Louisville allowed the Cats to creep

within 10 a couple of times. The 10-2 UK run to start the second half had more than just a few worried, but a Vails paint score and then back to back threes from Schimmel and Becky Burke put Louisville on a 8-0 run and a 53-35 lead.

When UK fought back to make it 55-45 with 9:20 to go after a A'dia Mathies score, Louisville went on a 15-3 run that featured (2) Burke threes, a Schimmel three and a Vails jumper that blew the margin out to 70-48 and had Cards fans breathing easier.

Give UK credit for dominating the boards 50-39...but also keep in mind that 22 of those were offensive and 10 of them belonged to Victoria Dunlap. She is unstoppable, it seems at times...but Louisville managed to shut down the rest of the Cats effectively.

We have to wonder what is going on with the Asia Taylor situation. Paul noticed she was not warming up with the team and inquiries on press row were met with no answers. Finally, we received a comment that we needed to ask Jeff Walz after the game...that she was still with the team but not playing today.

Walz handled the question in the post game press talk by stating that she had some things to do, that he was unhappy with some of the things she was doing and he told her that he didn't need her for today's game. Here's hoping she does what she has to do to get back in a uniform. She's been Sonja's favorite LADY CARD since she arrived on campus and a strong force rebounding for Louisville.

The experiment of bringing Monique Reid off the bench continues to be a success story for the Cards. Reid went 2-9 for the game, but most of those were in the paint and she was getting chopped and bumped by UK's front line. It translated into 6-8 free throw shooting for the Fern Creek junior.

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CARDINAL COUPLE special correspondent David Watson was at Sunday's game and shares these thoughts:

Shelby Harper is Louisville's Energizer Bunny. She just keeps going and going. I'd like to book her for my New Year's Eve party.
The obvious crowd favorite, Harper enters the game like a friendly puppy entering a room full of people. Dashing here and there at full speed, occasionally getting bumped and banged. Hook her to UofL's power grid and the campus would never have to worry about another LG&E bill. No fear in this sophomore. She's not the class and style of a Becky Burke, not a gunslinger who calmly shoots down the opposition. She's not a Shoni Schimmel, no eye popping passes or incredible long range bombs. She's the engine in a finely tuned Cardinal car. Keep going, #1.

Burke and Schimmel have great compatibility on the court. Louisville hasn't had this kind of dynamic duo since the days of McCoughtry and Bingham. They play well off each other and they seem to know, to anticipate each other's moves and location on the court. Awfully fun to watch. Look out, BIG EAST, because they're headed your way soon.

From my vantage view in the visitor's end zone, it was obvious that UK felt aggression and elbows was the key to success. Might want to redraw the schematic, Matthew Mitchell. A lot of that obviously came from the frustration of getting beat. Harper, Monique Reid, Keisha Hines and Sherrone Vails received more body shots and elbows than a pre -dawn crowd awaiting to get in Kohl's on Black Friday. UK's Brittany Henderson has a great future in pro wrestling after her college days are over. Victoria Dunlap could start for the UK football team's defensive line next year. These Cats play rough. The SEC is in for a whole lot of sore ribs and bruises. Whether it can translate into wins for them is dubious.

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In the "tell your statistics to shut up" category, let's look at some of the numbers that led Louisville to Sunday's win:
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- Louisville shot 49.1% for the game and went 12-21 from three point range. Burke and Schimmel took all 12 Cardinal treys. UK went a dismal 28.2% from the field and actually put up 16 more shots than the Cards.

-Both teams shot 60% from the free throw line. Louisville connecting on 12-20 and UK 9-15. Dunlap and Reid each got to the line eight times, Monique hitting six and Victoria five. The Cats were whistled for 17 fouls, Louisville 15. Brittany Henderson fouled out...Reid and Hines had four each for UofL.

-The Louisville freshmen scored 36 points in the game from just two players...Schimmel and Vails. All five available freshmen did play, off the bench...Charmaine Tay with 4 minutes and a rebound, foul and turnover. Walz put in Polly Harrington and Antonita Slaughter in the final minute.

-Only 21 turnovers for the LADY CARDS, 22 for UK. Schimmel had eight of them and A'dia Mathies and Crystal Riley five each. UK had only four assists in 40 minutes...Louisville 19. The Cards had 5 blocked shots and 11 steals, UK 1 block and nine steals.

-UK did win the second chance points stat with 23, compared to UofL's 7. They outrebounded Louisville 50-39. The Cards took the fast break point battle 8-2 and points off turnovers 25-18. UK won the points in the paint category 30-24.

-Burke logged the most minutes for the Cards with 38. Schimmel saw 35 minutes, Vails 33, Reid 27, Harper 24, Hines 20 and Gibbs 16. The other five Cards logged seven on court minutes.

(Photos in today's report from Paul in the end zone, except for Charlie Springer's (UofL Card Game) great shot of Sherrone Vails elevating. We recommend that you also check out Frankie's photos over at "Hell in the Hall" and you can follow our link on the home page to get there. CARDINAL DOMINANCE also has posted some great shots of the action as well. (Good to know guys with good cameras...)