WBB: Lady Cards open BIG EAST play Weds. Night

HUMPDAY CARDINAL COUPLE:

-Lady Cards at Cincy to begin BIG EAST

-Seven BIG EAST teams in top 25.

-That thud you heard was Pitino's crew

-We love something we are hearing, though

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The University of Louisville women's basketball team hops on the bus and takes I-71 to Cincinnati (unless they go via US 42) for Wednesday night BIG EAST basketball. It is the opener for both teams in BIG EAST play. Let's take a look at what the Bearcats have done so far this year.

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UC is 5-2 on the season and last played at home against Xavier. The Muskies topped the Bearcats 70-59. Cincy's other loss came on the road against Valpo. The Cards and the Bearcats

share one additional opponent beside XU...they've both played Dayton...UC losing to the flyin' Flyers on the road.

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The Bearcats work around a rotation of eight players who average 15 minutes a game or more. Leading the way so far for Janelle Elliott's team is senior Shareese Ulis, the returning point guard from last year, who averages 15.7 points per game. The youth movement is evident with the Bearcats, too...freshmen Kayla Cook and Tiffany Turner are next in scoring...Cook at 9.0 a game and Turner with 8.7 and 7.4 rebounds a contest. Daress McClung, a sophomore, tosses in 8.0 a game. Shelly Bellman is a redshirt senior that is back from knee injuries and on the court for the first time since the 2006-07 season. She adds 8.0 a game.

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Cincy averages 61.9 points a game and is holding opponents to 52.7 per contest. They shoot .433 from the field and are 51-144 from three point range...averaging just over 20 three point attempts a game. They also commit 15.6 turnovers a game.

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UC gets an average of 1784 in the Fifth-Third to watch games. Against Louisville, they are 13-11 when defending the home court but trail in the series 35-24. Last year the two teams split the series...Louisville winning at Cincinnati 63-49 but losing in Freedom Hall 74-68 in overtime.

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Jim Kelch will do the play by play on 790 AM/101,7 FM WKRD. Paul Sanderford is scheduled to describe all the colors present in the Fifth-Third arena. There's a remote chance that there could be a CARDINAL COUPLE associate at tonight's game in Cincy. We'll know more about that later today. Geaux Cards!!

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Seven BIG EAST teams are now ranked in women's college basketball's top 25. They are:

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# 1 Connecticut

#7 West Virginia

#17 Notre Dame

#18 St. John

#20 Georgetown

#22 DePaul

#24 Syracuse

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Louisville was picked to finish eighth in the BIG EAST this season and when you have seven top 25 teams in front of you...yeah, that's a hard row to hoe. Out of the seven, four are in the YUM and three are on the road (UConn, Notre Dame and Syracuse).

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Wow, did the UofL men's team look flat last night in losing to Drexel 52-46. Pitino's bunch got out rebounded by 20 and lost for the first time in the KFC YUM Center. It's the second time the schools have played each other in history..the first coming in the 1986 NCAA Tournament. They were first round opponents and when asked about them, Milt Wagner spoke the quote that lives in infamy:

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" I don't know much about them but I think they're one of those academic universities."

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The Cards won that game en route to the 1986 National Championship. Drexel probably had a better G.P.A.

Louisville men need some work on free throw shooting as well and Rick needs to find a few aggressive front line bangers. The Mike Marra hot shooting hand has gone cold as the weather we've been having around here lately.

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We hear from a pretty reliable source on campus that Louisville forward Asia Taylor may be out of Jeff Walz's doghouse soon and back on the hardwood. Maybe even in time to go to Vegas with the team for the Duel In the Sun three day invitational round robin tournament. Still no word on what Taylor actually did...but Walz has said it was not court related and a recent check of police records don't show Taylor being arrested for anything. We seriously doubt it was anything illegal either...just a poor judgement choice is what we're thinking. It'll be good to see her back on the court. She could have taught the UofL men a thing or two about rebounding last night. Hopefully, she's learned her lesson and will fly straight and in the right flight path for these Birds the rest of her time here....