A year in review...

WEDNESDAY @ C.C.



-2002/2003 season pivotal in Lady Cards history.
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-Current Cards in the record books
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-CARDINAL COUPLE on Knight Rider Radio
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We're several days away from the next Lady Cards basketball game, softball gets under way tomorrow and the other winter sports at UofL are off today as well, so
we're taking a look back at Cardinal womens basketball history today. We take you to the
2002-2003 season first:
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Martin Clapp (pictured above) was the head coach of the Lady Cards and Louisville was playing in Conference USA. The Cards had gone 17-13 the season before and lost in the first round of the WNIT to Ball State in Muncie. Clapp had future WNBA star Lori Nero whom had transferred to Louisville at center for her senior season, Returning for her junior year was point guard Sara Nord. Nina Simotes, Connie Neal, Angel Bradley and Jessica Huggins were on the team...but Louisville had lost Marju Sober to graduation. This was Clapp's sixth season as Cardinal head coach...the first three years he had co-coached with his wife Sara White. He was 93-59 at Louisville in five years but the Cards had not made an NCAA appearance since 2001.
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The Cards got off to a rough start by losing their season opener to Evansville by two on the road. A narrow win at Florida Atlantic was followed by a 20 point loss at Western. The "yo-yo" syndrome continued...Clapp's team won their home opener against IPFW but lost two nights later in Freedom Hall to Chattanooga. Louisville travelled to Baton Rouge to play in the now defunct Women's College Hoops.com Classic...winning the first night against New Orleans but losing the following night to LSU. Louisville was 3-4 as Christmas rolled around...and Cardinal fans were questioning whether the team had anyone capable besides Nero and Nord that could provide a scoring punch. Clapp was drawing fire, also...for losses to weaker foes Chattanooga and Evansville.
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Clapp felt he had to make some changes and adjustments to get Louisville rolling and with some lineup changes the Cards faced Eastern Illinois...the first of six straight home games. The Cards responded with a 91-58 win and also took the next two games...rolling past Ball State and Troy State. #11 Vanderbilt came to Freedom Hall net and Louisville pulled the upset 92-82. Kentucky visited next and the Cards beat them convincingly 86-62. Columbia ended the home stand for Louisville and the Cards put them away by 24 as well. Going into C-USA play...Louisville was now 9-4 and on a roll.
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Louisville began conference play with a tough loss at Cincinnati but responded with home wins over Houston and TCU. Lori Nero grabbed 22 rebounds against the Cougars. A trip to UAB saw Louisville fall short 75-62 but at South Florida the Cards pulled out a nine point win. Returning to Freedom Hall, Louisville took back to back games against Tulane and Southern Miss. Nina Simotes had become the third wheel Clapp needed offensively with her long range bombs and Louisville was now 14-5 and 5-2 in C-USA.
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Then, the train ran off the tracks. Louisville suffered back to back double digit losses on the road to East Carolina and Charlotte. A rematch against Cincinnati saw the Cards lose in double overtime in Freedom Hall. Marquette came to town and downed the Cards by seven. Doug Bruno and DePaul visited next and beat Louisville 73-61. Louisville went on the road for their final two regular season games and lost by four at St. Louis and 15 at Memphis. What had been a bright early start in regular season C-USA play ended with the Cards going 5-9 in conference and 14-13 overall for the season. A seven game losing streak faced Clapp and the Cards as they entered C-USA Tournament play.
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Louisville was matched with St. Louis in the first round at the Pyramid in Memphis, TN. and gained a measure of revenge against the Billikens with a surprising 86-59 win. They advanced to play DePaul...but lost for the second time to the Blue Demons 66-57. The season ended with Louisville going 15-14. Clapp's team was not selected for any post-season tournaments.
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Athletic director Tom Jurich realized that the program needed to go in a different direction and replaced Clapp after the season. Tom Collen was hired as the sixth coach in Cardinal women's basketball history. Clapp went on to coach Birmingham for two years in the now defunct NWBA pro league and is now an assistant at Purdue. He is still married to Sara White and they have a daughter that attends the University of Louisville. Clapp will be remembered for his "offense first" philosophy and recruiting Louisville legends Nord, Jill Morton and Nero. Collen got the Cards rolling again nationally..with one WNIT and three NCAA apperances. He also ushered the team into the BIG EAST and recruited superstars Angel McCoughtry, Candyce Bingham, Jazz Covington, Chauntise Wright, Patrika Barlow and Brandie Radde to the "Ville". By the time Collen left for Arkansas...Louisville was well on the way to being a team often mentioned as a top 25 in the nation.
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A couple of the current Lady Cards are already on the University of Louisville all-time top 10 lists. Monique Reid has the 6th highest scoring season in Cardinal history with 588 points last year. She's also eighth in a season scoring average with 18.4 a game last year. Reid is ninth in field goals made in a season with 200 last year. The junior also ranks second in free throws made in a season (188), third in free throws made in a game (14 against USF), free throws attempted in a season (233) and game (14). Reid also is fifth in rebounds in a season (294), and seventh in rebounding average per game for a season (9.2).
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Becky Burke ranks third in 3-Point Field Goals made in a season (72) and attempted in a season (201). Burke is 10th. in threes made in a game (7 vs. Tennessee) and attempted in a game (13 vs. Syracuse).
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Keisha Hines is second in career games played behind Angel McCoughtry. The Cards would have to win the BIG EAST conference tournament and make the final game of the NCAA Tournament for Keisha to pass Angel's 139, though.
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CARDINAL COUPLE'S Senior Columnist and Co-Owner Paul Sykes made his second apperance on CARDINAL DOMINANCE'S 8-10 p.m. show on Knight Rider Radio. One of these days, we'll get host Shannon to understand that Sonja is the managing editor and Paul isn't. Matters not, we're just glad to have a chance to talk about women's sports where ever we can. Paul was on the show early in the two hour broadcast last night and got the chance to discuss the womens basketball win over Villanova, how the Cards were doing in the BIG EAST and Oregon senior high school sensation Jude Schimmel...as well as a couple of other womens' sports related topics.
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We understand the premise of the show is recruiting..especially toward football and men's basketball. That mirrors the premise of CARDINAL DOMINANCE...where the interest is primarily centered around those two areas. We realize that the popularity of these two sports far outweighs anything going on with women's athletics at UofL. We're just glad to have a couple of minutes weekly to spread the news on the latest goings on at UofL on the distaff side.
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You can catch a replay of last night's broadcast over at http://www.cardinaldominance.net/. Paul is on early...we hope you'll listen to the entire broadcast if you're interested in high school players who hope to do well in college football and men's basketball. Plus, the music is pretty awesome, as well.
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We've received a couple of e-mails from you..the readers...(thank you) about Paul's apperance on the broadcast. Thank you for the kind words about his knowledge of BIG EAST womens' athletics, Connie. Also, hope things are going well for you on the sidelines...win state!
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Doug...we have no control over when Paul is scheduled to go on the air or how much time is he granted. It's the CARDINAL DOMINANCE, not the Cardinal Couple show. We also have no control of the photos you view on Knight Rider radio. If you find them offensive...minimize your screen and just listen to the audio or you can contact the station owner...
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