Greenwell, USA U16 start today...McCarty, UofL throwers...Basketball still busy in June

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MONDAY @ CARDINAL COUPLE

-Owensboro's Becca Greenwell 'south of the border'.

-Cardinal shot putters results in NCAA Championships

-June a busy month for hoops? .

-Atlanta Dream off to a rocky start

(Nice to be back with our Cardinal Couple readers after a couple of days away from the site. Thanks to David Watson for filling in for us during our absence.)

Becca Greenwell is a member of the U16 team.

Rebecca Greenwell is one of 12 players selected for the USA Women's U16 team that is in Merida, Mexico to go through preliminary pool play to qualify for the 2012 FIBA World Championships. The soon-to-be-junior from Owensboro Catholic will take part in five games this week...when the US girls play Brazil today, Argentina on Tuesday and Venezuela Wednesday. The semi-finals are Saturday and finals Sunday.

Greenwell is teammates with 6'5" sensation Mercedes Russell, out of Springfield, Oregon. Russell is a Louisville target down the road. Greenwell is being pursued by virtually all the major DI schools..Louisville, Kentucky, Duke, Notre Dame, North Carolina and Tennessee in the hunt to get her to visit.

The U16 team also lists two players from Indiana...Stephanie Mavunga from Brownsburg, IN. and Taya Reimer out of Fishers, IN.

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D'Ana McCarty finished 11th in the
shot put at the NCAA Championships.

D'Ana McCarty led three UofL participants in the shot put finals of the NCAA Outdoor Championships over the weekend, finishing 11th. in the competition. Teammates Khadija Abdullah (13th.) and Chinwe Okoro (20th.) also took part in the finals.

The big news surrounded Cardinal 3000 meter steeplechase winner Matt Hughes from UofL. He also won the event last year.

Rachel Gehret finished 5th in the high jump for the Lady Cards.

With McCarty and Okoro finishing their careers at UofL with the weekend events, we'd like to congratulate them on their fine achievements and accomplishments during their academic and athletic pursuits while students at Louisville.
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June isn't usually known as a busy month as far as Lady Cards basketball goes...the players are out of school and are working individually on their games...but UofL head women's basketball coach Jeff Walz is spending lots of time in Cardinal Arena with Lady Cards Camps and Clinics. The Girls' Day Camp ran from June 6-9th. and the ELITE camp finished up Sunday after three days. A Team Camp will take place from June 17-19th.

Summer sports camps continue to grow
in popularity.

Summer activities for fall/winter sports goes on in other sports besides basketball as well. We have friends from Louisville who are spending the week in Orlando, FL. for a volleyball camp/tournament with their daughters and families.

This is just one of  many camps that their children will participate in this summer. We talked to a couple of parents about the summer camp situations and got these responses:

CARDINAL COUPLE:  What is the main thing your daughters are hoping to get out of these summer camps?

TOM: My daughter has learned a lot of skills and got to play in some very competitive games with her regular season teammates in the basketball camp she just completed. She and her teammates won their division also, which was very exciting for them and us parents.

CHRIS: These camps allow them to get better at their sports and their positions. They also allow the players the chance to see how they stack up against similar teams across the nation. Your kids also get great instruction from coaches and older players that know the sport and pass on their knowledge to the younger ones.
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Angel appears to be her old self...scoring
19 against San Antonio.

The start of the WNBA season hasn't been the most productive for the Atlanta Dream and Angel McCoughtry. The Dream sit at 0-3 and Angel sat out the first game of the year, played scant minutes in the second because of a sprained knee. Looks like she is on the mend, however...getting 19 points against the San Antonio squad. The Eastern Division champs of 2010...Atlanta is staying competitive but unable so far this year to seal the deal at the end. The first two games saw Atlanta leading near the end of regulation...but being forced to overtime. In the San Antonio game, they ran into a buzz saw in rookie Danielle Adams, who poured in 32 points, including three straight three-pointers in less than a minute, to lead her team to the win. San Antonio is a surprising 3-0 to start the season.

Is it too early to panic? Absolutely. Angel will find her rhythm and touch as the season progresses. Keep in mind also that the Dream is also using a new point guard in Lindsey Harding and it takes time to learn the system and your teammates.

We can't see the combination of Harding and Castro-Marquez at guards...Angel, Sancho Lyttle and Erika deSouza on the front line being stymied many more times this season. The Dream is also deep on the bench and should overcome this sputtering start and vie for another division title.

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Finally, thanks to all of you who e-mailed during our two day absence on the site. David Watson came in fresh off a vacation and stepped up for us when we needed him. One of the things about family, friends and situations is that you try to be there for them when they need you and we answered the call. And, David stepped up for us.

We're not in the "going behind the back" business.

There are those out there who try to read certain things into situations and urge us to pursue them that simply don't belong on our site. We deal with it every day here at Cardinal Couple. Cardinal Couple was started on the premise of being a fan voice for University of Louisville women's sports. We stay primarily with that theme. Sometimes we explore and comment on other things. We get a significant interest from our readers on horse racing and delve into that sport from time to time. Some people don't care for that sport/activity and let us know about it. Some people want dirt, gossip and innuendo. We aren't TMZ or Entertainment Tonight. We don't deal in it.

We also get e-mails. Tons of them. E-mails that sometimes push the button on subjects controversial and unknown previously to us. As owners and fans, we try to determine what is hearsay and factual. Damage control is a priority here...we're not a scandal site or rumor monger sheet. We try to "go directly to the well or the water attendant" for confirmations and advice on how to handle things. Sometimes, we're not sure about direct access..or availibility. We still try.

Sometimes, that doesn't go so well...but sometimes life itself doesn't go so well. We try to keep in focus and remind ourselves that this site is about athletics and entertainment. We're not discussing the economy, environment, or terrorism here. It's sports.

If something is deemed to be questionable to cover and doesn't fall into our mission statement, we don't pursue it. No matter how many times you e-mail us about it. And that, as they say, is the bottom line. If it's something we can do with confidence, clarity, confirmation and approval, we'll share it with you.

The internet is full of sites that push gossip. We are not one of them.
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