Friday Cardinal Couple -- Bearcats bop into town

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

- BIG EAST foe Cincinnati to face WBB Friday night

(Quentin "Elvis Redbird" Voigt...we never really know which one is writing...previews the University of Louiville WBB game Friday night against our northern neighbors. Paulie has added a bit of drivel as well.  We'll have a recap Friday night, Saturday morning...depends on whether we get the electricity bill paid in time or not.)

BOPPIN' WITH THE BEARCATS

After a good second-half of staying tied with UConn Tuesday in Hartford, Louisville faces a protege of Coach Auriemma when Cincinnati comes to the YUM! Center. Jamelle Elliott, a former assistant to the head Husky, is in her fourth season at UC. The program has improved under her, but probably not to the point where they'll pull the upset down by the river. UC has fallen to Villanova by 3, Seton Hall by 8 and USF by a surprising 33.

UC (8-8, 0-3) will most likely throw these Bearcats at the 14-4, 2-2 Lady Cards. 5'6" Daysheea Hollins, leads Cincy in scoring with 16.8 ppg. Lesha Dunn is good for eight points a game, as is Tiffany Turner. Also seeing success at UC are Alyesha Lovett (7.1 ppg, and Kayla Cook (5.1 ppg.) .

I certainly liked seeing Bria Smith making those pull-up jumpers in the second half against the Huskies and Jude's fearless hustle and scrappy play was inspiring. More of the same, Maestro, please!

The Cards should get clicking against the Bearcats and not have to contend with anything like UConn's suffocating defense. HC Elliott most likely will be on the phone with Geno sometime before the game looking for pointers to help her cause...I hear she's a snappy dresser...but dressing for success probably won't help her tonight.

Quentin Voigt.


(Paulie)

The Lady Cards escaped last year in the Fifth Third Arena 64-59 with Burke, Schimmel and Shoni combining for 42 of the Cardinal points. 23 for 60 (38%) and 4-18 from trey-land usually isn't going to win you a lot of games, but Louisville did force 23 UC turnovers.

The Cards actually trailed a good portion of the last meeting between these two, until they pulled away late for the win. A tenacious 2-3 zone was mystifying for last year's bunch. They'll probably see it again. Can't see UC trying to run with the Cardinal transition game experts.

The Bearcats' Cook (13 points), Turner (11 points) and Hollins (15 points) from last year are back for another round but with this one at the YUM!...it looks like the bar might close early on them. The Cards have won nine out of the last ten meetings and have faced UC 62 times in the history of this series.

Hope springs eternal amongst Cardinal fans with the stellar performances of late from Jude, the Mo and Sho show is still getting rave reviews and Nita continues to be, perhaps, the Cards most steady and dependable performer. I can't see UC stealing one tonight on the road...but this one could be closer than most expect. Louisville needs to extend a full effort for 40 minutes in this one...a sluggish start or finish could be costly.

We'll hope that Bria's new-found infatuation with the mid-range jumper continues successfully and that The Hammer can produce some quality paint minutes. It would be good to see Vails wreak a little havoc in the post as well. We don't ask for much, do we?

Keeping rebounder Turner away from grabs (she had 11 last year against UofL) will be a priority. Janeish Randolph is back for UC but even Zach and Boots Randolph probably couldn't help the Bearcats win tonight. For what it's worth, UC hasn't scored more than 68 points in a game this season.

That ain't changin'. Look for Louisville to win by less than 20...but I'll wager both teams combined barely top 100 points total. If you're a fan of defensive tussles, this one ought to be right up your alley tonight.

USF's 33-point shellacking of the Bearcats Tuesday night in Tampa a bit surprising...if the Bearcats have tossed in the towel for the season (which I don't think they have) we could see the "S" troops ( Shoni, Smith, Sara and Slaughter) getting some bench rest tonight and big smiles from Jenny and Renee over behind the Cardinal bench. 

CARDINAL COUPLE will have the post-game wrap up for you, with full descriptions of the action, commentary and post-game remarks from Coach Walz. It's either that or heading over to the Troll Pub and making up a bunch of stuff.  
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