Friday Cardinal Couple -- Stats and more on BIG EAST WBB.

FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

-Statistical leaders in the BIG EAST WBB

-Softball swings into action

It's been awhile since we've run the numbers here at CARDINAL COUPLE on BIG EAST WBB, so here goes:

CONFERENCE STANDINGS

Notre Dame 9-0                       USF       4-4
Connecticut 8-1                       Rutgers 4-4
Louisville    7-2                        Seton Hall 3-6
Syracuse     7-2                        Marquette 3-6
DePaul        6-3                        Providence 3-6
Villanova     5-4                        Pittsburgh  0-9
St. John's    4-4                        Cincinnati   0-9
Georgetown 4-5

Who's hot?  Notre Dame. On a 16-game win streak and heads to Seton Hall next. Skylar Diggins is now over 2000 points in her career. The Fighting Irish are 6-1 against ranked opponents this season. Some rebuilding year...

Who's not? Pitt and Cincy. Losers in their last nine.

Surprise? Seton Hall. Didn't figure they'd get three wins in the conference for the entire season. They've matched that already.


OVERALL CONFERENCE TEAM STATS (As of 1/30/13)

Scoring Offense:  Connecticut 82.5  (Louisville 73.6 - 5th)
Scoring Defense:  Connecticut 46.5  (Louisville 52.8 - 4th)
Scoring Margin:    Connecticut +36.0 (Louisville +20.8 - 3rd)
Free Throw Pct:  Notre Dame .810 (Louisville .685 - 10th)
Field Goal Pct:    Connecticut .494 (Louisville .456 - 3rd)
FG Pct Defense:  Connecticut .302 (Louisville .373 - 8th)
3-Point FG Pct:   Connecticut .370 (Louisville .332 - 3rd)
3-Point FG Def:   Syracuse .272      (Louisville .277 - 2nd)
Rebounds:          USF 912               (Louisville 863 - 4th)
Rebounds allowed: Connecticut 626 (Louisville 722 - 9th)
Rebounding margin: Connecticut +11.7 (Louisville +6.4 5th)
Blocked shots:  St. John's 117         (Louisville 74 - 9th.)
Assists:               Connecticut 427   (Louisville 330 - 4th)
Steals:                Louisville 286
Turnover margin  Connecticut +6.5  (Louisville 6.2 - 2nd)


Cardinals that rank in the top 20 of individual stats:

Scoring: Shoni Schimmel 13.7 ppg (19th)
Rebounds: Sara Hammond 6.7 rpg (13th)
Field Goal %: Monique Reid .552 (4th), Hammond .511(12th)
Assists: S.Schimmel 3.3 apg (14th)
Free Throw %: Hammond .750 (14th)
3-point%: S.Schimmel .363 (8th), Nita Slaughter .357 (9th)
3-pointer made: S.Schimmel 57 (4th)
Steals: Bria Smith 2.3 a game (9th)

The Cards are second in the BIG EAST in attendance with 9424 a game at home. UConn barely ahead here with 9585 a game at home. Average attendance for both home and away game has Louisville third...with 5757. Notre Dame leads with 6652 and UConn is at 6606.

Shoni's 38 points against USF ties Sugar Rodgers as a season high in the BIG EAST. Since Sugar got hers against Yale and Louisville held her to six...we give Shoni the nod here. The Louisville vs. Kentucky game is the second highest attended with a BIG EAST team (15486). DePaul vs. UK drew 18488.

The Cards return to action Saturday @ 2 pm with (9-13, 0-9) Pitt coming to the KFC YUM! Center. We'll have a preview of it in Saturday CARDINAL COUPLE and a report of the action later that night.


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Softball swings into action today with two games in the SportCo Classic in Las Vegas. Here's the three-day, five-game slate:

FRIDAY

Cards vs. Texas Tech  2:15 p.m. (All times EST)
Cards vs. UNLV  6:45 p.m.

SATURDAY

Cards vs. DePaul  noon
Cards vs. UCF  4:30

SUNDAY

Cards vs. Minnesota  1:15 p.m.

Sandy Pearsall's charges are #18 in the nation and have more power in their lineup than the law should allow.  They return four players that hit for over .300 last year and had a team batting average of .309.

As Sandy Pearsall mentioned in our exclusive interview with her...pitching is the question mark a lot of opponents have when it comes to looking at this squad. Caralisa "Carl" Connell is the lone returnee from a staff that won 55 games last season. She also won the "Most Popular Louisville women's athlete poll" here at Cardinal Couple.

We have seen yeoman efforts on the mound for Louisville in years past. Aja Sherman, Kat Bishop, Kristen Wadwell, Tori Collins. We feel confident that "Carl" will join these illustrious names in Cardinal Softball Pitching history.

Good luck in the desert, Softball sluggers!

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Finally, former Cardinal WBB great Angel McCoughtry has re-signed with the Atlanta Dream. Terms of the multi-year deal were not disclosed.
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