Tuesday Cardinal Couple - Round 2

TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(  Jeff McAdams looks at the March Madness -- Womens' style in today's CARDINAL COUPLE.)

 

March Madness Upsets Continue

OK, its not quite as crazy as the men's bracket...we still don't have the parity in the women's game that exists in the men's...but we've got a fair few upsets already in the books.  I'm not even going to count the eight vs nine seeds (three of the nine seeds won), but let's take a look at some of the others in the first round:

• #11 JMU over #6 Gonzaga
• Another #11 in Florida over #6 Dayton
• #10 Florida State over #7 Iowa State

In the second round, we've already seen #7 DePaul knock off #2 Duke, meaning an early exit from tournaments for both of the Blue Devils teams.  #12 BYU upset #4 Nebraska to advance to the regional in Lincoln.  I thought for a while we might get to include Baylor being downed by Cal, but the Bears pulled out in the second half.  #5 Oklahoma St beat #4 Purdue, but that's kinda like those 8/9 matchups from the first round.

Louisville vs Iowa

Our Cardinals will be facing a motivated Iowa Hawkeyes team this evening.  A team that has never
advanced to the Sweet 16 in the women's tournament, the sharp-shooting Iowa team is determined that this will be the year that they take the next step.

Iowa plays small, typically starting not a three guard lineup, but a four guard lineup.  That may require Sara Hammond, Asia Taylor, and Emmonnie Henderson to move a bit farther out from the paint on defense than they're typically used to, or perhaps we'll see more of Starr Breedlove and Monny Niamke to crank up the perimeter defensive pressure a bit.

A perimeter shooting team, but also well balanced with five different players averaging double figure scoring.  My favorite is Samantha Logic...hey, I'm a computer geek by profession, someone with the name "Logic" has to be my favorite, right?  Logic is a 5'9" junior from Racine, Wisconsin.

Bethany Doolittle is their starting center, and at 6'4" has enough height to give our bigs some fits, though we have several players that can match up with her.

What's at Stake?

 

Iowa is looking to advance the farthest in the tournament ever for the program.

Louisville is looking to get back home to their home floor for the regionals.  A task you can't take for granted, as evidenced by Nebraska's loss.

We'll have a full recap for you in the Wednesday Cardinal Couple.

Other Interesting Matchups?

New NCAA referee gear.

Michigan State and North Carolina is another 4 vs 5 matchup.  Texas and Maryland are a 4 vs 5 as well, but I may be most interested in seeing the outcome of WVU vs LSU on LSU's home court in Baton Rouge.

I suppose we need to be on the lookout for #11 James Madison to potentially beat #3 Texas A&M.  While I don't see this one being terribly likely, I would've said the same thing about BYU beating Nebraska as well.

jeffmcadams

EDITOR'S NOTE:

I will be watching to see if  Mich. St. head coach Suzy Merchant's hairdo can stay intact while
she battles North Carolina. With three of my favorite coaches gone (Q, Lindsay Gottlieb and Sherri Coale)...it's down to Doug Bruno and Monkey Mulkey to provide entertainment value.

Then...there's coach Walz. Never a disappointing show with the Mad Scientist on the sidelines.

Paulie
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