Cal Bears next for Louisville WBB -- Sunday Cardinal Couple

Gray, Boyd could pose problems for Cards

The University Of Louisville women's basketball team faces their third top 25 opponent of the season with a 5 p.m. EST tip today against California in the Haas Pavilion on campus.


Louisville (10-1) and Cal (7-2) have met once before...the winner advancing to the 2013 NCAA Championship game. The Cards took a 64-57 win over the Golden Bears in New Orleans Arena after trailing by 10 at halftime. This one was tied with 1:51 remaining after Layshia Clarendon dropped a three on Louisville....but Louisville outscored UC 7-0 the rest of the way to advance.

Of particular concern for the Cards today will be the tandem of seniors Brittany Boyd and Reshanda Gray. Boyd, a 5'9" point guard,  leads the NCAA with 8.9 assists per contest and averages 14.1 ppg and 8.1 rebounds. She and Gray are also on the John L. Wooden Award Women's Preseason Top 30, the WBCA's Wade Watch List and the Naismith Top 50 Watch List. 

Gray brings 19.2 ppg to the stat sheets per contest and is

the Bears leading scorer. She dropped 37 on Sacramento State earlier this month. The 6'3" forward goes to the boards with abandon and will be a matchup problem for the Cards. 

Gabby Green, a former Louisville recruiting target, has stepped in as a freshman and seen considerable playing time for Lindsay Gottlieb.

It's a homecoming for Mariya Moore...who played her high school ball in the shadow of the Berkeley campus and Arica Carter is also a California native from San Diego. Both freshman will be heavily involved in trying to curtail the strong UC guard contingent. 

Cal has dropped their last two outings...and Lindsey Gottlieb has never lost three in a row during her tenure on the Berkeley campus. Cal hasn't defeated a ranked opponent yet this season. 

The Cards will need to play a much better game than their

last outing against GCU. Free throws must improve and shots attempted in the paint must fall...especially those second chance opportunities. We're hoping the GCU contest served as a wake up call to Walz's charges...all expectations are that there will be a large pro-Cal crowd in attendance today because of the many promotions Cal Marketing has attached to this afternoon's tilt. 

We'll have the recap later tonight. This one is scheduled to be live on the Pac-12 Networks and Cards Radio 790 WKRD with Matt Andrews and AJ will have the call on the radio. If you are a Time Warner subscriber...the Pac 12 Network can be found at 530

This one promises to be a tight battle and could evolve into a track meet...given both teams' propensity for putting points on the scoreboard. For Louisville to take the "W"...it'll require the Cards best effort of the season so far. 

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Speaking of effort, we encourage you to give it that old

college try and listen to our latest broadcast of the CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR. It's archived on Crescent Hill's Soundcloud and available now. Paulie and Worldwide Jeff talk hoops past and present and Jeff plummets into the Grand Canyon with his woeful performance on THE WORLDWIDE QUIZ. 

Don Paulie stops in to spread a little Christmas cheer and Coach Walz delivers another lesson to Paulie...this time about the irrelevance of social media and ambiguity of statistics. Plus...you get three minutes of pre-show bonus audio (unknown to us) where we discuss height, the WCC and Argentina.   Linkie below:

CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO DEC.20TH BROADCAST