Basketball Aces Evansville
UofL took it to the Purple Aces down in the paint, with 44 points in the paint vs EU's 16. Its good that they were able to get points going inside because the outside shooting was unimpressive, with the only three point shots for the Cards being the two of four contributed by Jude for a disappointing 13.3% team 3-point shooting average. The inside game was also evident in rebounding, with a 45-26 rebounding margin for UofL, resulting in 12 2nd chance points vs UE's 1...I'm not sure how you get a single second chance point, but that's what UE was credited for in the first half.
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| "Paulie...Three is better than two and seven for eight could be the basis for a new Walzian theory on the significance of free throws" |
The only other Cards scorer in double figures was Bria Smith with 11. She also added three assists, a block, and a pair of steals to her stat totals. Nearly all players got some good playing minutes, with the only players that didn't get double-digit minutes being Sheronne Vails, who just missed out with 9 minutes, and Ariana Freeman who played for the last 3 minutes.
Cortnee Walton was dressed and available for play, but some soreness in her foot left her on the bench for the game. In post-game comments, Walz suggested that her broken toe may not yet be fully healed and will be evaluated again medically. Walton can play in the Georgia Tech and Pitt games and still qualify for a medical redshirt.
Cortnee Walton was dressed and available for play, but some soreness in her foot left her on the bench for the game. In post-game comments, Walz suggested that her broken toe may not yet be fully healed and will be evaluated again medically. Walton can play in the Georgia Tech and Pitt games and still qualify for a medical redshirt.
Attendance was listed as 7909.
So...this concludes the non-conference schedule for this season, along with closing out the year of 2014. With the brand new year comes brand new challenges as UofL WBB embarks on ACC play for the first time. Georgia Tech comes into the KFC Yum! Center Friday evening, January 2nd, at 7pm. If you're still recovering from New Year's celebrations, you can catch this one on ESPN3.
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Hey Paulie what was up with the platoon system in the second half? Has Jeff Walz been watching John Calipari?
ReplyDeleteBlue Lou
This was explained in the post-game comments...tune in Saturday to the radio show to hear them, and hear Bria willingly take the blame for one of them...they had emphasized guarding the inbounding player on out-of-bounds plays. If the first past after the inbounds went back to the inbounding player, Walz told them he would take all 5 out. Apparently that's exactly what happened...twice.
DeleteThe official response by Coach (from a question bravely put forth by Cardinal Couple's own Paulie during the post-game presser) :
Delete(On substituting five players at the same time to start the second half)
“I just told them, we were trying to trap the inbounds pass right there, and I told them if we allowed them to throw it back to the inbounder, I was taking all five of them out. And they allowed them to throw it back to the inbounder, and I took all five out. That’s all there was to it. Those are things when you’re trying to emphasize to your players of you want to be aggressive and try to trap that inbounds pass, you can’t let it be thrown right back to the inbounder. And you’d think when you tell them before they go out there that I’m going t take you all out if you let it happen, you’d let them throw it to somebody else besides her. But unfortunately that wasn’t the case.”
The Aces were on a 5-0 run when Walz brought in the five subs. Over a five minute run the subs were outscored by Evansville 12-10. Walz should have countered by playing Freeman, Walton, Syd the Kid (with one crutch), Sam Purcell and Jennifer Lawrence for a five minute stretch.
DeleteCurtis Franklin
Your girl Jen-Law couldn't have played. She was too busy filling her face with Papa Eli's day-old baked tomato and burnt bread with Terry Mein-Fuhrer there to wipe her face. Is this another sequel to Hunger games? Jen-Law eats her way out of a sinking building down by the Ohio River?
DeleteMatthew Mitchell for Governor
And The Gov makes an appearance...Kinda brave considering the 21 point spanking that the Dookies laid on his Kitty Kats a week ago and then Duke turns around and gets slaughtered by 31 against UConn last night. Now I didn't major in math and The Gov can only count to 40 even with his shoes off but that rolls up to 52 points. Suffice it to say that the Kittys should be ready for a serious wake up call when they take on South Carolina in a week and a half. Hopefully the Gov will give us an enthusiastic postmortem.
DeleteBy the way it's only a rumor but I heard that UK had it all worked out to bring their big media star to game also but at the last minute Jurich discovered that the Yum suites have a weight limit and will only allow one bale of hay per attendee per game so it fell apart. Maybe next year.
Well if Duke lost by that much they will only beat Louisville by 30 then. If Jeff Walz was a banker and there was a holdup in progress he would be right at home yelling --Tell the guards not to shoot!-- Anyone in the ACC with a three star guard will figure out that the dribble drive will net them 20 plus points against Louisville. Keep shooting threes Sara Hambone! Opponents will love the easy rebounding opportunities.
DeleteMatthew Mitchell for Governor
We're looking forward to playing Duke and we'll live with the results. If Walz was a Banker instead of a great tourney coach then maybe the Kitty Kats would have made a NCAA final four at least once in the history of their program, but it probably wouldn't have made a difference.
DeleteWhile I'll admit losing to your Kittys is getting old I'm betting that Coach Mitchell would be happy to trade every one of those wins for a single final four appearance. Walz and the Lady Cards will continue to get better every game and be ready to rock in the tourney. I just hope we get another shot at UK when it actually matters. Speaking of rebounding while I know numbers can be confusing to you the Cards are #6 in the nation. Your Kittys are #27.
In the interim you folks should try to stay focused over the next three games so you avoid another loss to an unranked foe and then prepare to get schooled on the 11th.
Hopefully we'll see you again in the tourney.
Oh, yeah! We've love another matchup in the NCAA. It means UK would advance! Good luck in your bowl game tonight, BTW. Georgia 44 - UofL 14.
DeleteMatthew Mitchell for Governor.
You're killin me Gov. UK goes 5 - 7 (including big wins over UT Martin & Ohio) and then loses six straight to end the season & you're trying to bust chops on our bowl game. Nice try. As expected the closest UK got to a bowl game this year was sitting in front of the TV. Here's a football strategy that'll work better for you folks...think D2.
DeleteAs far as a WBB rematch in the NCAA's, be careful what you wish for pardner.
Hilarious Matthew Mitchell for Governor! Well done. Kentucky kicked our rear ends and they deserve the credit . We should not be ranked ahead of them. Still, who knows what can happen tournament time like BurnBrother said. There's a whole lot of time to improve.
DeletePersonally I'd prefer we never play Kentucky again, Want no part of that team and how they stomp on us. I'm not even confident we win next year with Asia Durr on the team.
DeleteBoth the U of L and UK WBB programs are national in scope. Last year we were a missed jump shot away from our third final four in six seasons. UK hasn't ever been within spitting distance of a final four much less a national championship game. The best they've done was one sweet sixteen appearance.
DeleteIn spite of some inconsistency this season our Cards haven't lost to an unranked opponent, unlike UK. That’s primarily due to coaching and team depth. If and when we lose to an unranked squad maybe UK should be considered to be ranked higher than us depending on their then current record, but not till then.
We've got sixteen conference games now to get ready for the tourney. While I don't expect to go undefeated in league play everyone should remember that the last time we went to the national championship game we had lost eight games.
UK didn't stomp on us this year. As I recall they didn’t stomp on us last year either. They came back, we missed a bunch of easy shots that we shouldn’t have and they won the game. Good for them. Doesn't make them scary or unbeatable particularly when it comes to the tourney. They have yet to outperform expectations when it matters most. Our Cards have consistently outperformed expectations in the NCAAs.
Until Mitchell proves he’s a great tourney coach and his team can over deliver in the NCAAs they’re still the second best WCBB program in the State.
Looks like Jude got her groove going. Good Timing! Thought Megan and E looked good too. Looking forward to conference play.
ReplyDeleteTwo more top 25 teams got beat by unranked squads yesterday; Texas A&M (5) and Nebraska (12). That's five in two days. Don't know if it's due to improved parity or something else but it's keeping things interesting.
I think that is Jude's 3rd game in a row that "Jude got her groove going". I am happy for her as we knew she had the ability but earlier appeared to be over pressuring herself to perform.
DeleteI agree. So important for her to continue to help on offense and score with 3 pointers, drives and jumpers. Good players do that
DeleteI think that if possible Cortnee should be redshirted for the season.
ReplyDeleteI think she should be able to show what she can do after being able to fully participate in practices as she has a lot of upside ability that can't occur while hampered with a non-fully healed toe.
I think you're not alone in thinking that. Walz touched on that idea a bit in post-game comments, which we'll play on the radio show Saturday. The good thing about this is that they don't have to decide until after the Pitt game...so if she can play, she can play Friday in the GT game and in the Pitt game and still redshirt. Of course, if, at any point during the rest of the season after that, they can change their miind and play her and forgo the redshirt, but I think there's starting to be a consensus that they should get the redshirt for her and let her come back fully healthy, and having had the opportunity to fully participate in practices.
DeleteHope they redshirt her. Courney's getting better and better and will be more valuable and stronger next year for us. Not sure if that's fair to her. There is already a logjam now at forward for minutes.
DeleteSince ACC action is about to begin does anyone know why Clemson doesn't have Charmaine Tay on roster this year. Should have been her Senior year
ReplyDeleteShe is now a musician:
DeleteFrom The Basement
Maineyy
Released November 29, 2014
Charmaine Tay from New Jersey and former Louisville/Clemson PG, shows her musical side with her debut project, From The Basement!
Here's my unsolicited prediction for ACC standings this year
ReplyDelete1. Notre Dame
2. Duke
3. Florida State
4. North Carolina
5. Syracuse
6. Louisville
7. Georgia Tech
8. Virginia
9. NC State
10. Miami
11. Clemson
12. Boston College
13.Wake Forest
14. V Tech
15. Pittsburgh
The rest who knows.