#17 MIAMI POSES TOUGH CHALLENGE FOR UOFL WBB
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| The team ran into Fat Joe at dinner last night. Hopefully. Louisville will feast again tonight. |
Miami attacks opponents in waves and has won four out of their last five...losing only to Notre Dame by 21 on Vaentine's Day in South Bend. The Canes really don't have any "bad" losses on their resume...an out-of-conference loss early in the season to #4 Baylor and conference losses at Virginia and to Syracuse and Florida State in Coral Gables.
The "U" can come at you in many directions. Adrienne Motley is the ACC's fourth leading scorer with 15.9 ppg. Jessica Thomas is a whirling-dervish guard who adds 11.6 a contest, leads Miami in assists and has a "say what?" 1.8 turnover ratio. Emese Hof touched Virginia Tech for 15 in the most recent Canes outing. Keyona Hayes shoots 56.3% from the floor and Laura Cornelius bombs in 46% of her three-point attempts. Erykah Davenport adds strength on the boards and Michelle Woods is an experienced and talented red-shirt senior guard.  |
| UM head coach Katie Meier...what are you trying to tell us? |
. Battle on the boards. Louisville has achieved their successes this season when Walton is winning the offensive rebound battles and the Cards are holding their own when the opponent misses shots. Louisville has a 37.8 to 31.5 edge in total rebounding over opponent this season. Losing the rebounding battle tonight could put an "L" on the Cards record. Myisha Hines-Allen needs double-digit grabs.
. Avoid the lapses. The Cards have had chances to deliver knockout punches to several opponents lately. They were successful in fourth quarter "pullaways" against Virginia, South Florida and Pitt. They couldn't shake their most recent opponent...Boston College. UofL needs to own the final ten minutes of this one tonight and consistency and avoiding the mental lapses are jobs one and two. . Get your "guards" up. Simply put, Louisville needs to get decent production tonight from the conglomerate of Carter, Jackson, Duur, Cole and Weatherford. It doesn't necessarily need to be scoring...but defense, passing, rebounding and assists are areas they'll need to be successful in if the shots aren't falling. UM's Thomas and Motley are one of the toughest guard combos the Cards will have faced this season. They need to be stifled.
Batten down the hatches and get out the ponchos....two strong systems collide in south Florida tonight in a encounter that could have significant implications on the seeding for the ACC Tournament. ESPN 3 has the feed for the game...we'll start out there but won't hesitate to go to Matt and AJ on 790 Cards Radio during the breaks, halftime or if the audio commentary is lacking. We can hope for...but probably won't get...some closeness and reasonable synchronicity between radio and internet feeds. We'll be back with the recap later tonight.
paulie
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Virginia beat Miami with Faith Randolph and a stifling defense. I watched that one on line earlier this year. I'm headed across the state to watch this one live tonight. I might also stop by Gulfstream Park for a few capitol ventures also. Have you got anything good going there today, Paulie?
ReplyDelete-- The Real Joe Hill --
Safe travels, Joe! Funny you should mention Gulfstream. I got a stable alert that Katie O (not the former UofL WBB star) is running in the 10th in a nice turf sprint race. Leparoux/Maker combination hard to beat. I'll keep an eye on Unbridled Courage in that race also. Castallano gets the ride there. Call me later if you get a chance, Joe. Haven't handicapped anything else there yet.
ReplyDeletePaulie
This will be a tough test tonight for the Cards. Getting on Miami's guards defensively is another key here. I hope our guards are up to the task.
ReplyDeleteCurtis Franklin
I must admit to some apprehension for this game. i would feel more secure if we were at home in the KFC/YUM! Center. I hope we are on our toes for this one.
ReplyDeletePaulie, I agree with pretty much everything you said except when you said that guards don't necessarily need to score. That third and fourth scorer to complement MM and MHA has to come from somewhere - hopefully Durr and Jackson. Walton will play her usual steady game but can't expect more than six or eight points from her.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that MHA will come to play. As I've said before, there can't be too many players in WBB that are playing better than she is right now.