Men Win, Ladies Play Today -- SUNDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Hosts Evansville

As the college basketball preaseason wraps up, the ladies in Cardinal Red will be taking on their 3rd opponent in the last five days and fourth in the last eight days when they host Evansville today at 2PM. After a beat down of College of Charleston, the Cards will be taking on the Purple Aces, who are likely to be over-matched. Evansville is on a four game win streak, but remain under .500 after starting the game on an 0-5 skid. Louisville is the only ranked team on their schedule, so Evansville is sure to play this game with a bit of heart, but it is hard to imagine that they can pull off the upset. This game can be found on the ACC Network Extra, and I'm sure Paulie will have a full write-up for you tomorrow. If you aren't busy, head on down to the Yum! Center today to check out the ladies if you haven't yet. Parking at meters is free on Sundays, so if you can brave the cold, they'll have a warm seat waiting for you inside.

MBB Handles EKU; UK Looms

Although the Cards started off slow against the Colonels yesterday, a 30-4 run to end the first half essentially put the game away for Louisville. Rick Pitino's squad led 36-16 at the half, and things didn't improve for EKU from there. Three Colonels did manage to finish in double figures, but they were over-matched as the final score was 87-56.

The big one is coming. The Kentucky Wildcats will find themselves in the Yum! Center at an unusual time. Because of the way the holidays fell this year, the Louisville vs Kentucky game is on a weeknight. When the Cats come to town on Wednesday, Louisville will need to put together a full 40 minutes of basketball to have a shot. A slow start in either half would likely spell doom against yet another talented group put together by John Calipari. The biggest thing the Cards have going for them will likely be a concept called "defense" which this year's iteration of the Wildcats have yet to figure out. Kentucky gave up 97 points to UCLA in a home loss and beat UNC 103-100 yesterday in the Champions Classic. Louisville has had problems scoring, but if they can slow Kentucky's offense down, they should be able to put up some points on the Cats.

No team has swept the football and basketball games since Louisville in 2012. Louisville has owned the gridiron while Kentucky has had a grip on the hardwood. Louisville will need to figure something out Wednesday night to avoid the sweep, and they'd love to start the gauntlet that they face in the coming weeks with a win.

Radio 

The Cardinal Couple Radio hour rebroadcast is up on the SoundCloud for your listening pleasure. Worldwide and Paulie talked a lot of  Louisville women's basketball. There is also some great holiday-themed blurbs from Monk...plus player and coach comments from the last three game. The show will not be on 12/24.  Give today's a listen at the link below: 

link: THE CARDINAL COUPLE 12-17-16 BROADCAST

That's All, Folks

It's a short one for me today. The EKU game wasn't much to talk about, and the Women's game hasn't happened yet. There will be more to talk about next week when we have a result from the rivalry game and the bowl game draws nearer. I'm out of the studio again this week because I'll be out of town for the holidays, but I'll finally have some new music when I return. I wish you all a happy and safe holiday season.

Until next time, Go Cards.

-CH-