Louisville women's basketball -- Where Do We Go From Here?/Games People Play -- MONDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS HAVE FUTURE AND FATE FOR 2016-17
IN FRONT OF THEM




I heard this classic from the Alan Parsons Project on Christmas Day when we were on the road. Give it a listen...it's a great song! It started me thinking (always a dangerous thing) about what lies ahead for the Cards WBB squad (and the ACC foes) as they come out of the Christmas break and the team
gets ready for conference and tournament play.


(Just as a side note...I actually met "the man" himself in the airport in Atlanta back in the late eighties...we were both waiting for a flight to Miami and had a pleasant conversation for about an hour about music and his works...I never knew he worked on Beatles albums and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album or that he wasn't much of a sports fan.) I figured with Games People Play...but I was wrong. 

Okay, enough of Paulie Irrelevant Musical Reminisces. Off to hoops we go! 

It was good for the players (we hope) and the staff to have a little while
to see family and friends over Christmas. We know most of the Cards flew
out of Nashville the morning after the win at Vandy or came back to Louisville
and departed from there. They probably didn't meet Alan Parsons but they'll start arriving back on campus today and begin preparations for Thursday's ACC opener against "Q" and the Cuse. We're hoping the players had a good respite at home. The games these people play start up again in a dizzying flurry in a few days. 

Coach Sam Purcell's outfit for Easter? 

Trips home can be a blessing and a curse. I wonder if Mariya and Minyon Moore did some comparison notes on their seasons so far. Did Briahanna Jackson guard the turkey and ham to make sure no one got any before Christmas dinner was ready to serve? Was Asia Durr deftly tossing dinner rolls across the table with precise accuracy to the rest of the family? Did anyone beat the speedy Jazmine Jones to the table? Did Myisha Hines-Allen control the stuffing and block everyone from getting dessert? 

Then, there's the "why aren't you playing more?" or "how did (so-and-so) beat you?" questions. A bit of the good and bad mixed in. The trip home was, hopefully, nurturing and restoring in spirit for what lies ahead. 

So...what does loom ahead for these Cards? Where will they go from here? In this case...the "games people play" turn into ACC contests and the drive to get a nice seeding in the NCAA Tournament. It's hard to believe there are only 17 games left until the ACC Tournament in March in the Hooterville/Bugtussle Memorial Warehouse in Conway, SC. 

The Cards get to the heavy shoveling right off the bat when "Q" brings his defending NCAA WBB runner-up squad to the Bucket on Thursday, Dec.29th. Probably a less than satisfying start for these Orange at 9-3...especially after their stumble-and-spilling-all-the-eggnog effort against Texas A&M in Florida.

(Didn't get the Red Ryder BB gun?) 

They have Peterson, my 'name-sake' Sykes, the tall Day twins and "Slim" plus a few others back
from that championship quest and I'm betting they'll have a major voice in the clamoring for Elite Eight and better slots in late March. The Cards are 8-6 against Syracuse in the all-time series...knocking the pulp out of the Orange 71-53 at the Orange Dome last year and then falling to them 80-75 in a game in the ACC Tournament I'm pretty sure most of the Cards would like to forget. 


So how do you list this one...category-wise on the KFC YUM! Center list of events? Sports, comedy or entertainment? 

After the "Brother Q travelling prime-time road revival medicine show and revue" exits the YUM!...so do the Cards for a couple of days...making a stop in the Cameron Indoor Stadium to check in on Becca Greenwell and JoAnne P first. Another tough game...the Dookies are #17 in the nation and are 11-1...getting sunk by the Commodores in that quaint little barnyard by the Duke Chapel and Forest. The journey continues to Charlottesville, VA after that...facing a Virginia Cavaliers bunch that is 9-2 (losses to St John and Northwestern) and has another JoAnne head coach. Someone in the ACC scheduling phone booth has a sense of flair for humor, I guess. 

We'd love to see Louisville emerge 3-0 out of the stretch of the schedule because it doesn't get any easier after it. It is, after all, the ACC and despite Vanderbilt head coach Stephanie White's claim that her conference is the toughest in the land.....we'll respectfully disagree and point to the conference that had seven teams in the latest Top 25 poll. 

Alex, let's go to toughest conferences in college sports for $1000. What is ACC women's basketball? 

It is very pleasant and almost spring-like in Louisville, KY this morning, if you ignore the gusting breeze blowing. A high expected in the 70's...a possible record warmth temperature for this day in Louisville meteorological history.

A calm before the storm? A brief lull in the battle? Definitely a change in the weather, though, in terms of scheduling ahead...as a storm front rolls into Lamar Jackson's college town beginning Thursday. 

any gifts to return? or gifs? 
paulie
xxxxx