Worldwide's Holiday Wish List -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas to Cards fans the world over.  I was, as I suspect most of our reader was, raised in a Christian tradition.  So Merry Christmas to you.  To those who celebrate in other religious traditions, Happy Hanukkah, Habari Gani, blessed Kwanzaa  and even Happy Festivus!

It is at this season in the year when we almost a habitually look back to review the year past, and look to the new year and make plans and wish for better.  The general consensus seems to be that 2016 was mostly a dumpster fire, so let's look to the future.

So here are my Christmahanukwanzikah Cardinal wishes.  And I may throw in a Festivus Airing of a Grievance just for good measure.

Free Throw Shooting

I like the letter "F".  It's a fine letter.  It's fun, it's fancy, it has plenty of typographic features.  It's footloose and fancy-free, and it's free to all.  I would dearly love to give away some genuine Cardinal Couple "F"'s to the Women's Basketball team.  We just need to hit some stinkin' free throws.  I think at this point, Paulie would probably even award a lower-case "f" for free throw percentages in the 65% range just as a measure of good faith.  Get your shots up over the break, please.  Let's F this place up!

Deep Runs

I've become quite the fan of Lacrosse and Field Hockey over my years of writing (and radio show co-hosting) for Cardinal Couple.  These are two teams that have remarkably similar circumstances overall.  They have been steadily building their respective programs in recent years into national powerhouses, they both compete in an ACC conference lineup that is far and away the dominant conference in the land for their respective sports, and they both have struggled to get beyond the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament.

Let's keep in mind, however, that these tournaments are among the smaller NCAA sports tournaments.  Field Hockey has had only 18 teams in the past couple of years and Lacrosse, 24.  That means even the opening rounds of these tournaments are already very stiff competition.  There is no shame whatsoever in the success of these two teams over the past couple of years, but man oh man wouldn't it be magically if they could go at least a couple of rounds deeper into their tournament runs.

Think of the lift that would provide to these programs.

A New Day

It's a new dawn, a new day, and I'm feeling good (with apologies to Michael Bublé), about UofL
Volleyball.  2016 was a pretty tough year to be a volleyball fan at UofL, but we've got a new head coach and associate head coach.  We can look forward to another great hire to assistant coach, and we're looking for a new resurgence in this program.  For now, I'm not asking for miracles and immediate national championships...though I certainly wouldn't turn one down.  I want to see this program built, like the Lacrosse and Field Hockey programs have done, over time to be a perennial national powerhouse.  I think we've got the potential to do it, we've got a coach, who in typical Tom Jurish fashion, is being given a shot to prove herself.   I don't think Dani plans to miss her chance or throw away this shot.  (Thanks, Eminem, and Lin-Manual Miranda)  Let's start with just asking for a great season of volleyball.  I'm not asking for a national championship, or even necessarily a deep run in the NCAA.  Let's build this program right and get it on an upward trajectory.

A Wish and a Grievance

I've hit this topic before, so I'll keep this one short, but I still see this happen, so I like to keep the idea on this one out there.

The student-athletes at the University of Louisville represent the school, they are Louisville Cardinals...all of them.  Some schools will delineate their women's teams by calling them "The Lady Mascots" (fill in the mascot of choice for the school), sometimes to some comical effect ("Lady Bulls"?).  UofL makes a distinct point of not doing that.  All of the student-athletes at UofL are "Cardinals" plain and simple.  To call the men's teams "The Cardinals", and the women's team "The Lady Cardinals" would give the appearance and impression that the men's team are more representative of the school and program than the women's team are.

Please, let's try to stamp out the usage of "Lady Cards" when it comes to UofL.  If other teams wish to call their teams Lady Bulls, or Lady Vols, or Lady Whatevers then that's their choice.  UofL has chosen to be bold in supporting the women's teams at UofL and present them as full representatives of the school, let's support them in that.  This is reflective of the deep commitment and approach to women's athletics at UofL, where there is no distinction drawn between the different programs, and their support within the athletic department.  I, for one, am proud of how UofL handles this.

A Radio Break

We're taking a break from radio this week, due to Christmas Eve commitments for us and Kathy, the amazing engineer that produces the show for us at WCHQ.  We hope to be back on the air next week with plenty of basketball to catch up on.

-- JMcA