Louisville women's Basketball -- Ramblin' Wreck will try to sting Cards tonight -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDS, GEORGIA TECH BATTLE IN YUM! TONIGHT.

It is a rare Wednesday night game for the University of Louisville women's basketball squad...only the third of the season...and the only ACC match-up on tap tonight...Louisville looking to pick up their 100th. win in the KFC YUM! Center and go to 17-4 and 5-2 in conference. Who was the first team Louisville WBB beat in the YUM?

 Answer at the end of today's article...

It seems the men's squad has the YUM! booked for Thursday night and a showdown against Clemson on ESPN. Whatever happened to the good ol' days of double-headers?  Too much season-ticket holder conflict, I suppose...

The foe for Jeff Walz's squad is Georgia Tech. Known as the Yellow Jackets or the Ramblin' Wreck...they come to the YUM! on a two-game conference win streak, having knocked off Syracuse last time out. G.T. is an engineering school, which will draw nods of approval from my two writers and co-hosts on The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour Jeff "Worldwide" McAdams and Case Hoskins...they spent their college time in the halls of Louisville's Speed School pursuing engineering academics. 

The Georgia Tech WBB official radio broadcast station for games is WREK 91.1 F.M. Yeah, they're ate up with this whole 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe, right? 

wrek.com  I'm surprised some attorney hasn't bought that domain...

Or, as R. Lee Ermey said in the movie FULL METAL JACKET...

"Engineers? You go out and find land mines, Cowboy." 

These flying pests/old vehicles/engineers will look to sting, run over and set a couple of land mines for the UofL WBB squad tonight and pick up their biggest win of the season against a Cardinal squad they are 0-3 against lifetime...including a regular season and ACC Tournament loss last year. Mariya Moore enjoyed facing the Yellow Jackets last year...she had 25 points in the Atlanta game and 11 in the ACC Tournament.

Sam in his Techster stint...

Sam Purcell could tell you a thing or two about Atlanta and Georgia Tech. The Louisville assistant was there from 2007-13 as video coordinator and assistant coach under current coach MaChelle Joseph. A native of Dalton, GA "The Carpet Capital of the World" located right off I-75 in northern Georgia...Purcell has already suffered through the 68-93 Atlanta Braves season and will sadly watch his Atlanta Falcons fall to the Green Bay Packers this weekend in the NFC Championship Game. (Predictions and comments for entertainment purposes only...)

Georgia Tech (13-4, 2-2) started the ACC slate hosting and losing to Notre Dame and Duke. Both were losses and the Techsters have also fallen to Michigan (by 40) and Alabama this season. They did win the Junkaroo Jam at the end of November with wins over Dayton and Missouri, won the battle of Atlanta with a win over Georgia State and also knocked off Georgia. 

Tech is 10th is scoring offense in the ACC at 66.8 ppg. They hold opponents to 59.2 ppg. Their free throw shooting % is the worst in the league at .574 and field goal % second worst at .396. They do go to the offensive boards well...second in the ACC with 16.8 offensive grabs a contest but are second-to-last in defensive rebounds with 23.6 a night. Georgia Tech is 14th in the conference in assists with 188 in 16 games. 

( all stats are through games of 1/13/17) 

"Gimme something to throw!'" 

Girls to watch (or Girls on Film, I suppose...if you're a Duran Duran fan) would include Francesca Pan...a 6'1" freshman guard. She's been the ACC Rookie of the Week three times this season...including the last two weeks in a row. She averages 11.2 ppg and is from Bassano del Grappa, Italy. 

Kaylan Pugh has only played in six games this year for Tech and Joseph, she sat out the mandatory year after transferring in from Ohio State...but has had a big impact. The sophomore scored 28 points against Syracuse and is averaging 13.3 a game. Imani Tilford checks in at 9.4 ppg. She saw action against the Cards twice last year...getting 9 points in Atlanta and 8 in Greensboro. Zaire O'Neil played against the Cards also last year...scoring 7 in the McCarnish Pavilion and 8 in the first round of the ACC Tournament. Charin Scott is a 6'0" freshman guard that has also been named ACC Rookie of the Week once...and may be the best rebounding guard on the Yellow Jackets. 


Georgia Tech has a strong international presence on their roster. Besides Pan from Italy, they have 6'4" freshman forward Anne Francoise Diouf (Senegal), 6'3" senior forward Katarina Vuckovic (Serbia), 6'2" redshirt junior forward Elo Edefericka (Nigeria), 6'3" junior center Simina Avram (Romania), 6'3" sophomore forward Chelsea Guimares (Portugal) and 5'9" junior guard Antonia Peresson (Italy) on the roster.

Have fun with all that tonight, Nick and Don... 

The Cards will need to continue the strong rebounding effort they put up against Miami tonight and hopefully the hot shooting of Mariya Moore will be in place as well for Jeff Walz's squad. Georgia Tech has 11 players who see nine of more minutes per contest...so we'll see if the Cards match the check-in frenzy at the scorer's table and go deep into their reserve holdings tonight. Will tonight be the night we see the trio of Hines-Allen, Moore and Durr all have a good game in the same contest? We'd also like to see Briahanna Jackson flying about with her usual intensity and Cortnee Walton strong on the boards and making some close-in shots and put-backs. Valuable contributing efforts from Jazmine Jones, Sam Fuehring, Kylee Shook and both Johnson's would be a wonderful and welcome thing as well. (We're not asking for too much here...are we?) 

"Thank you!" 

Consistency is the keyword around the Louisville locker room and we'd like to see a strong 40 minute effort out of the Cards tonight in their 21st. game of the year. It's hard to believe Louisville has already played 2/3rd of their regular season schedule...with 11 games left until ACC Tournament time. After tonight's contest, the Cards play five out of their next six on the road. Trips to USF, Clemson and Pittsburgh..a home game against NC State and travels to Notre Dame and Virginia Tech lie ahead for Louisville. 

Game time is 7 p.m. Matt and AJ will have their always excellent radio broadcast on 790 Cards Radio WKRD and my buddies Don Russell and Sara White will handle the ACC Network Extra duties. We strongly urge you to make the trip downtown tonight if you can to watch this one and we'll have the recap of all the action here tomorrow. 



Answer to the question about Louisville WBB's first win in the KFC YUM! Center? It was against Houston Baptist 100-34 on November 17, 2010.



Below are the words to the Georgia Tech Fight song and a recorded version of it. I wonder if we could get Al Greener and the Pep Band to strike it up tonight?

Sing along if you care...it's a catchy little ditty. Coach Walz would probably be OK if Sam Purcell took to the microphone and belted out a version of it during halftime, right? Choreograph it with the LadyBirds and the cheer-leaders and...OK, never mind...probably a bad idea. 

LINK:  Ramblin Wreck From Georgia Tech

ANOTHER CREATIVE DITTY FROM THE TECHSTERS:

TO HELL WITH GEORGIA




I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer,
A helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer,
Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear,
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer.
Oh, if I had a daughter, sir, I'd dress her in White and Gold,
And put her on the campus, to cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir, I'll tell you what he'd do.
He would yell, "To Hell with Georgia," like his daddy used to do.
Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum and sugar three thousand pounds,
A college bell to put it in and a clapper to stir it around.
I'd drink to all good fellows who come from far and near.
I'm a ramblin', gamblin', hell of an engineer.




😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇

Our Rowing 101 lessons continue today. Thanks to the Louisville rowing squad for these Tuesday lessons on Twitter. Today, we review "finish"

👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽


PAULIE PICKS

-- I'll take the Cards over Georgia Tech tonight. Of course I will. 

For Thursday: 

-- Notre Dame at Boston College. We'll go with the Irish here. No need to explain.

-- Virginia at Clemson. This had promised to be a battle of the beaten but Virginia did win at Boston College Sunday. I think Virginia will win again at Clemson

-- Virginia Tech at Duke. Maybe the toughest game to predict Thursday night. Duke looked horrible in their loss to NC State Sunday but I think they'll rebound at home and take care of the Gobblers. Duke wins.

-- Wake Forest at North Carolina. The Demon Decons came very close to beating Virginia Tech Sunday. I don't think the home court advantage will be enough for Sylvia's TarHeels and W.F.U gets the "W" 

-- Syracuse at Florida State. Syracuse continues their southern sojourn and visits Chief Osceola's princesses. They won't be able to exchange oranges for a win here and FSU takes this one. 



I'm a rambling wreck this morning...for sure...and could use a strong finish (or danish).
Paulie
xxxxx