ACC Tournament...New Venue, Same Teams -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

15 TEAMS CONVERGE ON CONWAY

( I'm back  from the anniversary/birthday extended weekend with Sonja...fully reinvigorated and ready for the hoops barrage.) 

The University of Louisville women's basketball team leaves for Conway, SC today to take part in the 2017 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Basketball Tournament in the HTC Center on the Coastal Carolina campus. 

Jeff Walz has called a 11:30 a.m. press conference today. He'll discuss the upcoming five day event. The Cards will start their quest to make it to the finals for the first time on Thursday...when they face the winner of Wednesday match-up between #12 seed Virginia Tech and #13 seed Clemson. Louisville gets the first game of the day on Thursday...playing at 11 a.m. The first game of the tournament is Virginia Tech vs. Clemson and it starts at 1 p.m. Wednesday. 

-- Interesting factoid #1 . The practice schedules have been released for the 15 teams. Louisville will practice Wednesday at 9:15 in the Kimbel Gym...not in the HTC Center. So will Florida State on Thursday. I'm guessing it's something like Cardinal Arena. 

-- Interesting factoid #2. Duke will practice at home, in the Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Looking at the bracket (and I will put one up here at the end of the article)...the Cards get 11 a.m. games two days in a row. If they advance to the semifinals, they'd play at noon Saturday and the finals are at 1 p.m. Sunday. 

If anyone is interested in a ACC Bracket Challenge, either leave your picks in the comments section or e-mail them to us at cardinalcouple@twc.com  I'll hit a couple of folks up for $25 gift cards for this and the NCAA Tournament Bracket Challenge. No entry fee, of course...for entertainment purposes only. 14 games, one point for picking correctly. Tie-breaker goes to the earliest entry. 

Sonja offers her picks. She usually does pretty well in this one. 

1st round: Clemson over Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech over Boston College, UNC over Pitt.
2nd round: Louisville over Clemson, Virginia over Wake Forest, Miami over Georgia Tech, Syracuse over UNC. 
Quarters: Louisville over NC State, Notre Dame over Virginia, Florida State over Miami, Syracuse over Duke
Semis:  Notre Dame over Louisville, Syracuse over Florida State
Finals: Syracuse over Notre Dame. 

It'll be interesting to see what Coastal Carolina and the HTC Center is all about. 
3370 is the listed capacity...so it should be easier to get around than the Greensboro Coliseum.  Getting to Conway should be interesting as well. I expect I'll just follow the signs to either Myrtle Beach or CCU. I'll be using my Google map on my smartphone. Yep...recipe for disaster.



The HTC is officially known as The Horry Telephone Cooperative Student Recreation and Convocation Center. That's a bunch to put on a letterhead...I get the abbreviation. I'm also trying to remember the last time I went to a convocation... 

I've been told it's about a nine hour drive from Louisville to Myrtle Beach. To catch the opener, I expect I'll need to leave around 2-3 a.m. We'll see how that works out. Maybe someone will give me round-trip airline passage. I'm not holding my breath on that one. 

I'm going to try and do a podcast each night and put it on Soundcloud...with a link to it on the daily articles as well. First one would be Wednesday night. What'll be on them...I have no idea. If the weather's good, they may be from the beach. Also, I'll try and get Walz's presser today up for listening in Wednesday's article. 

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HINES-ALLEN ACC PLAYER OF WEEK

Myisha Hines-Allen received the final regular season ACC Player of the Week Award. It's the second time this season she's been bestowed the honor. She had a great week...with 21 points and nine rebounds against Virginia and 22 points and 12 rebounds against Wake Forest. 

She'll be a key component if the Cards are going to dance for awhile in March. 


ALL ACC-TEAMS ANNOUNCED

2016-17 All-ACC Team as selected by the Blue Ribbon Panel

First Team

Lexie Brown, Jr., G, Duke

Rebecca Greenwell, R-Jr., G, Duke

Leticia Romero, Sr., G, Florida State

Shakayla Thomas, Jr., F, Florida State

Asia Durr, So., G, Louisville

Myisha Hines-Allen, Jr., F, Louisville

Lindsay Allen, Sr., G, Notre Dame

Brianna Turner, Jr., F, Notre Dame

Alexis Peterson, Sr., G, Syracuse

Brittney Sykes, R-Sr., G, Syracuse

Second Team

Mariya Moore, Jr., F, Louisville

Adrienne Motley, Sr., G, Miami

Jessica Thomas, Sr., G, Miami

Miah Spencer, Sr., G, NC State

Dominique Wilson, Sr., G, NC State

All-ACC Freshman Team

Kobi Thornton, Fr., P, Clemson

Leaonna Odom, Fr., F, Duke

Francesca Pan, Fr., G, Georgia Tech

Jackie Young, Fr., G, Notre Dame

Gabby Cooper, Fr., G, Syracuse

Dominique Toussaint Fr., G, Virginia

Jocelyn Willoughby, Fr., G, Virginia

Alex Sharp, Fr., G, Wake Forest

ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament | Conway, S.C. 

Wednesday, March 1 | First Round #13 seed vs. #12 seed .......................1:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) #15 seed vs. #10 seed ......................3:30 PM. (RSN | ACCN Extra) #14 seed vs. #11 seed .......................6:30 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) 

Thursday, March 2 | Second Round Game 1 Winner vs. #5 seed .............11:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) #9 seed vs. #8 seed ...........................2:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) Game 2 Winner vs. #7 seed ...............6:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) Game 3 Winner vs. #6 seed ...............8:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra)

 Friday, March 3 | Quarterfi nals Game 4 Winner vs. #4 seed .............11:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) Game 5 Winner vs. #1 seed ...............2:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) Game 6 Winner vs. #2 seed ...............6:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra) Game 7 Winner vs. #3 seed ...............8:00 PM (RSN | ACCN Extra)

 Saturday, March 4 - Semifi nals Game 8 Winner vs. Game 9 Winner ..........................Noon (ESPN2) Game 10 Winner vs. Game 11 Winner ................ 2:30 PM (ESPNU)

 Sunday, March 5 - Championship Game 12 Winner vs. Game 13 Winner ......................1 PM (ESPN2)



paulie
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