CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE
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Sunday, March 5, 2017

Sunday Cardinal Couple - Not Notre Dame Day

Three Cardinals sports teams tangled with Notre Dame yesterday, and two of them came away on the wrong side of the win-loss divide.

MBB

The Men's Basketball team was the sole team to knock off Notre Dame, with a 71-64 win at the KFC Yum! Center on a Red-Out Senior Day.  The win was enough to cement the double bye for the men's team when they head to New York for the ACC Tournament.

WBB

On the women's side of things, however, Walz's squad couldn't get it done.  This was a tight affair through 3 quarters until the Irish were able to push out to the final 11 point margin in the 4th quarter.  The final score was 84-73.  The biggest lead by either team in the first 3 quarters was 7, but most of the time, the leads were below 5 point margins.

The big culprit here was turnovers...yes the bakery is fully up and running today with an inventory of 18 turnovers compared to NDs 5.  As you might expect with such a margin in turnovers, the points off turnovers stat is equally lopsided, 19-3, more than accounting for the margin of victory.

On the positive side, Myisha Hines-Allen had yet another double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds in 37 minutes of play.  Asia Durr and Mariya Moore went for the full 40.  Moore dropped 7 points...not nearly what she's capable of...but she contributed well in other ways with a team leading 8 assists and corralling 4 rebounds.  Durr was the biggest offensive engine on the team with 26 points, while also getting 4 assists and 5 rebounds.  Kylee Shook is finding her way back to some significant playing time, with 29 minutes on the court.  Those minutes will likely continue as she dropped 16 points in, but she really should be getting more than 5 rebounds.  That'll come with time and we have to remember that she is just a freshman, but time is running out to make a contribution in that are for this playing year.

The Cards now will wait to officially find out if they make the field for the NCAA tournament, which really isn't in much doubt.  But things are still very much in the air as to what sort of seeding they'll get.  Losing to the #3 ranked team in the country shouldn't hurt much, particularly after getting what is arguably an upset win over a very good NC State team.  The selection show will be Monday March 13th, at 7pm and it will be on ESPN.

Lacrosse

The other team to tangle with the Irish was the Lacrosse team, who went on the road to South Bend, and also couldn't get into the win column.  Though, as with seemingly all games against Notre Dame, this one was also a back and forth affair with Notre Dame eventually getting the win 9-7.

The high scorers for The Cards in this one were Meghan Siverson and Hannah Koloski, with each finding the net twice.  Notre Dame was generally able to generate more offense, though.  In addition to the scoreboard, their attack lead to 16 saves by Brittany Read between the pipes, while the Irish GK, Samantha Giacolon only stopped 9.  Notre Dame took 36 shots to Louisville's 19, though the Cards had a better on-target percentage, with 16 on goal, compared to the 25 from the Irish.

Ultimately, I think you can credit both teams with running good defenses, as neither really got the offense running at full speed for the full game.  Louisville does continue to be generally dominant in the draw control, coming down with 11 of them compared to Notre Dame's 6.  Credit mostly to Meghan Siverson for that with 5, and also to Heidi Smith with 3.

The Lax squad will be back in action against Duke back at home with first draw at high noon, right after The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour.

Radio

Speaking of the Cardinal Couple Radio hour, WCHQ was foolish enough to let us back on the radio again yesterday.  Paulie was away in Conway, SC covering the ACC Women's Basketball tournament action, but we did get him on the radio, so we could get good audio of the battle of the Notre Dame and UofL pep bands.  In the studio were myself, Case Hoskins, and our special guest Jared Anderson from River City Cards.  As always, you can check out the chaos on the soundcloud.

-- JMcA

23 comments:

  1. Paulie, You are very kind in your remarks as you do not post who had the turnovers and who was not shooting well. Unfortunately, and I have no explanation for it, but 7 for 28 shooting and 1 for 16 three point shooting is not helping this team in the last several games. Eight assists is excellent but not when coupled with 7 turnovers. Two players accounted for 11 of the 18 turnovers yesterday!! I agree with your comments about Kylee and rebounding although she is much more of a perimeter player than Hines-Allen and one would not expect as many rebounds, particularly offensive ones. My opinion? Too much ineffectual and at times very awkward dribbling. We need a point guard who can distribute the ball and that is an offensive threat. Perhaps help is on the way. Kylee, Jaz, and Sam will see a lot more playing time next year.

    Vance Smith

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. It was actually Worldwide's writeup but I know he'll appreciate the kind words. Walz agreed. Turnovers were the culprit. That area must improve.

      Paulie

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  2. Imho the cards played hard scoring wasn't the problem,turnover and poor rotation on defense was the key factor.
    Go Cards tighten up the loose ends.
    PS Cards minus a good point guard.
    MLW

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    Replies
    1. Freshman are justed freshman but there getting better.

      Delete
  3. One thing stood out for me today.


    Women just don't have good hands so knocking the ball loose from them is easier. Hines-Allen has about as good a pair of hands as you'll find on a female player, but yes, even she got it slapped away from her a couple of times today. I'm uncertain there's a lot you can do there. It's just part of the women's game. ND's defense did a good job of slapping at the ball a lot, adding to our TO problem.

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  4. I read this "women don't have good hands" nonsense over on the Walz World forums. Stupid to generalize like that, especially since there are numerous examples to counter that "logic"

    We need a PG. Yes Mariya has the best court vision and is excellent at finding the open player, but I think w/o a PG we're relying too heavily on Mariya to be the primary playmaker and thus she's committing a lot of turnovers as a result. BJ isn't exactly the answer, but having another ball handler that can penetrate the defense and make plays hopefully will alleviate some of the ball handler duties for Mariya and allow Asia to go back to playing off the ball - though I admit I like when Asia has the ball and is attacks and is aggressive.

    We miss Arica and even with not knowing how Cole would have panned out, we kinda miss her too. Charlie Creme has us in the Bridgeport bracket. That needs to change for us to have any chance to get to the sweet sixteen at least.

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  5. I hope Dana Evans is special. I don't like her size but maybe she will be a Jordin Canada but can shoot from outside too.

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    Replies
    1. I love her game, Wade. Down the road with her, Jazz, Sid and Lindsey Duvall in the back court is going to be special.

      Paulie

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    2. PG height doesn't matter. I give you Jefferson and Dangerfield as examples.

      Delete
  6. The turnovers killed us! We were lucky to stay in it as far as we did. We looked so good for a bit and then it became...well embarrassing. They girls are better then that and you need ALL five to contribute in some way and that was not happening on Saturday. I thought Asia was at times just throwing it up in a hurry for a desperate three that we didn't really need. What was needed was a play to be run....It was disappointing....But let's hope valuable lessons were learned.

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  7. Next years line up features mcdonald's All American starting lineup
    Dana Evans , Asia Durr, Mariya Moore,Myisha Hines-Allen & Kylee Shook or Asia Durr,Mariya Moore,Myisha Hines-Allen,Kylee Shook & Ciera Johnsons
    Third Option
    Asia Durr,Mariya Moore,Myisha Hines-Allen,Sam Fuehring & Kylee Shook.
    What if lineup
    Taja Cole*****,Asia Durr,Mariya Moore,Myisha Hines-Allen & Kylee Shook

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Listing Taja Cole is interesting. Next she would be in her Jr year if she stayed. I wonder how much she would have developed and if we would be that much better with her going into next year? That's a big question mark. Wonder what kind of player she will be for Georgia?

      Delete
    2. They'll love her quickness. she needs work on her ball-handling skills but should have an immediate impact for them.

      Paulie

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  8. Having McDonalds All Americans isn't getting us any deeper in the ACC tourney or the NCAA's. However, given the choice I would rather have them then not have them.
    NC State beat us with none of them. Everyone one else we lost to had some.

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    Replies
    1. Last year in the tourney DePaul beat us with ZERO Mcdonald All Americans. We had FIVE.

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    2. The year before that we got beat by Dayton in the NCAA's who had ZERO McDonald All Americans. We had TWO.
      The last two years we were beat in the tourney by two really good non power 5 schools.

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    3. Dayton did have two players go on to make WNBA teams both who weren't McDonalds All Americans.

      Delete
    4. I some what Agree wade but NC STATE Had 4 Senior starting that's hard to beat.
      MLW

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    5. True. Which is unusual. Often in WCBB seniors are not your best players (Walton, T. Johnson, BJ). In NC State's case 3 of their 4 best players were seniors. Nelson is a junior who is a nice player and difference maker for them. Williams the guard isn't that good especially on defense.

      Delete
    6. True wade the cards senior didn't come through,But I think Taja Cole would have got the job done. She's a big time player to bad she transferred.
      MLW

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    7. Here's hoping the ACC can get eight WBB teams in the Big Dance. Virginia definitely on the fence.

      Paulie

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  9. At least 2 turnovers were the direct result of Walz yelling specific instructions distracting players who then got cleaned. Either let them play or call a time out.

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    Replies
    1. Focus is important on the court, as we all know. Coach is gonna be coach, though and that real-time instruction scenario probably isn't going to change...

      Paulie

      Delete

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