Thunder (and Lightning?) Over Louisville Edition -- Walz on Moore... SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

JEFF WALZ ON MOORE TRANSFER

A early morning chat with Jeff Walz on Mariya's transfer. Coach is in Dallas, waiting to fly to the west coast for recruiting.

Excerpts from our conversation below:

"Mariya is leaving the program to play her senior year closer to home. The main thing here is the happiness of the individual. We bring in young student-athletes, we try and prepare them for life after college and we are responsive to their needs. Mariya's happiness is priority #1. College is a learning experience and the student's opportunity to set the ground work for later life is so very important. Mariya is an incredible young women who contributed greatly to our program and I'm sure she'll be a successful and vital part of wherever she decides to continue her education and athletics. In the final analysis, it's not about the points or the wins...it is about what motivates these individuals to be the best they can be and succeed in the world, plus their comfort and happiness in daily life. I wish her all the best in her new directions and we are grateful to her for what she brought to Louisville basketball.  The heart wants what the heart wants, she'll be fine and this program will continue to achieve and build upon the successes we have had in my time here."  

So...Moore is gone. A bit surprising, yes. But it goes to show the quality and sincerity of the man guiding the Cards WBB program. What kind of coach would Jeff be if he didn't back and support the decision a young women makes about the rest of her life. What kind of fans would we be if we didn't wish her the best of luck and success? One player does not make a unit, It is the total of the players.

Players come and go. Coaches deal with a myriad of emotions, personalities and issues. The key, the constant is the program. The unit. Although Moore's departure is news, it will not slow down this team's goal to work hard every day and achieve success. We at CARDINAL COUPLE wish Mariya the best and hope she excels wherever she lands. The unit will carry on.

paulie
xxxxx


RAINY DAY FOR THUNDER





Though the forecast for today has settled a bit with rain clearing
out this morning and returning mid-day, I don't expect to see any record breaking crowds at the opening event of the Kentucky Derby Festival. The threat of being wet and cold all day, combined with the huge negative impact the low cloud ceiling will have on the airshow, have made many, including myself, change their plans about heading down to the waterfront this year. It's unfortunate that we've had nearly perfect weather for almost two weeks just to have the weather be this crappy on the one day we want it to be nice. Oh well, such is life in the Ohio River Valley. Rain may hinder some from camping out on the Great Lawn all day but it won't hinder our love of Cardinal Sports!

Cards Struggle on "Duke Day"

A couple of weeks ago, you may remember that the University of Louisville and the University of Notre Dame had their own College Olympics, facing off in three sports in the same day. The same thing happened with the Cards and the Blue Devils of Duke yesterday as the two schools faced off in baseball and men's and women's tennis. It was an unfortunate day for all three squads, and at least two of the matchups had surprising results. The baseball team squared off against a Duke team that was barely above .500 overall and well below that mark in conference and promptly put up a honker to start the series. Coming off of the 11-7 thrashing in Lexington on Tuesday, you might have expected the Cards to show a little more fight, but they went down 3-0 in the first two innings before ultimately losing 5-3. It was an uncharacteristically bad night for the Cardinals' Ace, Brendan McKay, but even the best pitchers in The Show struggle from time to time. Drew Ellis seemed to be the only one trying support McKay with some offense, homering twice in the loss.

A sad but accurate description of yesterday's results.

The surprising tennis result came at the hands of the women's team. You might remember that the Cards started the season extremely hot, winning match after match. Such was not the case yesterday in Durham, as the fifteenth ranked Blue Devils swept the Cards 7-0. Yikes. The men's team fared better than the women's, to be sure, but were ultimately unable to secure a win. They fell 3-4. 

The Diamond Cards will get another couple of shots at Duke this weekend as they hope to continue their series winning streak, and both tennis teams will look to bounce back during their matches on Sunday.

Senior Day for Louisville Lacrosse

Senior Hannah Koloski

Another top ranked opponent for Louisville Lacrosse today, as they host number seven Syracuse in their regular season finale. In order to have postseason aspirations, Louisville pretty much has to win this game and the ACC tournament in my opinion to have a shot at making the small field. The game will begin at 1PM (around the time the rain is set to start back up), and the senior day ceremony will take place pregame. Seniors Stephanie McNamara, Hannah Koloski, Anne L'Heureux, and Heidi Smith will be honored. The team is likely to miss Koloski the most after this year, as she leads the country in free position goals per game and shots on goal per game and is second in the country with goals scored at 57. Youth on the team has showed that they can score, but let's enjoy the offensive dynamo as much as we can for the rest of the year.

WBB Lands Huge Commitment

With a video on its way to potentially going viral in CardNation, Mykasa Robinson verbally committed to Louisville head coach, Jeff Walz, by lifting her warmup jersey to reveal a Louisville Cardinals shirt at the GNBA Spring Invitational. Robinson, a point guard in the 2018 class, was previously committed to Colorado, where her sister is a sophomore, before reopening her recruitment at the end of March. Robinson is ranked the 13th overall player in the class and the number 4 point guard, which only serves to bolster Walz's ever increasing beast of a backcourt. Some digging showed that Robinson's decommitment from Colorado did not follow a coaching change, so this one will be interesting to watch, and we'll be anxiously awaiting Mykasa's signing. Nonetheless, this is a huge grab for the Cards and a great start to Walz's 2018 class.

Return to the Airwaves

After a holiday break last week, Paulie, Worldwide, and I will be back in the studio to bring you up to speed on all of the happenings that we can fit into an hour. Many of the things you hear on the show have been mentioned previously on the site, but our banter and Paulie's technical goofs are often enough to entice listeners to the show. Tune into 100.9 WCHQ FM or on the WCHQ app to hear us bring the joy of Louisville women's athletics to live radio from 11-12 today!

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-