ARENA THOUGHTS and Jared Anderson's women's fall sports predictions... -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

ARENA HOLDS OUT HAND

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jared Anderson may be back later today with some thoughts on the arena situation. Check the comments section. I'll drop a few of my own in here in the interim. The Arena Authority has their hand out and they're not asking for assistance to walk across 2nd street to the Troll Pub. $2.42 mil is the number for this shakedown cruise and UofL seemingly has approved that the Athletic Department pony up. 

Ridiculousness.  

Here's the deal...UofL is getting handed the s#!tty end of the stick and there's no hand sanitizer or towel in the room. 


Don't piss off Tom Jurich. He was right in the beginning to want the facility on campus, he's done a helluva job in rebuilding and re-branding Cardinal Athletics since he's been here and now you want to curtail his involvement, impact and authority? What is this...a Saturday Night Live parody on how to run an academic/athletic program? Why now? What next? A mandatory visit to at least one arena area club/restaurant before or after each game to ensure their vitality and allow you to purchase season tickets? And, then this from Uofl: 

"We didn't have to negotiate a new deal. We did it to be good tenants." 

I'm hoping my rentors call me with the same philosophy...

We try to be the joy and excitement voice for Cardinal athletics froma fan's view. Today, it's hard to be that. 

This situation come could at no worse of a time. With NCAA investigations, board shakeups, women's basketball season ticket changes in certain sections and no fall sports yet to fall back on...the negative publicity is something that UofL definitely could do without right now. However this thing shakes out, I hope the the UofL administration will remember this one vital thing:  

Don't piss off Tom Jurich. 

paulie
xxxxx


OPPORTUNITIES AND IMPROVEMENT

Recently Case posted an article about what success is and how each of the University of Louisville's women's teams can be successful in their upcoming seasons. With the start of many fall sports seasons only a few weeks away, I thought I would post some of my predictions. 

WOMEN'S SOCCER


This is the team that kicks off (no pun intended) the 2017-18 year for UofL athletics. August 4th is the magic date when the Cards visit Ohio State for an exhibition match. A 20 game season ahead -- which features some fantastic opponents in UNC, Virginia, Duke, Clemson, FSU, Kentucky and more. The ACC portion of the schedule will be as tough as last season where Louisville finished 2-5-3. 

With much of the starting lineup returning the team has the experience that last year's squad could have used. If the Cards can find ways to score, the defense looks solid enough to hold up just fine. I expect to see a 10-7-3 season with a conference record of 4-4-2. it's not great but it's a step up from last year. Be sure to catch Paulie's interview with Coach Karen Ferguson Dayes that we'll play on the Saturday morning CARDINAL COUPLE Radio Hour and is now available on Soundcloud for listening. 

FIELD HOCKEY

The 2016 squad finished 15-6 and 3-3 in ACC play. The ACC dominates college field hockey. There are some solid teams on the landscape that live and breath field hockey. Teams like UNC, Syracuse and Duke are ones thaat you'd expect to find in the "Great Eight" of the NCAA Tournament and guess who has to play them all? With studs in Ayeshia McFerran and "Minnie" Mink this squad has some pillars to construct another top flight team around. Coach has recruited well, also and (according to Paulie) assistant coach Lucas Piccoli is excited about the season ahead. The ACC Championships and NCAA Final Four will be played in Louisville this year. Thaat should be motivation enough to increase the regular season mark to 16-3 and 4-2 in conference. The Cards will make a strong effort to be participants in the post-season affairs on the Trager pitch. 

VOLLEYBALL

There were many worries and woes last season. The Cards had a somewhat embarrassing year. The starting lineup constantly changed in hopes of finding "the right six" but it never seemed to happen. 7-13 in ACC play and 12-18 overall was a sad way to end the Anne Kordes era. Upsetting Notre Dame at home may have been the biggest highlight. Morgan Miller transferring at the end of the year was a major blow. Dani Busboom Kelly takes over, moves the squad to Cardinal Arena and we expect that we'll see plenty of other changes, too. 

Junior libero Molly Sauer will be a major impact on this team as a captain and the Cards try to turn the season around. The current roster has eight players listed at six feet or taller and that should help with the competitiveness . With a schedule jam packed full of teams that found themselves dancing in the tournament last year -- a rebuild season could be setback. This team will hopefully be sitting a 20-10 and 13-7 in ACC play following conclusion of the regular season. That would definitively be a step in the right direction. 

Granted, I could be highly inaccurate on my predictions and every team could fall short of them this year. But every team could also find a high level of success as well. Injuries, stress from school, personal lives, weather (for the outdoor sports) and many more factors can play a crucial part into any individual player or team's performance on any given day and ultimately change the outcome of a contest. 

Let's hope these predictions are close to being accurate. We hope to see ACC and NCAA tournament for all three. Have a great day and stay cool out there. Heat exhaustion is nothing to fool around with..



Jared Anderson