Cards Host MTSU for 'Alumni Night' -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB Seeks to Continue Dominance

Louisville's women's basketball team is off to a great start so far this season. 10-0 is their second best start of all time and this is their first 10 game win streak since a stretch between December and February two years ago, according to the UofL athletics site. Louisville is in a very good position to break that previous run of 15 games as well as have a new best start ever if they can continue to play the way they do when they are playing well. Louisville has been absolutely dominant at times, but they've also been quite plain at others.

Tonight, Louisville welcomes in the Blue Raiders from Middle Tennessee State University. The ladies at MTSU opened their season with a 65-54 victory at Vanderbilt. After Louisville's up and down performance against the Commodores, perhaps it would do the Cards well to not look past these Blue Raiders. MTSU is not receiving votes in the mid-major top 25, but they are 5-2 with the aforementioned victory over Vandy. Their two losses have both come since Thanksgiving, both on the road, and both to Power 5 schools; 56-65 to Ole Miss and then 45-48 to Georgia Tech. Not that either of those teams are world beaters, but it is clear that MTSU has shown a propensity to go into hostile environments against higher quality teams and perform to the best of their ability.

As I mentioned, Louisville has looked rough at times. They trailed by double digits at South Dakota State, and Vandy hung tough for the first third of their game against the Cards. Turnovers, as usual, are a major issue for the Cards. They've shot well from the floor (for the most part) and OK from the free throw line. Giving the opponent extra possessions has not cost Louisville so far, but if they run into a team that is hot and playing with nothing to lose (like MTSU tonight) and they turn the ball over and can't shoot well enough to compensate, the Cardinals could be looking at a December loss. I believe that Coach Jeff Walz will maintain focus for the team and not let them look forward to the rivalry game looming next week. Turnovers are always a focus of his, and this team seems like one that can shake the turnover bug. As long as the team practices well and focuses on the task at hand each game, I believe we may see that turnover number start to fall a bit.

During halftime of tonight's game, Louisville will honor a group of women's basketball alumnae. Why they are calling the game "alumni night" instead of "alumnae night," I have no clue. The honorees tonight will be Von Macklin (1977), Terri Keown (1977), Val Combs (1980), Marilyn Reckelhoff Dippel (1988), Stacy DeGraffenreid Simons (1991), Leatrice Scott (1995), Darnice Cloudy (1996), Kiva Thomas (1996), Misty Smith Albrecht (1998), Kendria Braxton Lockett (1998), Jaime Ludwig (1998), April Goddard (1999), Alison Bass Egan (2000), Roscelle Bullock Griffin (2000), Kim Graham Calhoun (2004), Sara Nord (2004), Jessica Huggins (2006), Connie Neal (2006), Helen Johnson (2007), Patrika Barlow (2008), Candyce Bingham (2009), Keshia Hines (2011), Shelby Harper (2013), Tia Gibbs (2014), Megan Deines (2015), Sara Hammond (2015), Cortnee Walton (2017), Taylor Johnson (2017), according to gocards.com. Perhaps Paulie will be able to grab some former Cardinal Couple favorites for a quick soundbite or two. 

Tipoff for tonight's game is at 7PM. If you can't make it out to the Yum! Center, you can follow along on the ACC Network Extra or on the radio broadcast with Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson. If you are able to make it to tonight's game, you really should. This Louisville women's team is an exciting one to watch, and they deserve all the support they can get. You might even get home in time to see the important part of the Heisman Ceremony.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

For the first time in awhile, I'm back in the studio. I've been all over these last couple of weeks, but
Paulie and Co. have done a great job, just as they did before I was ever part of the team. As Jeff mentioned yesterday, we'll have a special guest joining the three of us in studio today in lieu of Jared Anderson. We'll have Jack Grossman, student radio man for Indiana University, filling in the fourth chair today. Jack is in town for the UofL v IU men's basketball game and has agreed to take some time to sit down with us. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs at 11AM on 100.9 WCHQ FM. It is also available to stream at wchqfm.com and via the WCHQ app. Tune in, won't you?

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-