CARDINAL COUPLE

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Friday, December 8, 2017

Louisville women's basketball -- Cards pull rank on Commodores 79-57 -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Commodores Get Dispatched


If we borrow from the military's use of ranks and hierarchy, and figure out where the rank of Commodore fits in, I guess that makes the UofL WBB squad at least Rear Admiral's (at least based on Wikipedia's telling of it).  The Cardinals dispatched the Commodores back to Tennessee with a 79-57 win at home last night.  Depending on when you checked in on the game, the game was either much more competitive than that score would suggest, or much less.

In any event, the boatload of Tennessean's that ended up on the shores of the Ohio in downtown Louisville were sent back to Music City with the "L" and despite VU's Rachel Bell ringing it quite frequently in the first half, this battle between Birds and the commissioned officers went to the home team.  

At the end of the 1st quarter, Vanderbilt led 24-20, and even about halfway through the second
quarter it looked like this was going to be a very competitive scrap.  But then the Cards flipped a switch.  I have no idea what caused this particular switch to be flipped, but if we could super-glue it into this position, that'd be great.  Beginning about halfway through the 2nd quarter, the Cards started a 28-0 run that would extend past halftime and through most of the 3rd quarter.  A missed defensive assignment on one trip down the floor and the 'Dores found a wide open Rachel Bell (who else?) who predictably dropped the 3-ball into the basket.  The Cards weren't done, yet, picking up another 10 points before before the black and gold got a free one at the stripe.  Many props to the UofL pep band for serenading the Vandy players at the line with bad Christmas songs.  The Cards would win the 2nd quarter 22-9, and the 3rd by a margin of 25-4.

Coach Walz was very disappointed in the 4th quarter though as the second line came in to play and just didn't play up to the standards that we know, because we've seen them do it, they are capable of playing.  Vandy took the last frame 20-12, but it wasn't enough to overcome the lead gained in that 38-3 run.

Paint presence proves positive for the Cards and they controlled the boards 34-26 against Vandy. Myisha Hines-Allen grabbed ten of them for UofL.

(We're an academic school.) 
Three got into double digit scoring territory for the Cards.  Unsurprisingly Asia Durr leads the list with 25, but Arica Carter found the 3 range pretty well and ended up with 15 after dropping 3 of 5 from distance.  Sam Fuehring came up with 14, mostly by constantly running back-door cuts which the Commodore's seemed utterly incapable of stopping.  The only way they figured out to stop the back-door cut scoring was to foul Fuehring, sending her to her usual spot lined up to the left where she dropped 6 of 6.

It was announced in the post-game presser that Loretta Kakala would take a red-shirt for the season.  Somehow, Paulie found out before the game. Must have been his political connection with the "mayor-for-life" Jerry Abramson sitting next to him. 

What About Fred?


Fredrick Douglass. Social reformer, writer
and statesman. 
I'm not going to try to come up with a J-E-F-F report, and I'll leave the C-A-S-E and J-A-R-E-D reports to their respective creators.  I'll take a stab at a F-R-E-D, though.

F - Free Throws. 86.4%.  Lot's of capitals "F"'s being earned this year.  I love it!
R - Rebounds. 34 to 26, I'll take it.  Vandy had 21 defensive boards compared to our 11 offensive.  Defense has something of an inherent advantage, here, but I'd like to see our squad crash the boards on missed shots a little more.  Still good enough for the upper case R.
e - Energy/Execution.  Would've had the upper case here except for that late let down from the 2nd line.  We know they can do better. Small case "e" is the call.
D - Defense.  A 38-3 run through the heart of the game, and limiting the total to 57.  That's a pretty impressive showing on defense.  And 13 steals is always a recipe for entertainment. We'll capital "D" that! 

F-R-e-D.  Not bad at all, but room for growth.

Radio Guest


Jared will be off being a banker-man again tomorrow for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour, so Paulie
has lined up a real treat for us with Jack Grossman, of WIUX, home of Hoosier Sports, joining us.

Check in for an update from our neighbors to the north.

We'll be on at our usual time of 11am on WCHQ Radio.  That's 100.9 on the FM dial if you're in Louisville, also available via the WCHQ app, or at http://crescenthillradio.org.

Check it out, won't you?

PHOTOS TODAY FROM JARED ANDERSON (except of Fredrick Douglass, of course). 

POST GAME WALZ

POST GAME ASIA DURR and SAM FUEHRING

(don't miss Steve's eloquent but wordy and baffling post game recaps and eventual questions...)  

-- 
JMcA

16 comments:

  1. Well Played. Pleasantly surprised with our free throws and AC. If she can hit 2 or 3 out of 5 three pointers every game we're where we need to be from a scoring balance perspective. The kid can also play D now. Great on denial.

    I've gotta also say that it's great to see that our club isn't getting pushed around anymore. A few years ago it seemed like we were intimidated by some clubs...Maryland etc. Seems to me that with this club it isn't happening...in particularly our two bigs from NJ aren't putting up with it any longer. Will be important when we take the kittens down is a couple days and during the tourney.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree the bigs from the Tri state aren't have it.
      The Jersey girls and the kid from Philly.Also AC is getting it done on both ends.
      MLW

      Delete
    2. Oops having it.

      Delete
  2. Glad to see Kakala redshirt. She pretty clearly is not ready to play at this level yet. I was afraid she was going to follow DeGrate and Johnson as one-and-done bigs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm gonna agree here. She WILL be good by the time she leaves her. Just too much, too fast for her but she is learning a lot.

      Paulie

      Delete
    2. Good for Loretta she's be around for the Kentucky girls.
      MLW

      Delete
  3. Well, boy howdies! If your Cardinal WBB squad can play like they did in the second and third for a whole game, my Clemson Tigers might as well not show up and just send regrets. HA-ha.

    Your friend
    #1 Clemson Fan
    Arthur
    Greer, SC

    ReplyDelete
  4. That was a very impressive effort for most of the game by the UofL WBB squad. That second-third quarter stretch was almost U-Conn like in dominance. You have to figure, though, Vandy does have a little pride and never gave up. They were able to capitalize on a "not ready for prime time" configuration that Walz sent out in the fourth. Poor Jess, she couldn't touch the ball or run down the court without something bad happening there early in the fourth.

    Up next? Those Blue Racers from Murfreesboro. They did beat Vandy earlier, I watched the highlights on that. That means UofL will only win by 17-20 points.

    They are 5-2 with losses at Ole Miss and Georgia Tech. Jess Louru and Alex Johnson are impressive for them. When are they ever going to can or bring up charges on crooked Rick Insell, their head coach. That man is a crooked as a mountain road in Appalachia.

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd be surprised if Vandy gets to .500 on the season, much less SEC. They got two players. Two guards. That's it.

    Curtis "Pep Band Christmas Carol Fan" Franklin

    ReplyDelete
  6. Question
    I've been reading Different Articles about the pay for play allegations and Escort ordeal.Do you think Rick Pitino knew about them .
    MLW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Bird Lady12/08/2017 8:49 PM

      I honestly don't think he knew about the stripper scandal. I think he knew something was up with Bowens commitment if he didn't know exactly what. No he claims he told his staff not even to jay walk and run everything by compliance. Yet he has also said he knew about Bowen family living in the Galt House and says he told his KJ to look into it ... Never calling in compliance. Those 2 facts done jibe. If he didn't know, it was a wink and nod, "I can't officially know" situation. Even by his admission Bowen to Louisville was the strangest commit ever ... That in itself should have sent up red flags which he blatantly ignored claiming to be lucky ... In fact he was unlucky the feds chose this year to look at it because NCAA has turned a blind eye for years. I don't think he was experienced at these types of deals or he would have been better at it and not gotten caught.

      Delete
    2. In all honesty, only Rick and the parties involved know the real bottom line here. The parties have spoken freely. So has Rick, ad nauseam, it seems...about his lack of knowledge.

      The water's already been spilled. Various attempts to mop it up are in play and it's time, at least in my mind, to move to another room.

      Rick will have to answer each day to himself and that's a pretty huge punishment if he has been lying.

      We have an excellent women's team, a men's team that is unpredictable but entertaining and life moves on.

      Paulie

      Delete
  7. The Bird Lady12/08/2017 8:52 PM

    Great write up Jeff! Even having been there reading your recap enhanced what I saw. Kudos!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Also want to leave a shout out for Cortnee Walton's interview with Durr after the game on the ACC Network broadcast. It's the first one I've seen and I thought she did a great job!

    Oh yeah...Florida Gulf Coast bounced the kittens tonight...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We're HUGE Cortnee fans here and I predict she'll be a network girl for someone huge down the road. I can see the "four letter network" or any of the big 4 or 5 welcoming here in.

      Just pray that she doesn't end up covering Wildcat sports.


      Paulie

      Delete
    2. Agreed. She's been a quality kid from Day One...and from AZ too!

      Delete

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