CARDINAL COUPLE

CARDINAL COUPLE
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Thursday, January 4, 2018

Louisville women's basketball -- Cards face #17 Duke tonight -- THURSDAY CARDINAL COUPLE



CAN THE CARDS GET TO 17-0?



The 11-3 and #17 ranked Duke Blue Devils women's basketball team comes to the KFC YUM! Center tonight intent on one thing. Ending Louisville's 16-game win streak and starting a win streak of their own. Jeff Walz knows a good match-up when he sees one. At the Wednesday presser in the Cards practice facility, the Louisville head coach was up-front and frank about it: 

"We're just really excited about the opportunity Thursday night. They're a very good basketball team and it should be a great match-up. They score the ball extremely well, defensively they're one of the top teams in the country. They long, athletic, they're going to play zone. You have to be smart with the basketball. You can't telegraph passes. You've got to be detail-oriented." 

Don't expect a 26-1 Louisville blowout start to this one. Not with the leading scorer in the ACC (Lexie Brown) visiting or three of the top 15 in field-goal shooting percentages (Brown, Leaonna Odom and Erin Mathias) in the house wearing the Blue and White. No 0-24 from the floor for Coach Joanne P. McCauley's Devils. 

The recent two lead-slippages at the end of games in the Cards last two road affairs were because of good teams. Walz had no delusions of grandeur of his 26-1 lead at NC State turning into 52-2.  Good teams make runs and Walz would like to see more consistency for a 40-minute stretch than he witnessed in Atlanta and Raleigh.

Consistency may be difficult. Brown has 57 steals on the season, fifth best in the nation. She's also had 8 games with 20 or more points, two ahead of Asia Durr's 20-point performances. Duke holds opponents to 52.5 ppg and 33% shooting. They also stop the three quite well allowing a minuscule 26% success rate on opponent's trifecta attempts. Duke has the highest three-point FG percentage in the ACC with  40% accuracy rate. Add Rebecca Greenwell back into the mix, who will be playing her second straight game after sitting four in a row with injuries, and they have nine girls 6'1" or taller available for action. 

Blue Devils? How about Duke Amazons...

The Cards are 114-14 in the KFC YUM! Center lifetime. They've beaten the Blue Devils on Denny Crum Court once but trail in the series history 3-2. Last year in Durham, Louisville saw a 44-41 lead after three quarters turn into a 58-55 loss, despite 31 combined points from Durr and Hines-Allen. 



If all this scares you, maybe I've been a bit too glowing about the Blue Devils accomplishments. They're not undefeated and Miami, South Carolina and Villanova have shown that the Blue Devils are susceptible to less than winning performances. 

One thing that hasn't happened to the Cards this year is getting rattled.

Trailing on the road at Ohio State, in a dogfight at South Dakota St., falling behind early at Georgia Tech and seeing a 25 point lead vanquish to four against North Carolina St...the Cards have bent but haven't been broken.

The fight and desire in Myisha Hines-Allen and Sam Fuehring makes them one of the strongest front lines I can remember the Cards having since the days of Shawnta Dyer, Mo Reid and Asia Taylor.  Myisha's way of making the big play at the right time and the All-American caliber explosiveness and accuracy of "Nite-Nite" Asia Durr make the Cards formidable and able to take ANY team in NCAA women's college basketball on any night. Arica Carter's stability and big-play capability at the point is ever-present and should it falter slightly you can guarantee that Dana Evans will dash in, go at one speed as long as she can and wear out any combination of guards trying to keep up with her. 

If Jazmine Jones can put together a solid and productive court time performance...let the game come to her... if Syd Zambrotta regains her three-ball skills back on a friendly court and Kylee Shook and Bionca Dunham can come in and keep the offense productive plus negate some of the Blue Devils height advantage, then I like Louisville's chances tonight.  

I don't see a easy win for the Cards but I'd sure love to be pleasantly surprised by one. I do hope to see a decent turnout in the lower bowl tonight and maybe even some upper deck patrons. This UofL women's basketball team is seriously MUCH MORE deserving of way more than the 6126 per game that have wandered into the KFC YUM! CENTER. 

I also got the chance to talk a bit with Sara White today at the presser. She'll be doing the color analyst work for the ACC Network Extra broadcast along with everyone's favorite Cortnee Walton on the sidelines and newcomer, down from Indy, Matt Schumacker handling play-by-play. Our old buddy Don Russell had hoped to be back in time from his surgery to call this one (and he'll be missed) but we'll see him back at half-court soon.

If you're a fan of the radio descriptions and accounts of games like me, there's no finer duo to listen to calling college women's basketball than Nick Curran and Adrienne Johnson. They'll perform their magic on 790 AM WKRD and you can hear them also on the IHeart radio app. 

This is one of those games where, in the past, there's been a certain amount of electricity in the air, a heightened sense of anticipation and hopes when I walk into the East Side of the downtown arena. It is good to be back home, not only for me, but for the WBB Cards. 

Chuck Berry sang about "Sweet Little Sixteen" and that win was accomplished. If you've never heard it, or the other two references that follow...I've linked them up below.

Sweet Little Sixteen

The opening line to the Beatles' song "I Saw Her Standing There" is "Well, she was just seventeen..." so let's get that one in the books as well. 

I Saw Her Standing There

And, who could forget the classic learning lesson ballad from The Sound of Music when Rolf sang to Liesl about "When your sixteen, going on seventeen.."

When You're Sixteen Going On Seventeen.

Don't worry, I've also got the next two potential wins lined up musically, too...but I'm not going to spring those on you just yet. No bad ju-ju, one game at a time, right?

Audio from yesterday: 

JEFF WALZ PREVIEWS DUKE GAME REVIEWS SEASON

ASIA DURR TALKS ABOUT DUKE AND THE SEASON

MYISHA HINES-ALLEN DISCUSSES DUKE AND REVIEWS SEASON


Paulie
xxxxx

16 comments:

  1. Great write-up today Paulie! Loved the musical references. Brown scares me from Duke. If the Cards can find a way to contain her, that will be a key factor in a win.

    Those of you in Louisville, get your butts out there tonight! I'll be watching down here in Naples on the ACC Network Extra

    -- The Real Joe Hill --

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  2. We were at the Duke game last year and walked out of Cameron feeling that Cards had given one away.

    Need to play a full 40 minutes tonight.

    I'm back to looking for that reliable third scorer. Earlier it looked like Jones would fill that role, and she may yet do that, but right now it's Hines-Allen and Durr. Gotta have that third option if team is to reach the top.

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    Replies
    1. I agree about the third scorer and I agree that I thought Jaz would be it. She’s the only other player outside of Dana (who is finding it difficult at this point to get her shot off in the college game), to be able to get her own shot. I’d love to see her break down her defender and get that 15 foot shot she likes to shoot more consistently. That might entail a summer of working on her handle, but hopefully she can get back to that consistency she had in the first part of the season

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  3. Third option scoring by committee Sam,AC & Jaz.The cards also need more productions from the stretch four.IMHO
    Side bar topic UofL MBB Kenny Payne as Head coach?
    MLW

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    Replies
    1. Cards must protect there house, you have to win @ home.

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  4. I'm feeling confident about this one. Home Cooking. Ready to put the Dukies behind us. I just don't think they're as strong as some are saying. They just lost Boykin at back up point guard. Zero depth on their club particularly at the point. The right amount of defensive pressure will make it happen.

    We need to get serious, not be intimidated by the "Duke Thing" and just get it done. AC will get a golden opportunity to shut down Brown today. Arica has had a great year so far...I'm betting it will continue. Bench needs to step up too.

    Really looking forward to this one. Hope we get attendance up...it's a long way from the old days right now.

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  5. MHA is not about to lose in her house! I would be very surprised if so...This will be a kick ass game tonight and my money is 💯 on the CARDS! LETS GO CARDINALS!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Third scorer Tonight is Sammi Jean 12 pt.
    MLW

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  7. Question
    The BIG 12, BIG 10 ,PAC 12 ,SEC all have Network on TV but not the ACC for WBB ?

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    Replies
    1. Duke vs UofL WBB should have been televised on ESPN or ESPN 2 OR ESPN U SMH.
      MLW

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    2. The ACC does have a Network and the game was televised. Cortnee Walton was the sideline reporter and all. Get the WatchESPN app to get the ACC network games

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    3. The ACC currently only has the "ACC Network Extra" which is on the ESPN streaming platform.

      There will be an "ACC Network" that will be available on linear TV systems to match what the other Big conferences have...I think that's slated to start either this year or next.

      But yes, nearly all ACC matchups in nearly all sports, get presence on the ACC Network Extra of some sort. Sometimes there is a pre-empted local broadcast, but even then, the replays are available on the streaming platform.

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  8. Can't say enough about last night's performance A tall and athletic Duke team...a bit short-handed with out Ms.Greenwell but still determined to get their first ACC Win. Incredible outing for Haley Gorecki...who has waited 1 1/2 years to get on the court.

    Strictly low class for JoAnna P. McCauley to bring up foul discrepancy. Her team lays a rugged and physical style of ball and you pay the price for that.Good win. On to Virginia Tech.

    Paulie

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    Replies
    1. Where can we see her post game presser? She seems to have a bit of a sour disposition generally so this doesn’t surprise me

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  9. http://www.goduke.com/mediaPortal/player.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=4200&ID=6235037

    For anyone interested in McCauley’s postgame presser

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