Sunday Cardinal Couple - Basketball, Softball, and more

Basketball Bonanza

The big event for the Cardinal Couple Crowd is today's Women's Basketball matchup vs North Carolina at 2:30.  The men couldn't get the job done last night at the KFC Yum! Center, falling to the Tarheels 93-76.  Early in the season, we had a little pattern develop where the men would lose to a school, then the women would play that same school the next day and get the W.  Let's hope that pattern continues today in Chapel Hill.

On the women's side of things, UNC is a bottom third team in the ACC.  With a 4-9 conference record and 14-12 overall, this hasn't been a great year for Sylvia Hatchell and the UNC squad.  Some hint of the struggles developed early, with early season losses for the Tarheels to Hampton and South Alabama, and later in the non-conference slate against Mercer.  Some signs of life for the squad came with a win over Minnesota.

The 'Heels started off conference play getting drubbed by Florida State, which isn't that much of a shocker, but then they went up to Chestnut Hill and took a double-digit loss to Boston College.  A win over Duke again shows some hints of positivity for the squad, but otherwise there's not a lot to write home about for this UNC squad.

The WBB team did get a chance to cheer on the Softball team, who is playing this weekend in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge being hosted by NC State just down the road, alas their hype wasn't enough for the Pearsall squad as they fell in 9 innings to a pretty darn good Ohio State team.  More on that in a minute.

In Other BBall News

Donovan Mitchell threw down a few fun and stylin' dunks in the NBA All-Star Weekend Dunk Contest and took the trophy home.  An homage to Darrell Griffith's iconic dunk while wearing the Griff's #35 Jazz jersey, particularly with the common link back to UofL, is enough to get all of CardNation on its feet, reportedly during a timeout at the UNC game that didn't get CardNation hyped otherwise.  Congratulations to Donovan Mitchell for taking home that trophy as one of the youngest winners ever of the dunk competition.

If I may digress for a moment, I think, as a Cards fan, one of the things that I like most about the likes of Mitchell, and similarly for Teddy Bridgewater, and I think soon to be for Lamar Jackson (and plenty more, could probably be named), is not just that they perform well on the next level of play and the reflected glory that brings to UofL.  Nearly universally, these players get to the next level and while performing well, end up being well liked by other players, coaches and fan bases.

Teddy Bridgewater goes up to Minnesota, acquits himself well on the field, and then suffers a massive knee blowout.  And then something happened with the Viking fanbase that you just almost never see at the professional level like that...they continued to cheer for him through his injury and recovery.  Teddy B made an impression on that fanbase, and it wasn't his on-the-field actions that did it, it was Teddy being Teddy...off the field, being just a genuinely nice guy, making friends, being a giving and caring person to his community, and the community and fan base responded.

I see Mitchell doing some of the same in Utah.  It's clear that, besides being a very likely contender for Rookie of the Year based on his playing, that the Jazz fanbase, his teammates, the coaches, and opponents, just genuinely like the guy.  I'll be a happy Cards fan if that's the association that gets made with UofL athletics, regardless of what happens on the field, or maybe even in the courtroom.

Lacrosse

Lacrosse suffered their first loss at the hands of a very good Denver squad in a sloppy mess at the Louisville Lacrosse Stadium, 12-5.

Not exactly ideal Lacrosse playing conditions.

A mid-day snowfall resulted in a slushy snowy mess on the field, necessitated an extended halftime to give the grounds crew time to try to clear off part of the field.  UofL suffered from the conditions, but of course, both teams are playing on the same field and Denver was able to execute.  The Pioneers shut down what looks to be the two main scorers for the Cards this year, Tessa Chad, and Caroline Blalock, getting out of the game with neither scoring a goal.

Shayla Scanlan got her scoring career as a Cardinal started as the only Card to score more than one in the game.  Her two, combined with single goals by Julia Wood, Lexi Cheetham and Ally Hall would account for Louisville's 5.  Lexie Ball did well between the pipes, with 10 saves, equaled by Denver's GK.

The takeaway here is that this one was a cold, sloppy mess.  They need to support each other, and go out and play their game, regardless of the conditions they face.  Denver is a good squad, a loss to them isn't a killer, and this UofL team is still figuring out who they are and developing the team culture...that takes time.  There were some good looks yesterday, and more and better will come for this team and future teams.

Lacrosse will be back in action Thursday against Butler in Indianapolis.

Our post game interview with Coach:

LINK: HEAD LACROSSE COACH SCOTT TEETER DISCUSSES DENVER GAME

Softball

In Raleigh, NC for the ACC/Big 10 Challenge in Softball, the Cards took their first loss of the season against an Ohio State squad that's ranked 22nd in one of the polls.  No real shame, there, particularly when the Cards made the Buckeyes go to 9 innings to get the win, 6-5.

Credit Megan Hensley with a touch-em-all that brought Jamie Soles home.  The New Pride of New Egypt New Jersey had gotten on base as a result of a 2 out walk.  That evened the score at 2 apiece after just one inning.  Caitlin Ferguson would make the trip around the bags in the 7th.  Alison "Mike" Szydlowski gets the RBI after Ferguson got on base with a walk.  The Cards would then leave the bases full, a result in the 7th inning virtually guaranteed to draw the unwanted attention of Coach Pearsall.

In extra innings, both teams would get 2 around in the 8th.  Celene Funke reached on an error, and then scored on a Ferguson double.  Ferguson would then finish the trip on a Sid Melton single.  Ohio State answered in the bottom half and then went on to hold the Cards scoreless in the 9th, and the Buckeyes finished it all with an RBI single.

UofL will get a rematch with OSU today, getting underway as of the time of this writing.


THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR

We don't have a link to provide for our weekly radio show because it never took place. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we never got a chance to get in front of the microphones and chatter. We hope that the production issues can be resolved next week and we can return to the airwaves and Facebook Live at 11 a.m .Saturday.

What a day. Softball loses, lacrosse loses, men's basketball loses, no radio for us. Let's hope Sunday is better.

-- JMcA