Louisville women's basketball -- Let the Games begin! -- Weekend view -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

NCAA Tournament Time

Happy Game Day!  The moment we have all been waiting for is here!  At noon, our anticipation to see Louisville women's basketball take the court in the NCAA Tournament will reach its peak.

The Cards face 16-seed Boise State in front of a home crowd at the KFC Yum! Center.  The Broncos (23-9, 14-4 Mountain West) won the regular season outright and claimed the crown in their conference tournament to receive an automatic bid to make their fifth NCAA Tournament appearance.

Boise State last lost on Feb 3 to UNLV.  Just over a week later was Louisville's loss to UConn.  Boise State rides a 10-game win streak into the match-up, the first ever between these two teams.

Riley Lupfer is a sharpshooter for the Broncos, averaging 16.4 points per game.  Her 3.75 three-pointers per game is fifth-best in the country.  For comparison, Asia Durr averages an even 3 threes per game.  Lupfer has hit 120 threes on the year.  Shalen Shaw heads the post for Boise State, averaging seven rebounds per game.  11 of the 15 players on the roster stand 6'0 or taller, which has helped in the rebounding and blocks columns.

"Boise State is that way. It's in Idaho!"

As a team Boise State averages 69.2 points per game while giving up 61.4.  They have a rebound margin of +6, high ranking in the country.  Most of the Bronco's scoring comes in the two middle quarters, scoring 55% of their points then.  They shoot .355 from behind the arc and .731, both excellent figures.

What does Louisville have to do to win?

A 1-seed vs 16-seed match-up is expected to be an easy win for the higher seed.  The confidence boost plus the home crowd should help some.

Let Asia Durr find her shots.  If she isn't hot early do not let that cause hesitation when looking to her later in the game. "Nite-Nite" is a scorer and she will find ways to put up numbers.  To help Durr get some open looks the Cards need to pass the ball.  An extra pass or two can often put the defense out of position just enough to get some elbow room and a good look at the basket.

Combine size with strength to overpower Boise State down low.  Myisha Hines-Allen is having a highlight year with her double-doubles so feed her the ball.  "Doo-Blay" and Sam Fuehring play with a fiery emotion and they won't rest until they haul in every last rebound.

The missed lay-ups need to be cleaned up.  You can't get any closer to the basket unless you pull a Brittney Griner and dunk the darn thing.  Everyone on the team has missed an easy lay-up at some point this season and it usually follows with "#$@&%*!" coming from Walz on the bench.  A heavy presence and solid scoring down low will open up the exterior for better looks.

I won't give a prediction to the game in hopes of preventing a jinx, but all know who most of us will be rooting for (sorry Keith B, Boise State fan).  Make sure to get out there and cheer the Cards on if you can manage to get off work.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide pictures due to the fact it is near-impossible to get off at the bank last minute.

The Irish Visit for St Patrick's Day Softball

Thanks, ACC.  I think the university as a whole has had enough poor luck in recent years.  Playing Notre Dame on St Patrick's Day sounds like a tough one.  Game one is scheduled for today at 2:00, moved up from the 4:00 original start time.  Saturday's first pitch is 1:00 and Sunday is noon.  Days and times can change, weather pending.  I will have my green Louisville shirt on Saturday at Ulmer hooping and hollering.

The weather calls for rain this weekend.

After 25 games of non-conference play and a 20-5 record the Cards finally face ACC opponents.  The Irish took the series 2-1 last season at Ulmer Stadium.  Anyone remember the stormy Monday night last year?  The Cards went on to win 7-4.

Danielle Watson and Megan Hensley should do most of the work in the circle.  The question surrounding this team's success is if they can fix issues they have battled in the past.  Louisville continues to have problems with defensive errors, with most of them coming from the left side of the infield up to the front of the plate.

Notre Dame leads the all-time series 18-16.  A sweep sounds pretty great right now.  The Irish are 16-8 on the year and has relied on their offense to carry them.  Ali Wester is hitting .455 and Katie Marino has already sent five balls out of the park.  Can the UofL pitchers shut down the ND offense?

Lax Comes Home

After a two week trip to the southeast region of the US, the Louisville lacrosse team comes back home to the LLS where they will face Boston College.  That game will be starting right about the time the radio show concludes.

Trust me when I say the food truck is good.  The trick is keeping your food down while cheering on the high-scoring, fast-paced offense Scott Teeter has going on.  Even the hungry, stingy defense has drawn attention.

Record Breakers

The swim and dive team broke two school records at the NCAA Championships.  Rachael Bradford-Feldman made it into the record books by one hundredth of a second in the 200 IM with a time of 1:55.67.  The 400-medley relay team clocked in at 3:26.93.  The 200-free relay team finished with a time of 1:27.19, the fastest at the nationals for Louisville and falling a bit shy of a their record breaker on the day.

Another Day at the Office

Make sure to tune into the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour tomorrow morning at 11:00 on WCHQ (100.9 fm).  If you live outside the range of the station you can listen online for free or check out our new Facebook Live option on WCHQ's Facebook page.  Paulie and Worldwide will be in the studio with your truly.  Case is recovering from an injury so we send him best wishes.  In his stead we welcome my partner in crime from River City Cards, Mike Gilpatrick.  If you want to know anything about the Detroit Tigers or Louisville Baseball he is your man.  We have a full lineup ready to go so make sure to tune in!


Pick 'Em closes at noon

If you haven't submitted your picks for the NCAA Women's Tournament Pick "em" here at CARDINAL COUPLE....what are you waiting for? A full moon, good crops, the Easter bunny?

We have a $25 Panera Card for da winnah! $15 Cracker Barrel card for second-best. Jared Anderson verifying brackets while turning quarters into nickles and dimes! People from all over the continental United States entering. It is your manifest duty to grab a writing utensil, fill out a bracket and send it to us. We have dozens of chimps sitting up in the Bracket Central suite with nothing to do but ride Bill the Goat and Frank the Mule around the offices and play jarts!

You better have something in the comments section by noon today or I'm telling Mom!

Paulie 

Happy Friday and Go Cards, especially women's basketball!

Jared