Women's Golf Opens Championship Play; WNBA Rosters Finalized -- SATURDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

Women's Golf Tied for 7th After Day 1

Louisville opened their second ever NCAA Championship run with a respectable first round, finishing the day with a team total 13 over par. That mark ties them with Arizona and Florida State for 7th place, and keeps them only 10 shots off of the lead held by USC. Lauren Hartlage led the Cardinals with a final card of 1 over par for the first round, good for a tie at 19th in the individual standings. While the top of the leaderboard is jam packed, the tournament's opening round was a very close one. Working in Louisville's favor was team consistency. A 13 over wasn't the best team mark out there, but in addition to Hartlage's +1, everyone else on the team shot the same +4 for the day. The +4 mark for the team's lowest golfer ties Louisville with both USC and Alabama, the top two teams of the tournament, in that category. If Louisville can maintain a floor of +4 and get some improvement out of a couple of golfers, they can position themselves very nicely to continue their run in this tournament. 

The Cards will look to continue a good start to the weekend when they tee off in the afternoon session today. Louisville takes to the course at 1:21 according to the tournament site, which I can only assume is local time based on available context clues. Louisville is paired up with Virginia and Baylor, both teams that did not have very good days. Hopefully, the Cards can avoid a commiserating style of play in which their performance is pulled down by that of golfers around them. Tune into the NCAA site for live stat tracking information regarding the tournament all weekend.

Three Cardinals Named to WNBA Rosters

After sitting out the 2017 season, Angel McCoughtry returns to the roster for the Atlanta Dream, a move that really comes as a surprise to no one. Everyone here is familiar with what Angel has done since being selected as the number 1 overall pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft. McCoughtry has won two Olympic gold medals, earned the WNBA scoring title twice, and has been named an All-Defensive first team selection five times, a WNBA All Star selection four times, and All WNBA first team twice. McCoughtry has had a storied career in the WNBA thus far, and it was widely expected that there would be no issues about the 31 year old returning to the team this season.

From a WNBA vet to a WNBA rookie, we next go to the Washington Mystics, where Myisha Hines-Allen was named to the final roster. Hines-Allen is one of two rookies to make the team, and seems to have her position cemented. The Mystics cut their roster to twelve players for their announcement, and maintained two players that are currently disabled, due to illness and injury. With only 10 players available, and one of the unavailable players being a forward, Hines-Allen should get ample minutes to prove herself early in the season. After concerns about her ability to transition to the WNBA game due to size issues, Hines-Allen will need to do extra work to compete at her preferred position or work on additional skills to carve out a different role.

One of the more surprising roster makes comes from Shoni Schimmel's spot on the Las Vegas Aces roster. The Aces roster currently sits at 11, with the expectation that they will sign a 12th player before tomorrow. Schimmel is listed on the roster, but has not been assigned a number. The difference between Schimmel and Hines-Allen's current situations, though, is that the Aces named three players to the temporarily suspended list. These three players are not included in the roster of 11 (12) and are expected to return to the team shortly. Two of the three are Kayla McBride, an all-star guard, and Kelsey Plum, the 2017 first overall pick and a guard on the all-rookie team. Once those two return, there will be a log-jam at guard, and it seems clear that Schimmel would need to make herself irreplaceable in the next couple of weeks to avoid being one of the players that gets bumped to make room.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

For the first time in a long time, we'll have "the A Team" back in the studio on Mellwood for the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour. Jared is off of work this week and I'm getting more mobile by the day. We'll talk season wrap-up for a couple of teams, and likely hear some of the audio from Paulie's excellent interview with Arica Carter. Regardless of the topic, it is sure to be a great show. The Cardinal Couple Radio Hour airs at 11AM on WCHQ FM. It's available on FM radio at 100.9, the WCHQ App in the app store, and online at wchqfm.com and Facebook. 

Until next time, Go Cards!

-CH-