Louisville women's basketball schedule filled with challenges -- TUESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

UCONN, KENTUCKY PART OF THE 2018-19 WBB SLATE

Never let it be said that Jeff Walz shies away from the tough match-ups or the road.

The Louisville women's basketball non-conference schedule starts the season spending basically the month of November travelling before coming home in late November to play in the KFC YUM! Center. Much like Walz and his penchant for spanning the globe to check out prospect (Coach was recently in Japan and Canada checking out players). UofL WBB will be the road warriors to start the 2018-19 season.

The Cards get it underway on Tuesday, Nov. 6th. with a trip to Western Kentucky. The 'Toppers may look a little different this year on the bench with former Walz assistant Michelle Clark Heard no longer there (she's moved on to Cincinnati) but another former Cardinal assistant in Greg Collins will take the fight to the Cards. 

Jim Foster is gone at UTC. I'm gonna miss that guy.
Caption this picture, if you will. 

Three days later, the Cards continue in Tennessee with a trip to the southeast corner of the Volunteer state for a contest against Chattanooga.  The Mocs also recently had a coaching change with Katie Burrows replacing Jim Foster. Katie's a former UTC WBB player and also was an assistant to Foster at Chattanooga. 

Louisville takes a few days away from the opponents before their next foe. They'll travel to Boise, Idaho to face the Broncos of Boise State on Monday, Nov 19th.
Gordy Presnell has been the Broncs skipper for 12 years and has coached for 30 years. His squad won the Mountain West championship last year and came to Louisville to start their NCAA quest. The Cards defeated them on March 16th. 74-42 

The western swing continues with UofL landing in Vegas next for the Southpoint Shootout. First up is Arizona State on Friday Nov 23rd. Charli Turner Thorne has coached the Sun Devils since 1996 and has over 450 wins for the Tempe, Arizona school.  Her Devils made it to the NCAA Tournament second round last year -- beating Nebraska to open before bowing out to Texas 85-65 in Austin, TX. 

The next night, the action swings to playing Hartford in the Shootout. The Saturday, November 24th. tussle against the Hawks. Kim O'Neill is the head coach of the Connecticut school and she started her tenure there in 2016. She led  "that kind of bird" to a 19-13 record and the finals of the America East conference championship before they ran into a foraging bunch of Black Bears and fell to Maine 74-65. Never mess with Mama Bears...

Finally, the Cards come home. Monday, November 26th is the 2018-19 debut for Cardinal WBB in the KFC Yum! Center and they bring the Miami (OH) RedHawks in for another bird battle. You might remember Megan Duffy from her WNBA career and/or the time she spent as a player at Notre Dame. She's been at Miami since 2016 and her version of red birds went 21-11 last year...making the WNIT Tournament but ending their season in the first round against Duquesne 69-56 in Oxford, OH. 

Louisville hosts Nebraska next for a Thursday night battle of the boards on November 29th. The Cornhuskers are coached by Amy Williams, who came south from South Dakota to take the program over in 2016. Amy was named Big 10 Coach of the Year last season and the 'Huskers went 21-11 last year. Their season ended, as mentioned above, with a loss to Arizona State in first round NCAA Tournament play 73-62.


Asia Durr's squad takes on another two from Tennessee next in the KFC YUM! Center, beginning with Tennessee State on Sunday December 2nd. These Nashville Tigers got caught by their own tail last year with a 6-21 record...including a 95-56 de-clawing by Louisville on Dec. 12th, 2017 in the KFC YUM! Center. Jessica Kern became the ringmaster of these Tigers in 2016...Tennessee State is one of five major colleges in Music City...can you name the other four? 

UT-Martin is the Cards ninth opponent of the season and they come to visit on Tuesday, Dec. 4th. More birds in the YUM!...the SkyHawks were 19-16 in 2017-18 and visited Louisville on Tuesday, Dec 5th. last year. They didn't fly so high by the river, losing 91-56. Kevin McMillan, one of the nicest coaches in the game, has 10 years in at UTM. 

The home stand continues on Dec 9th., when Matthew Mitchell brings the the Kentucky Wildcats to town. UofL went to Memorial Barnyard last year and staged their own dance with a 87-63 hoe-down over Big Blue. Matty's minions went 15-17 last year and didn't go anywhere last year...except back to the locker room in Nashville after ending their season when they got chased out of the SEC Quarterfinals by some Bulldogs from Starkvillle ...81-58.

The Cards don't return to games until Saturday, Dec. 15th. when they bring Northern Kentucky to town. A rough 9-22 season last year for the Norse, who compete in the Horizon League. Emmy Souder, from the Mercer County's Kentucky girls basketball state championship team, will be a freshman at NKU this season. Head coach Camryn Whitaker has been the head coach at Northern Kentucky since 2016. The Cards haven't played NKU since 1989 and are 10-11 against them overall. 

Dec 20th. features the Cards taking a road trip to Mount Pleasant, Michigan to chip away at the Central Michigan Chippewas. This Thursday night contest is Louisville's last non-conference before entering ACC play. CMU made a great deal of noise last year with a 30-5 record. They knocked off LSU and Ohio State in the NCAA Tournament before running into Oregon in the Sweet Sixteen in Spokane and losing 83-69. The "Chips" are dealt by Sue Guevara, who has been there 11 years. She led CMU to an upset win over #23 Louisville back in 2010. Sue was a softball coach for 10 years at Saginaw St. before switching to hoops. OK, you Jeopardy wanna-be's...do you know what a Chippewa is? 



The Cards do have one more non-conference game in the regular season, some Huskies from Storrs are dog-sledding down at the end of January. We'll discuss that one in much more detail down the road.  

A challenging slate before conference play. Coach Walz most likely is a fan of the St. Jerome quote pictured here from yesteryear. 

In addition to the non-conference slate, the Cards will play 16 ACC games. WE'll cover that another time here at the couple once we start to find out a little more about the opponenets and how they're looking in their non-conference slates. 

Here's a link to the complete 2018-19 UofL WBB schedule: 2018-19 Cards WBB schedule

49 days until Louisville WBB begins the regular season...I need one of those tear-off, day-by-day office calendars. To Office Depot! 


IT'S NATIONAL CHEESEBURGER DAY!

Jump off the diet and go for one today.

Kaelin's Restaurant, here in Louisville, KY, claims to have invented the cheeseburger. In case you want to challenge them, they're on Newburg Rd. across from St. Agnes Catholic Parish. 

The Courier-Journal investigated that last year: LINK BELOW.

DID KAELIN'S INVENT THE CHEESEBURGER?

To celebrate...here's Jimmy Buffett's song immortalizing the sandwich: 

CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE -- JIMMY BUFFETT





paulie
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