Saturday, Dec. 8
Men's basketball travels to Bloomington to take on Indiana at 2:30 p.m. Sitting at 6-2, Chris Mack has lead his team to some impressive victories including wins against Michigan State and Seton Hall. This game can be found on FOX.
The Cards get to face the "one who got away" freshman Romeo Langford. IU does have a win over Marquette, a team that beat UofL this year.
Sunday, Dec 9
Women's basketball will host rival Kentucky at 2:00 p.m. This is one of those games that's circled on the schedule at the beginning of the season. The Battle of the Bluegrass will feature a pair of undefeated teams, sitting at 9-0 each. Unfortunately, I will have to miss seeing that I will be performing in a concert at the same time (great planning, right?).
Scouting Kentucky
JEFF WALZ PREVIEWS THE CONTEST: https://gocards.com/watch/?Archive=12180&type=Live
No. 19 Kentucky enters the match-up 9-0 with their most recent victory coming at home against Rhode Island last night, 75-52. They have wins against NCAA Tournament teams from last year: Virginia (63-51) and UCLA (75-74).The Cats have outscored opponents 719-497 so far this season. The 79.9 points per game is fairly average for early season, but the defense allowing 55.2 points per game is something to make note of.
Defensively, Kentucky is one of the better teams out there. They're forcing nearly 27 turnovers per game and are right at 14 steals per game. Their 32 blocks on the year puts the average at about 3.6 per game, enough to make you think twice about driving in the lane.
Sending the Wildcats to the free throw line might not be a good idea as they are shooting .763 on the year. Their three-point shooting is equally as dangerous, with an average right at .400.
Kentucky's biggest weakness might be the rebounding category, were they have been out-rebounded 342-330. 41% of their total rebounds have been offensive, a higher rate than the more-common 33.3%. It's the defensive rebounding where Kentucky has struggled and been dominated.
Howard (62) and Keke McKinney (46) have been the major threats down low on the boards. Fuehring is the closest to those numbers for Louisville with 58, but both Kylee Shook and Jazmine Jones are in the 40's. Depending on foul trouble the rebounding could be a major key to victory in this one.
Murray is a solid scorer, but her passing is more dangerous. She's tallied 39 of Kentucky's 128 assists and has been a great senior leader for Matthew Mitchell's squad.
Jeff Walz vs Matthew Mitchell
Both men became head coaches of their respective programs in time to start the 2007-2008 season.The two had completely different starts to their careers at these programs.
Mitchell came to Kentucky after coaching Morehead State for two years. Kentucky's program began to turn around in his third season, the year he earned SEC Coach of the Year honors and led the team to a 28-8 record. Mitchell has made it to the Elite Eight three times, the last appearance in the Elite Eight was in the 2012-13 season. Last year, the Cats did not make the NCAA Tournament with only a 15-17 record.
Mitchell had previous experience at UK, having been an assistant coach there from 2003-2005.
Walz was an associate head coach at Maryland before getting called up to Louisville. He found immediate success in Louisville, guiding the Cards to their first ever Final Four appearance in his second season, falling to UConn in the championship. Louisville has made it to the Final Four three times and appeared in the NCAA Championship twice.
The gang (Jeff, Paulie and Daryl) and I review this matchup and these coaches more on THE CARDINAL COUPLE RADIO HOUR, on WCHQ 100.9 FM and Facebook Live Saturday at 11 a.m. and we'd love to have you join us! Go to the website www.wchqfm.com to listen live as well and be sure to download the WCHQ app while you are there.
Happy Friday and Go Cards!
- Jared -
Paulie broke down the players for us yesterday so I took a look at the team more as a whole just for a different look.
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff yesterday and today guys! I was able to watch a little of the UK game last night on Internet before going to work. Rhode Island hung in there with them during the fist half. UK had a n=bunch of steals but looked VERY susceptible in the paint. They were playing matador defense wheenever anyone drove the lane.
DeleteCards got this.
Curtis "BOOO! Big Blue!" Franklin
My Cats with a great tune-up last night for the Beat-down in the Bucket coming up Sunday. Your lil' Birdies have NO chance in stopping fabulous freshman Rhyne Howard, who is better as a freshman than your Asia Durr is as a senior. It'll be Rhyne saying "Nite-Nite" to her.
ReplyDeleteMaci Morris is unstoppable. Best guard in the nation currently and you have no one who can stop her. She'll be shooting the lights out in the KFC Dumb Center Sunday. Taylor Murray will school anyone you put on her.
Get ready, UofSmell fans. Cats are coming to beat you, in your place and do it quite easily. Walz should probably sit in the middle of the bench again and talk to himself and wander around like a displaced refugee during timeouts.
One school will be 9-1 late Sunday afternoon and it will be the one of Post-Hole digger, 15 second Rick, Bobby Putrid-ino, Neeli because I can't standee, Vince "Alfred E. Newman" Tyra and Lack (of hair) Mack. Those dirty birds. Louseyville. Little sister.
C-A-T-S, Cats, cats, cats!
Matthew Mitchell For Governor
hope u got a big plate cuz u gonna have a lot of shit to eat after sunday governor
DeleteRhode Island's oh, so difficult 2-3 zone had UK befuddled for a half! Your paint defense is as porous as a spaghetti strainer. This could be a huge UofL WBB win on Sunday and the Cards will send your Cats back to Lexington with their tails tucked between their legs.
DeleteWalz coached Rhyne Howard for about a month. You think he doesn't know her strengths and weaknesses? They'll tuen her into crying Ryan Sunday.
Go Cards!
Nick O.
The Guv likes to come in a drop these bombs here and then run. I did take a little time to watch Rhode Island vs. KY WBB last night and I saw a lot of weaknesses in Kentucky that I'm sure the coaches for UofL saw as well and will capitalize on.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope for a great crowd, clean game and decent officiating.
Oh, and a UofL win!
Paulie
Now that the season is in full swing, Maci Morris, Taylor Murray and Howard have become a sort of three-headed scoring monster for No. 19 Kentucky, which topped Rhode Island 75-52 on Thursday night behind those stars.
ReplyDeleteFresh off her season-best 31 points versus Morehead State last week, Morris led the Cats with 29 points, five rebounds and four assists. Howard added 19 points, seven rebounds and a career-high seven steals with Murray pitching in 11 points and four steals for Kentucky.
“It just takes off a tremendous amount of pressure because if one of us isn’t scoring, then the other two usually picks it up,” Morris said of the trio’s success that has helped Kentucky stay unbeaten nine games into the season.
It's on, Cardinal fans.
Tucker
Scouted Kentucky last night also. Almost feel like guaranteeing a Cardinal victory. Howard may may pose a slight problem, but Kentucky is vulnerable to easy buckets after their press is beat, and we'll beat the press way more times than not. Macy probably doesn't break double digit scoring, despite Gov's stupid "best guard in the nation" proclamation.
ReplyDelete