Sunday Cardinal Couple - St. Louis Plus 10 Years

St. Louis 2009 Final Four Celebration

OK, it hasn't been 10 years of calendar time yet, but it is the 10 season of UofL Women's Basketball since that improbable 2009 run to the Championship game.

Most of the team and support staff were in town and were honored at halftime of the UofL vs NKU game yesterday.  Some of the team couldn't be there, Mo Reid for example, due to still being active in the pro basketball world.  I believe Coach Walz said that Mo was playing in Israel, "and still not guarding anyone."

Many of the Cardinal Couple favorites were there, including Double-B herself, Becky Burke; the all-star of the team, Angel McCoughtry; pressed-into-point-guard-role, Dez Byrd; Laura Terry; and more.

I thought it was a nice touch to honor everyone that was involved with team, including managers, and even radio play-by-player extraordinaire Jim Kelch who was in town doing ACCNE play-by-play and radio for The Norse.

The game, frankly, was largely an afterthought.  NKU came in and played well, including out-rebounding the Cards 39-33 (No "r" in the Fred report today.), and with defensive aggression.  Ultimately, however, they were no match for the Cards, falling in the final tally 92-59.

The Cards were lead by Dana Evans, who poured in 21, mostly by just flat out running past the defender assigned to her and getting lay-ups.  She also dished it out a bit, with a team leading 6 assists.  Sam Fuehring and Kylee Shook shared the spotlight in the paint, with 15 each.  It should be noted that Shook and Evans, despite my description of their primary activity, both also dropped a three.  Asia Durr had a relatively quiet night, with only 11 points

The Cards have a quiet stretch ahead of them. They travel to Mount Pleasant, MI to match up with Central Michigan on the 20th to wrap up the non-conference slate, with one very notable exception. Then they're off until January 3rd, when they start conference play against UNC here at the KFC Yum! Center.

A great late morning and early afternoon of hoops, remembrances and, perhaps,  a moist eye or two in the almost 8,000 in the KFC YUM! Center. 11-0 and in the top 3/4 in the nation.

(PAULIE NOTE: I CAUGHT UP WITH ONE OF THE 2009 PLAYERS AND ASKED HER THOUGHTS ON THE "CURRENT SQUAD". SHE SMILED AND REPLIED THAT IT WOULD BE FUN TO SEE ASIA GO UP AGAINST ANGEL. GIVE IT TIME, IT WILL HAPPEN, GIVE IT TIME. TODAY'S PHOTOS FROM JARED ANDERSON AND A FEW OTHER SOURCES.)


They Said It: 

POST GAME NKU -- JEFF WALZ. (Walz issues an order but is countermanded by Nick E.) 

POST GAME NKU -- KYLEE SHOOK AND DANA EVANS (Kylee wants a new body for XMAS).




The Fred Report

Mr Rogers would have said "It was a
beautiful day in the "Cardinal"-hood. 

Free throws -- 16-21 is 76.2%. In Paulie parlance, that's good for a capital "F". It is Worldwide's article today, though, and he sees it small-case "f"'since it isn't 80%. Small case 'f' it is.

Rebounds -- The Cards were out-rebounded 39-33. This won't get any letter. Walz specifically mentioned that this was something to work on.

Effort/execution -- Hustle stats were all in favor of the Cards. They did win by 33 points. We'll celebrate the 2009 squad, who always came out with excellent effort and execution, and go with the capital "E". 

Defense -- 21 opponent turnovers, 10 steals and 41.7% NKU shooting is good, mind you, but the third quarter standing around and watching warrant a small-case "d".

FINAL FRED TALLY: f-_E-d .


Caption this Picture

Coach Walz either forgot something, is wondering where he is on Saturday afternoon or is debating about needing a shave?  

Caption this picture in our comments section, if you'd like. No prize or nothing  For what Paulie thinks is the best, you'll get nothing...and like it!!

Sonya saw the picture and started laughing...commenting "He's probably trying to make sense out of the last question you asked him." 

Just Keep Swimming

The UofL swimming team, or in the past few days, to put it more accurately, members of the team @UofLswim_dive account.
current and past, continue to do great things. Several current and past members of the team have spent the week in Hangzhou China continuously setting American and World records...at least you'd think that was the case based on the

As a side note, how about a little respect also for the folks manning that twitter account, keeping up with the rapid fire successes, particularly when combined with the wicked timezone difference that means most of the action happens at...let's say inconvenient...times of the day for those of us here in EST-land.

Kelsi Dahlia nee Worrell and Malory Comerford have been representing, as they so often do, the Cardinals well on the women's side of the events. I've long ago lost track of all of the American records they have set this week, and throw in a few World records and it's all a whirlwind of results.

On the guys side of things, Carlos Claverie (Venezuela), Zach Harting (US), Marcelo Acosta (El Salvador), and Grigory Tarasevich (Russia) are competing for their respective countries.

Cardinal Couple Clip Show

The bulk of the Cardinal Couple Radio Hour crew was down at the KFC Yum! Center yesterday to watch the Cards beat up on the Norse in the unusual 11:30 a.m. start time and to celebrate the 2009 crew, so we weren't on the air live yesterday. Paulie did put together a "Best of 2018" show (which I haven't yet had the opportunity to check out).

Because it wasn't a live show, it's not on Facebook Live, but you can catch the audio at:



https://soundcloud.com/chradio/cardinal-couple-20181215-best-clips-of-2018

It is also at our station website at

www.wchqfm.com

We should be back on the air next week with our usual shenanigans.

--
JMcA