First Week Back A Furious One for Louisville WBB -- WEDNESDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

WBB CARDS ENTER 2019 WITH A TOUGH SLATE

(Note: IF you were looking for Jared's write up this Wednesday, know that he'll be
manning the web-site THURSDAY and FRIDAY this week.)


Welcome 2019. Welcome ACC WBB basketball. 

The Cards are one of 14 ACC teams playing Thursday night, in seven ACC match-ups. Wake Forest, in the 15-team conference alignment, is off. When you look at it, it would make sense just to go ahead and add that 16th. team to the conference...for balancing reasons...but that probably won't happen in the near future. After all, the "traditionalists" of the league balked at bringing in Notre Dame, Syracuse, Louisville and Pitt back in 2013 and 2014. But, for argument's sake, if the ACC were to expand to 16, who would you add? 

OK. We'll get back to that down the road. 

In the Thursday match-ups, Virginia Tech travels to Miami, Georgia Tech goes to Boston College, Syracuse heads to Clemson, Duke visits NC State, Pitt is the guest of Notre Dame, FSU sojourns to Virginia and North Carolina comes to the KFC YUM! Center to play Louisville.

I'm not planning on doing a lot of predicting throughout the year on ACC games, but, in looking at Thursday night's slate, I'll take Miami, Georgia Tech, Syracuse, NC State, Notre Dame, FSU and Louisville.  How do you see it? Sonya and I, a few year's back, did a conference 'Pick em" for UofL WBB and the other conference foes in the Cards final year in the Big East. I'm seem to remember she trounced me pretty good. I haven't poked that dangerous bear with a prediction stick since. 

A tough test for the Cards to tackle after being off two weeks. When we say "off" we mean, of course, not playing an opponent. You can rest assured that Louisville has been practicing hard since they returned from Christmas break for the UNC match up and...most players will tell you...they'd rather play games instead of practicing. 

I'll let Jared go into more of the strengths and weaknesses of Sylvia Hatchell's Heels in his Thursday write-up. We'll move ahead to the next two for Walz's crew. The Cards put on the travelling shoes and head to Duke and then Notre Dame by the time the 11th. of January rolls around. 

Yes, it's the ACC. Each week is a test. The Thursday/Sunday games for Louisville rolls all through January and end when the Cards take on Clemson at Clemson on Feb. 2nd. By then, the Cards will have eight conference games under the belt and the UConn match up. 

After the dangerous Heels, the Devils are next. At 8-4, JoAnne P's squad isn't as strong as previous years (sometimes graduation will do that to a squad) but, nevertheless...defends Cameron vert passionately. We'll know a little more about this Duke squad after Thursday and the results of their trip visit visit Wes Moore, Ms. Wuf and the #9 ranked Pack.  

All eyes will be on South Bend next Thursday when current #2 Notre Dame and #3 Louisville will go at it. There are probably a 1000 subplots to this one and we won't get too far into them just yet. You should know this, though: 

Louisville hasn't won at South Bend since Feb. 11th, 2009.  You might remember that Louisville squad. They were fairly good. They went to the Final Four. They had Angel. 



THE CARDINAL COUPLE PICK 'EM


So, the "season within the season" is here. I'll start a little "prediction" contest here for you readers against me and the other readers. Here's four things you need to know to play. 

1-- The Contest:  How will the Cards do in their 16 conference games? (Yes, 16...Louisville plays Virginia and Pitt twice.) 

I'll say 14-2. Sonya went 14-2 also. We're excluding ourselves from prize winning. 

2-- The Prize:  We'll put a Gift Card up for the best prediction. We got Panera, Applebee's, Famous Dave's and Cracker Barrel in the prize drawer currently, who knows what'll be in there in March...so we'll let you pick. They're all $20 cards. (I think)

3-- The Deadline:  WE'LL NEED THOSE PREDICTIONS IN BY Noon (EST) SATURDAY JANUARY 5th, so get cracking! Use your Dana Evans speed, Jazmine Jones energy and Asia Durr accuracy to get those picks in.

4-- Where Do The Picks Go? :  You can leave them in the comments section. Or, you can e-mail them to us at: 

cardinalcouple@twc.com

We have trained chimps standing by to take your entries and they somewhat eagerly await your responses. Or eagerly awaiting their lunch break. Sometimes, it's hard to tell with them....

*In case of tie, we'll take the contest into ACC Tournament play and do an elimination game-to-game until there is one contestant left.*


Good luck and let's have a little fun in 2019. Life's too short to go around mad all the time and you look good when you smile! 

WE hope to see you tomorrow night against UNC. $3 drinks.



paulie
xxxxx